#even the cyber space levels

[twilightofthesandwiches]

…Actually, I think Deltarune Chapter 4 answered a very important question mark in my understanding of how Dark Worlds work.

So from the way Darkners in Chapters 1-3 talk about their past, it mostly seemed like Dark Worlds operate on what I labeled as ‘Neverending Story Logic’. Dark Worlds only come into existence when the Dark Fountains are opened, but they are created with histories and memories as if they always existed.

That seems consistent with how most Darkners operate and think. Since they always acknowledge the Dark Fountain created the world they live in, but they also remember a past that clearly stretches long before it was opened. But... there is one problem... the main wrinkle in this interpretation has always been what happens when the Dark Worlds interact with one another... before one of them was even created. Like Jevil��s knowledge of Queen

And Spamton’s connection to Tenna and Mike.

These mentions happen before the Cyber World and TV World Dark Fountains have opened. These people aren’t even supposed to exist yet, right? And if you say they did exist on some level of reality… that would create its own set of questions, considering how much the Dark Worlds we’ve seen have been affected by the minds of the Lightners who venture into them. How could Queen exist before Noelle and Berdly got into the library considering she’s very much a representation of Noelle’s mommy issues?

The explanation I went with until now is that Darkners can have memories based on interactions with other objects from outside their Dark Worlds and remember these objects as Darkners, but these memories are not as… defined. People in Card Castle remember that there was a Queen because of past contact between the Serial Number Q5U4EX7YY2E9N Laptop with objects from the Abandoned Classroom, but most of the details about her were undefined and hazy. Until Queen was actually created by Cyber World’s Dark Fountain, at which point her goofy and wonderful personality was retconned into the past and memories of everyone in Card Castle as well.

Obviously that theory wasn’t perfect either (Spamton’s beef with who we now know is Tenna seemed rather specific to be just a vague blank-space to-be-filled with the TV Darkner’s true personality later), but that’s the best way I could make sense of the way Dark Worlds worked at the time.

Now, Chapter 4 gave me the puzzle piece I’ve been missing, because every Dark World we’ve seen has been part of the Prophecy…

… there seems to be an element of predestination involved.

We see a very clear small example of this with the different Dark Sanctuaries. The Darkners that populate Susie’s Second Sanctuary…

First appear petrified in the First Sanctuary.

Petrified because they’re from a different Dark World and don’t ‘belong’ in the First Sanctuary… Even though the World they are ‘from’ doesn’t even exist yet. Because Susie’s creation of the Second Sanctuary was preordained by the Prophecy. Just like the creation of every other Dark World we've seen. So preordained that when the Darkners that would come to populate it were brought to life by the first Fountain, the metaphysical laws of the universe already knew they belonged in another, future Dark World and they ended up petrified.

A... sorta similar thing is happening with the memories of every Darkner who has interacted with a Darkner from a different World. When the Card Castle Dark World was created, Cyber World’s Dark Fountain has not yet been opened and Queen was still an inanimate laptop. But since Cyber World is destined to be created in the Prophecy, King and Jevil and anyone else who has interacted with Queen through Kris’ games already had their memories of Queen, exactly the way she would come to be created that night.

Queen was formed from the Computer Room’s Dark Fountain and the minds of Noelle and Berdly once they got stuck in there… but these events were so predestinated to happen that Card Castle’s Dark Fountain could just… create everyone’s memories of Queen before she was truly ‘real’.

Same thing with Tenna’s and Spamton’s whole thing. Tenna was just an inanimate TV when Cyber World’s Dark Fountain was still flowing, but Kris creating TV World was already preordained by fate. So Tenna’s part of Spamton’s backstory was written into everyone’s memories as if Tenna had always existed too.

It’s a pretty trippy thing to think about, but then so is pretty much everything about the Dark Worlds…

[theresattrpgforthat]

How To Find Cool Games: On Itch.io!

As I drift into a reduced posting schedule, I figured I’d give everyone a peek behind the screen for how I cultivate ttrpgs for recommendations! Some of these tips might even help you find your next favourite game.

This is a long read so let's put most of this beast under a read-more. Keep in mind that many of these strategies work best when you're checking itch.io a little bit every week, and when you're engaging with the platform as more than just a store page. There's a lot of features that you can choose to engage with if you want to find the game for you!

browsing physical game recent releases. This helps me see what’s new and happening, and it helps with a number of things. First of all, I get to see new games pretty much every time I browse recent releases. Secondly, I get a good sense of what’s currently popular in the design space. Thanks to my weekly browsing, I recognize Cy_Borg, Shadowdark and Mausritter as games whose content shows up rather regularly - if you see a lot of products attached to one game at once, that’s a good sign that there’s a related game jam going on (in this case, Shadowdark), or that a game is really resonating with its player base.

sorting games into collections. I personally organize by genre, system, player configuration and (in Games That Intrigue Me) games that I’m personally really hyped about. This works for me because of the nature of my work, but a few collections sorted according to level of interest or game style might work better for you.

Depending on the need, I might have a collection that works specifically for the request - Neon Lights & Cyber Nights is perfect for cyberpunk games, but I might also reference this folder for combat, inventory mechanics, resistance themes, or interesting tech rules. LUMEN is great for folks who want fast-paced games, folks who are looking for certain kinds of video games, or folks who want to feel powerful. If you follow other people on Itch, you'll probably also be able to see their collections, which is a great place to browse.

searching game tags. I don’t typically use the regular search feature, although recently the website did update the toggles to restrict your results to physical games, video games, etc. Instead what I usually do is type what I’m looking for into the url: so in this case, [deck-building]. I might use a couple different wordings, such as [deck-builder] and [deckbuilding] (no spaces). You’re not going to find everything that includes the thing you’re looking for, but you’ll definitely find places to start.

Game Jams! I find these either by looking at the “Jams” tab (although you'll have to wade through video games here) or by noticing that a number of games being published recently have the “for the _” jam in the description. Alternatively, I might be reading the page for a game and see the little “Submission” badge in interaction buttons. There’s game jams for specific systems, game jams for various themes, game jams with special restrictions, and game jams that are titled things like “finish your damn game jam.”

Bundles. I typically buy big-ass bundles and then sort through the games in my downtime. These games are sorted into collections for future reference, and if a game really pops out - into the Intrigue Me folder it goes! And the best part is that I already own it, so if I want to learn more, I can just download it and start reading.

following game designers that I like. This way I’ll get notifications if they release a new game, update an old game, rate someone else’s game, or sort games into their own collections. I also get to see what other folks in the space are excited about - on the day I was browsing, Plasmodics by Will Jobst was really hot.

If you follow me on Itch, you’ll get a notification every time I add a game to one of my non-private folders! Also - you can interact with designers on Itch by liking their updates, and even commenting on their posts, which is a great way to get involved in the design community - and also just make a designer’s day!

[robolvrr]

forged to please. ｡⁠*ﾟ⁠+

some mild suggestive headcanons. unhealthy dynamics.

sentinel prime x cybertronian secretary

airachnid plucked you from your filing job with unsettling familiarity. you quickly learned after the debrief that her optics, touch and croons were simply an extension of your shared's prime.

his very attention is shattering.

sentinel has no need for actual assistants. your first few cycles don't end up at his doorstep, so in your confusion of servitude you busy with the boring.

analytics. cancelling meetings as he's constant on the surface, rescheduling abandoned polls. when the lights flick you remain obedient at your desk, digits skimming through glass pads.

you do have a cog. however, you still pale in comparison to your coworkers and do not speak out of turn. you're not a miner nor are you cogless — but there are levels to status and you're still at the first couple of rungs on the metaphorical golden ladder.

little did you know, you're being watched. approvingly, even when your helm dares to dip back when your processors prompt recharge.

everyday, you arrive early. place your holopads in neat piles. slip an energon cube from your stack past your cushy, gray dermas and sit straight in your assigned seat.

frame flawless, as expected by a cog. since you don't race or proctor, you're more on the winsome side.

"them? really?"

"yeah. crazy right?" sentinel lazily watches the filmy recording, nestled camera aimed right in the corner. he can see your chassis. your cog and the ridges between your plating. clean. no mining dust. no scratches.

"look at 'em go. do they know that half what i give them is just.. nothing? they're so... so diligent. it's cute, no?"

airachnid shares a sideways glance.

slowly, your office grows more lavish. you notice changes to your desk arrangement. a golden twist of flora at your desktop. new chair, with cushion - a rarity and a treat. a fresh mug of engex earlier than you arrive.

and even slower, your coworkers start to distance farther than even you pushed them. you're being moved around cycles later, to higher floors. the work is a constant buzz that requires the utmost care and attention to detail.

you once question airachnid as she glides by silently just what you're doing here. you ex-vent when she leans forward, pursing her intake at you.

"don't ask questions you don't want answers to. you do good for him, you'll do good for a lifetime."

straightening, you're left unfortunately with more than before and you nervously return to your desk, with a beautiful view of iacon and an inkling that perhaps your constant promotions weren't as perfect as you previously assumed.

[ quota — increased. overtime required. ]

frustration bites as your digits flutter across keys. the office space, grand and empty and dark fills you with impatience. not that you'd dare show it, on the clock.

you guess that overtime still counts, though you prudently knock over data as you arise before you can coach yourself to calmness. you practically live here. serving, serving, all the blasted time. had you not proved your loyalty?

a watchful gaze peers at your aft when you saunter to the lounge, fed up for the day.

the smile directed your way isn't promising.

oh. so you can misbehave.

you practically live at work now. what started as a few assignments seemed to increase tenfold.

you're working overtime but know you're much too high the chain (and for such pointless, needless tasks) to back out.

you have no friends. no coworkers. the pretty knickknacks and golden pens and job security start closing in more like a gilded cage.

when the comm is received, you're almost weak at the joints. you reset your sight system several times at first because you assume it's a prank.

[ your prime requests your presence over the latest report. arrive promptly. ]

you're stumbling towards the elevator like a cyber mouse.

sentinel shouldn't enjoy the way you lose your professionalism. taking peeks in the slivers of mirror and spark no doubt rattling in that little chest of yours.

he shouldn't, in fact, hired you at all. you were a face along with many admirers. and primus, did iacon adore their prime.

he shouldn't have been seeing how much it took to break your mentality, either. a cruel experiment from a bored god of sorts.

and the recordings. airachnid made it clear her opinions of his.... enjoyment while you worked in element.

sometime in the toying, he's scrutinizing your frame. you barely make it up to his knee. your alt-mode upon a curious search isn't particularly flashy.

is that why he's so drawn to you? because you wallflower yourself, determined to hide despite the haven he's forced you in?

perhaps. or, he just hasn't had his fix yet.

the racers are always fun to play with. they lick, bite and rev when he chuckles his praise.

he's never been in a position of power like this though and taken that step over the line and suddenly, he rubs the kibble on his chin imagining you staring back at him, bent over, servos tied at the back of your waist.

his processor wanders. you, with flushed cheek plates. you, calling him boss. prime. whatever he fancied more. crawling towards him, balancing a glass of sweet, high-grade on your aft while he chats it away.

"my prime?"

sentinel does not turn to you, at first. you can see his wings, large and flawless. when he turns in his seat, you think perhaps the rumors of primes and their bright, piercing neons were true.

he grins. grandeur rolls off his glossa and you're shocked he knows your designation. as if he senses your shock he reassures he knows because he's kept close to your progress.

"you look tired. what good are you if not rested?"

sheepishly, your helm tilts away, tries to avoid the observation by curling into yourself. it's the funniest and most pathetic thing he's seen in awhile.

he leans forward, but not down to you. sentinel just invades your space because it's his.

you're his.

cutting off your stammers because he'd rather hear them in a more fitting context - fit, he wouldn't - his gesture tempts you closer. there is no need for collar and leash, not when this whole city dances at his every word.

you miss how his stare bores into you. peels back metal, cord and wire.

"listen. i couldn't bear my best struggling. but i also have to be firm. this great city, all of your fellow cybertronians, play a part in something bigger. which means... that work can't be unfinished."

he does not miss how you flinch. where are those kliks of rebellion? those whispered utterances of his name and hoping he'd be knocked down a peg?

"it can't slow down. in order to keep the spark of this very place alive, we all keep it turning."

he can sense your guilt. recall all the times you've actually cursed quietly, kicked at your desk, cried in the refreshers. cute.

"so i do have to ask. because if you can't handle it, i would rather you tell me right here, right now. no hard feelings."

the hopeful look almost makes him break out into laughter. and just like you're programmed, you look at him only when he nods, trying to find out what he wants.

"no. no, i can. i want to do more. want to be more." for you.

"then show me."

as much as he wanted to crack you open right then and there, he was curious how you would take his offer.

would you scorn him out like those endless nights? step back and make excuses? or would you surprise him?

his weight slides in the crushed velvet of his towering throne, watching as you bend.

your head meets the floor. his optic ridge ticks towards the sky.

"tell me what to do and your will is mine."

the prime hums.

well, now you're just making this too easy.

robolvrr 2024.

[chaosandcandies]

UNPLUGGED

CHAPTER Ⅸ: Leaked

trope: fem!9th skz member warnings: angst, drama, insecure oc, cyber bullying, slow burn pairings: hyunjinxfem!oc prev|next

ISEUL STIRRED AWAKE TO MUFFLED VIBRATIONS of a phone buzzing somewhere in the room. Her consciousness drifted sluggishly to the surface, pulled from the depths of sleep like a swimmer breaking through water. Everything was heavy—her limbs, her eyelids, the warmth cocooning her body. A sluggish drowsiness fogged her mind, making it impossible to register why her shoulder felt weighed down or why her legs were tangled in a blanket that wasn’t hers.

The soft, rhythmic sound of breathing filtered through the silence.

It took her a moment to remember.

The living room.

The boys.

The horror movie.

Her eyes cracked open, adjusting to the dim, early morning light that seeped through the curtains. The room was still, bathed in the hush of dawn, the kind of quiet that only existed in that fragile space between sleep and waking.

Then she finally processed the warmth pressing against her side.

Iseul’s heart stammered.

Her breath hitched as her gaze flickered downward.

Hyunjin.

His head was resting against her shoulder.

She froze, every nerve in her body suddenly alert. His face was turned toward her, strands of messy hair falling over his closed eyes. His lips were parted slightly, his breathing slow and even. The weight of him was light, but it was impossible to ignore now that she was fully aware of it.

And his hand—

Her pulse spiked.

His fingers were loosely curled around the sleeve of the hoodie she was wearing.

Not her hoodie.

His hoodie.

A delayed horror dawned on her, creeping up her spine in waves. She could feel the slight rise and fall of his chest, the subtle warmth radiating from where his body was barely touching hers.

Oh god.

Her brain short-circuited, static filling the space where thoughts should be. Was she breathing too fast? Was her heartbeat too loud? What was she supposed to do?

Panic clawed at her throat.

Okay. Okay. Think.

She needed to move before she embarrassed herself further. Carefully, she attempted to shift, wincing when the movement made his hand twitch. For a moment, she thought she had gotten away with it—

But then the phone buzzed again.

Hyunjin jolted awake like he’d been electrocuted.

He shot upright, eyes wild with confusion, his sleep-fogged brain trying to piece together what had just happened. His lips parted as if to say something, then closed again when his gaze finally landed on her.

Iseul barely had time to react before his entire face turned an alarming shade of red.

“I—I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you!” he blurted in a panicked whisper, scrambling backward so fast he nearly fell off the couch. His hands flailed slightly as if trying to physically push the mortification away from himself. “I swear, I—”

Iseul blinked, her own face heating up at the sheer level of distress in his expression.

"You act like you murdered someone," she whispered back, barely suppressing a laugh.

Hyunjin’s eyes widened. "No, but I—" He groaned, dropping his head into his hands. "I passed out on you like some creep—I’m so sorry."

She shook her head, willing herself to keep her voice steady. "It’s fine, really. It’s not like you did it on purpose."

Hyunjin opened his mouth, probably to continue his apology spree, but Chan groaned somewhere on the other couch, fumbling for his phone.

“Hello?” Chan rasped, his voice wrecked from sleep.

Everyone stirred as Chan sat up abruptly. Iseul watched as his face shifted — brows furrowing, posture stiffening, eyes snapping awake with laser-sharp focus.

“Right now?” he muttered, running a hand through his curls. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll wake them up.”

He ended the call and dragged his hands down his face. “Emergency meeting. Get up.”

The room stirred awake in pieces—groggy movements, muffled groans, the sound of blankets shifting as everyone tried to process Chan’s words through the haze of sleep.

Minho, still half-buried under a blanket, cracked an eye open. “Hyung, if this is about your impulse-buying problem again, I swear—”

Chan shot him a look. “Not the time.”

Felix let out a noise somewhere between a groan and a whimper, rolling onto his stomach. “It’s too early for whatever’s happening.”

“Did the world end?” Seungmin muttered, face still pressed into the pillow he had stolen from God-knows-where.

Jeongin, who was curled up in a weird pretzel-like position on the floor, blinked blearily. “What if we ended?”

“What?”

“I dunno, man, I just woke up.”

Iseul barely registered their half-asleep banter. Chan’s face was serious—tension drawn into every line of his features, his knee bouncing with restless energy.

Something was wrong.

Then his voice cut through the sluggishness in the air, firm and final.

“Get dressed. Move to the van.”

No further explanation. No room for argument.

The grogginess evaporated instantly.

Iseul’s stomach twisted. If it was bad enough that they couldn’t even talk about it here—

It was really bad.

Everyone scrambled to their feet, the urgency finally sinking in. Blankets were tossed aside, sleep-heavy limbs moving in autopilot as they stumbled toward their rooms.

The next few minutes were a blur—hoodies thrown on, shoes slipped into, hair hastily flattened in an attempt to look somewhat presentable. No one spoke.

And when they finally piled into the van, the tension was suffocating.

Chan sat in the front, phone in his hands, scrolling through something with a clenched jaw.

No one dared to ask.

Iseul swallowed hard, staring out the window as the van pulled away from the dorm.

The van ride was eerily silent.

No one spoke, no one cracked a joke to lighten the mood—not even Changbin, who was usually the first to break tension with some ridiculous comment. The only sounds were the occasional rustle of fabric, the quiet hum of the engine, and Chan’s phone buzzing every few seconds with messages none of them were brave enough to ask about.

Iseul sat stiffly, hands clenched into fists on her lap. Her stomach twisted with unease. The van felt too small, too suffocating, as they sped toward the company building.

She chanced a glance at Hyunjin. He was staring out the window, jaw tight, fingers drumming anxiously against his knee. Even in the dim morning light, his profile looked tense, his expression unreadable.

The moment they pulled up to JYPE, the weight in her chest doubled.

Security was waiting at the entrance, ushering them inside with hurried gestures. The air inside the building was cold, sterile—so different from their usual loud, chaotic energy. The fluorescent lights above buzzed faintly as they made their way toward the conference room.

Chan walked ahead, his shoulders squared, unreadable. The rest of them followed in tense silence.

And then—

The door to the conference room swung open, and they were met with a sight that made Iseul’s stomach drop.

Their manager stood at the head of the table, phone in hand, brows furrowed deeply. Behind him, staff members were scattered around the room, some whispering among themselves, others typing furiously on laptops. The tension was thick.

Iseul swallowed hard as she took a seat.

The moment the last person sat down, their manager exhaled sharply, locking eyes with Chan first. Then, slowly, his gaze flickered toward her.

“You’ve seen it, haven’t you?” he asked, voice heavy.

Chan nodded, jaw tightening. “Yeah.”

Iseul’s stomach twisted. “Seen what?”

No one spoke for a moment.

Then, without a word, their manager turned his phone screen toward them.

Iseul barely had time to brace herself before the image burned itself into her mind.

A headline.

A picture.

BREAKING: JYPE’S MYSTERY TRAINEE SPOTTED WITH STRAY KIDS—NEW MEMBER? SECRET GIRLFRIEND?

Her blood turned to ice.

A dozen pictures filled the article.

There was one of her walking into the JYPE building. One of her leaving the practice room with the boys. One of her laughing at something Felix had said, eyes crinkled in a way that made her look comfortable—too comfortable.

And then, the worst one.

A shot of her and Hyunjin outside the convenience store last night.

His hoodie draped over her shoulders.

His hand resting lightly on her back.

The room spun.

Han swore under his breath.

Felix inhaled sharply.

Iseul’s throat tightened as she stared at the screen, her mind racing a mile a minute.

Her hands felt clammy as she slowly lifted her gaze. Chan was sitting tensely, lips pressed into a thin line, his fingers curled into fists on the table. Hyunjin, beside her, had gone completely still, his usual sharp expression shadowed with something unreadable.

Iseul felt like she was shrinking.

The weight of the photos, the article, the implications—it was all pressing down on her, making it hard to breathe.

She wasn’t stupid.

She knew how the industry worked. She knew how fans would react.

Stray Kids had been through hell already—losing a member, rebuilding themselves, proving their strength over and over again. And now, here she was, a sudden addition that nobody asked for, already dragging them into a scandal.

You should’ve been more careful.

The thought crept in before she could stop it.

She flinched.

“This isn’t as bad as it looks,” their manager said, voice even. “But it could get bad. So we’re getting ahead of it.”

Nobody responded.

The tension was suffocating.

Their manager leaned forward, clicking something on the laptop.

A draft of the company’s statement appeared on the screen.

"Regarding the recent photos and speculation surrounding a ninth member of Stray Kids, we would like to clarify that Baek Iseul has been training under JYP Entertainment and has been involved in the group’s activities as a part of our internal team restructuring. We ask for your continued support as we prepare for the next steps in Stray Kids’ journey."

Silence.

Iseul’s stomach churned.

It was a carefully worded, neutral statement. It didn’t confirm her as a member, but it also didn’t deny it.

And worst of all—

It left everything open-ended.

Which meant the speculation would only get worse.

The unease in the room deepened.

“...That’s it?” Jeongin finally said, voice small.

“That’s it,” their manager confirmed. “No Q&A, no additional comments. You’ll all lay low for the next few days. No responding to comments, no sneaky hints on VLive or Instagram.” His gaze flicked toward Han, Felix, and Jeongin. “I mean it.”

Han raised his hands in mock innocence. “Me? I would never.”

Their manager did not look convinced.

Iseul wasn’t sure whether to laugh or crawl into a hole.

She could already hear the reactions.

The fans who would accept her. The ones who wouldn’t. The ones who would twist this into something it wasn’t.

She could hear her grandparents, too.

This is what you wanted? This chaos?

Her nails dug into her palms.

She forced herself to breathe. In, out. In, out. But it didn’t help.

Because the reality of it all was settling in.

No more secrecy. No more hiding behind practice rooms and blurred-out background appearances. No more pretending she was just another trainee lingering in the shadows.

After today, everyone would know.

The fans. The antis. The entire industry.

Her name would be in headlines. On timelines. In comment sections filled with words she wasn’t sure she was ready to see.

Iseul swallowed hard, her nails pressing deeper into her palms.

What if this ruined everything?

What if they hated her?

Not just the fans—because that was inevitable, no matter what—but the boys?

Would they regret letting her in? Would they blame her if things got worse?

Chan shifted beside her, fingers drumming restlessly against the table. He was staring straight ahead, lips pressed together, his jaw tight in a way that made something twist in her stomach.

He was worried, too.

Of course, he was.

This wasn’t just about her—it was about Stray Kids. Their future. Their already fragile reputation.

And yet, despite all of that, he had taken on this responsibility, shouldering the weight of it alongside everything else already threatening to crush him.

Iseul should be grateful.

She is.

So why did she feel like she was standing at the edge of a cliff, staring down into something she might not survive?

The drive back to the dorm was silent.

Not the comfortable kind, where exhaustion pressed against their bones after a long day, but the suffocating kind. The kind that filled every inch of the van with an unspoken weight, thick and heavy, pressing against Iseul’s chest until she could barely breathe.

She sat in the back, besides Jeongin and Seungmin. Usually, she didn’t mind—Jeongin always made space for her, and Seungmin, for all his teasing, had a way of making things feel normal.

But tonight, neither of them spoke.

Jeongin had his earphones in, his fingers curled into the hem of his hoodie, staring at nothing in particular. Seungmin was looking out the window, his face unreadable, his usual sharp-witted energy dulled to something quieter.

She exhaled slowly and turned her gaze to the window. The city lights blurred past in a haze of gold and blue, reflections flickering against the van’s glass. Everything outside felt too normal—people rushing home, neon signs blinking, life moving on.

She wondered if any of them knew. If any of the pedestrians they passed had just refreshed their Twitter feed and seen the news. If any of them had already formed an opinion about her.

The thought made her stomach twist.

By the time they pulled up to the dorm, the weight in Iseul’s chest had only gotten heavier.

The van rumbled to a stop, the low hum of the engine cutting off with a finality that made the silence even louder. Nobody moved at first. For a long moment, they all just sat there, the dim glow of the streetlights casting long shadows inside the vehicle.

Then, one by one, they began to shuffle out.

The doors slid open, and the cold night air rushed in. Jeongin was the first to step out, pulling his hood over his head as he slung his bag over one shoulder. Han followed, stretching his arms above his head before shoving his hands into his pockets. Felix moved quietly behind him, his phone still in his grip, the glow from the screen illuminating his furrowed brow.

Seungmin barely looked up as he stepped down onto the pavement, his gaze still distant. Minho walked ahead without a word, his usual unbothered air now tinged with something heavier.

Chan lingered at the front of the van for a moment, exhaling slowly before rubbing a hand over his face. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. The exhaustion in his posture said it all.

Iseul was the last to climb out.

The air outside felt sharp against her skin, the quiet hum of the city around them making their silence feel even more unnatural. The dorm building loomed ahead, its familiar shape usually offering comfort. Tonight, it just felt like another wall closing in on her.

They made their way inside, their footsteps echoing softly against the hallway floor. Shoes were kicked off without care, landing in a messy pile by the entrance. Normally, someone would complain. Seungmin would make a sarcastic remark, or Changbin would sigh dramatically about the lack of organization.

Tonight, nobody did.

No jokes. No bickering about who showered first. No half-hearted arguments over missing slippers.

Just the quiet shuffle of feet, the occasional sigh, and the weight of everything they weren’t saying pressing down on them.

Iseul wasn’t sure what she expected.

For them to talk about it? To say something—anything?

But they didn’t.

They didn’t even look at her.

Minho disappeared into his room without a word. Seungmin followed, shutting his door with a soft but firm click.

Jeongin hesitated for a second, glancing at her briefly, his expression unreadable. Then, without speaking, he turned away and walked down the hall.

Felix, Han and Changbin headed toward the kitchen, as if they had already silently agreed that neither of them would sleep yet.

Chan stood in the middle of the room for a long moment, staring at nothing. His jaw tightened before he exhaled and ran a hand through his hair. Then, without sparing anyone a glance, he trudged toward his own room, shutting the door behind him.

Hyunjin was the last one still standing in the hall.

His gaze flickered to Iseul, and for a second, she thought—hoped—that he might say something.

But then his expression shifted, something closing off behind his eyes, and he looked away. Without a word, he turned and left.

Iseul stood alone in the middle of the living room.

The silence around her was suffocating.

She clenched her fists, nails pressing into her palms.

They weren’t angry. Not openly, at least. But that was almost worse. If they were mad, if they snapped at her, if they argued, then at least she’d know where she stood.

But this?

This quiet, this distance, this absence—it hurt more than she expected.

She forced her feet to move, trudging toward her room, the heaviness in her chest growing with each step.

Inside her room, the quiet was even louder.

Iseul shut the door behind her, leaning against it for a second before pushing herself forward. The air felt thick, heavy with everything that had gone unspoken.

She moved on autopilot, her limbs sluggish as exhaustion seeped into her bones. She kicked off her socks, peeled off her hoodie, and tugged her practice-worn sweatpants down before reaching for the oversized t-shirt she usually slept in.

Her fingers fumbled as she pulled it over her head.

Maybe she was just tired.

Or maybe it was the way her mind wouldn’t shut up, replaying the last few hours over and over again—the careful distance, the hesitation, the way they tiptoed around her like she was something fragile.

Like she was a mistake.

Her stomach churned.

She climbed into bed, dragging the blanket up to her chin, but there was no comfort in it. The sheets felt too cold. The silence felt too loud.

Still, she reached for her phone.

The screen lit up, casting a glow over her face.

It was late. She knew she shouldn’t check, knew she should just turn it off and try to sleep, but—

Her notifications were a mess.

Dozens of missed messages. The group chat was flooded, but she knew better than to check right now. Instead, her thumb hovered over her name—over the articles and tweets and posts that had already started circulating.

And there it was.

The statement.

[JYPE Official Statement Regarding Stray Kids]

She didn’t have to open it. She already knew what it said. A vague acknowledgment. No details. No Q&A. Just enough to confirm the shift without giving anyone enough to work with.

Still, the comments were brutal.

She scrolled before she could stop herself.

“Who the hell is she?”

“They lost Woojin for THIS?”

“She better not ruin their dynamic.”

“I feel bad for the boys. They don’t deserve this.”

Her vision blurred for a second. She blinked hard, her fingers tightening around the phone.

It wasn’t like she hadn’t expected this.

She wasn’t stupid. She knew how fans reacted to change, knew how the industry worked. She had been preparing herself for this moment ever since the decision had been made.

But that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

The words blurred, but they didn’t disappear. They etched themselves into her mind, sinking in deep, curling around the weakest parts of her.

Her chest ached in that slow, creeping way that wasn’t quite sharp but wasn’t dull either. Just a heavy, lingering pressure, pressing down on her ribs, making it hard to breathe.

She shouldn’t have looked. She knew she shouldn’t have. But that didn’t change anything. The words were already there, repeating in her head, over and over again.

She already knew she wasn’t the replacement they wanted. She wasn’t stupid. Woojin had been their hyung, their anchor. He had been someone important. And her? She was just… a trainee who had been in the right place at the wrong time. A name they could slap onto a press release to fill a gap too big for her to ever measure up to.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

It shouldn’t matter what strangers on the internet thought. They didn’t know her. They didn’t know what she had sacrificed to be here, how many nights she had spent convincing herself not to quit, not to give up.

But maybe they didn’t need to know.

Maybe they were right anyway.

She pressed her palm against her chest, willing the pressure to go away, but it only grew heavier.

Because it wasn’t just the comments.

It was the way the boys had looked at her today—like she was something fragile, something dangerous, something they didn’t know how to handle.

The distance. The hesitance. The way Hyunjin wouldn’t even look her in the eye.

And maybe it wasn’t just because of the fans. Maybe it wasn’t just because of the scandal.

Maybe they regretted it too.

Maybe they regretted her.

She curled in on herself, pulling the blanket up to her chin, like that could somehow make her small enough to disappear.

For the first time since joining Stray Kids, she wondered if they had ever truly seen her as one of them—or if she had only ever been an obligation they had no choice but to accept.

TAGLIST: @leewritesstuff, @athens-09xx, @allenajade-ite, @idjdndjzbsdm, @idjdndjzbsdm, @hyuneskkam, @geni-627, @valkirymin, @miminbin, @tillaboo, @dreamerwasfound, @youthsquaredd, @skzstannie

STORY HINT: When Iseul is overwhelmed, she subconsciously taps her fingers against her thumb in a steady rhythm—like she’s keeping time to a song only she can hear. It’s a habit she’s had since she was a child, something that helped her stay grounded when things felt too loud. Changbin is the first to notice, watching the small, repetitive motion whenever she’s lost in thought or on the verge of shutting down. He doesn’t say anything at first, but one day, he catches himself matching her rhythm without realizing it.

HEYO! I'M ALIVE!! So this chapter was fun to write. Tell me what you loved in the comments <3 Also, i wont be able to post as much in next 2 weeks. Our finals were finally over today and I'm leaving for a well-deserved vacation tmrw so I won't be online as much but I'll try to reply as much as possible and post the next chapter (it's already in the drafts) Don't forget to leave likes and comments! And don't miss me too much (kidding lmfao) Stay safe!! ~candy

[coolfireguy73]

Charadesign Analysis #1 : Spamton !

Character: Spamton G. Spamton (and a bit of Addisons) Media: Deltarune SPOILER WARNING

Spamton, we all know Spamton !

I wanted to try something new here. Charadesign (and character history) is my passion ! Really !

I love analyzing characters and I thought maybe some people would be interested, this one will be more of a compilation of what we know about him than a real analysis because of the nature of the character, so without any more useless text, here is Spamton charadesign analysis :

Different designs :

What's interesting with Spamton is that he didn't always look like that, presumably... To my knowledge we've never seen a full body of what Spamton originally looked like.

It could be anything, especially since Tenna doesn't recognize him in chapter 3. (This could be a joke but still it doesn't help)

We do have some infos and assumptions we can make:

1. The poster right after his first encounter.

We can't see much and we can't confirm if he looked different before he started making sales (which is supposedly before this poster was made)

But we do see he has black hair and pink cheeks (which I will talk about later so keep it in mind)

2. Also, the lack of glasses.

That may be more obvious but we know Spamton started wearing his colored glasses to look like Swatch to sneak in Queen's mansion, so after he got kicked out. (He may have started wearing black and white clothes for the same reasons)

Thank to that line in Swatch's shop:

And spamton Q&A:

3. The hair color

This part about "-$0.99 hair" I don't really know what to do with.

Given Spamton is an Addison (more on that later) he should have hair the same color as his skin.

So either he had already black hair, explaining why the price is negative (?) or it's just a quirk of Spamton's language and he did have white hair.

(It could also be that the wig cost him $0.99 thus he now down $0.99, or even that he just dyed them and therefor they can't be sold.)

It's quite confusing but I will get to more theorizing and headcannon at the end.

The mouth and cheeks :

Spamton, as well as the Addisons (maybe) don't seem able to close their mouths.

It make sense since we see in his shop sprite Spamton has a hinged mouth much like a puppet (this ties back to his story arc obviously) explaining the frozen mouth.

Interestingly enough the hinges lines aren't visible in his darkworld sprite (space an readability is why) that COULD indicate that the others Addisons have hinges too but it's just not visible since we never see them in a proper shop.

We also always see them smiling. This also make sense in a charadesign stand point as they are supposed to be salesman, it's their entire personality.

Anyway, the only part we actualy see moving (other that the bottom) are the corners of the mouth and the cheeks.

Speaking of the cheeks, as we already saw in the in game poster, his cheeks were pink. But now they are red !

It's an old poster, are the color faded ? But the black part aren't.

I thought about it, but while rewatching a compilation of spamton shop dialogue I noticed something I had forgotten.

His cheeks disappear when he stops smiling. They aren't permanent part of his cheeks (like I used to think)

Now why do they change color ? I don't know.

A possible explanation could be this:

They get redder the wider his smile is. (I would tie it to the physical aspect no emotional, I don't think it has anything to do with his actual level of happiness)

It's not perfect, (why would he be less happy at his supposed peak and more happy now) but it could be argued. This would just allow every color to exist at the same time.

Spamton and the Addisons:

Earlier I said he used to be an Addison.

These guys (just in case you didn't know).

Makes sense: the permanent smile, the classy black v neck T-shirt and their position as salesman all throughout the cyber city.

They both acknowledge each other as part of the same group.

About their differences Spamton said:

And the Addisons said:

From that (and the hair color problem we talked about earlier) either he was just a smaller Addison for no particular reason, or there IS a difference between them.

My guess would be that the Addisons represent adds on websites etc.. and Spamton is specifically e-mail adds. Which, since his the only one we see, would mean more work to reach less potential buyers.

It would make sense with his name and his constent association with e-mail, specifically by Tenna.

Interpretation, headcannon and theories:

So, taking all of that into account let's have fun and try to put all of this into a chronological evolution of his design.

1. The original mail walker

For the first design I debated a little about the color of his pants and his hair. But since none of them ever mention anything about it (and to make the progression a bit more interesting) I decided to give him the same clothes and hair.

Nothing much to say.

2. The calm before the storm

His supposed design around the time he started living at Queen's mansion. Sales are through the roof, all is good.

I see a lot of people drawing him with a red suit. Don't get me wrong, he looks handsome in this little red tuxedo but I'm trying to stay as close as possible to the in game design.

Also, again, on the in game poster we can see hi has a black top.

It looks like hair but given his design it's most likely his shoulder.

I still made it a suit jacket because at that point he's staring to make money, I would imagine he wanted to look more fancy.

The poster is also why I gave him black hair, it could be explain in univers the same wait as the jacket, wanting to change looks. New look new me mentality you know.

Also the white pants in preparation for his last design.

3. The downfall.

You'll notice his design didn't change much.

Realistically after his sales went completely flat and being evicted from Queens castel he never let go of his "rich" clothes.

He's still living in the past and this is one of the ways he does it.

I obviously made the clothes more jagged and and his white pants turned a bit gray.

And, of course, the glasses.

I don't have any specific reason for giving him a turtleneck, other than maybe it's cold in the trash zone (?) I've just always drawn him with a turtleneck I'm used to it now I can't see him without it.

In my opinion it supports the "lost in the dump" look.

I surely forgot some things, and if you want to add anything feel free to reblog this, anyway...

Thanks for reading all the way, I'm just writing this to ramble. Charadesign really IS my passion and I have to shout in the void about it.

I have to !

As a gift please take this pipis:

[earthstellar]

Earth Music on the Lost Light: Human Music That Cybertronians Like

we know for a fact that the Lost Light has access to human media, primarily movies, TV shows, and music-- and we know they generally seem to fucking love most of it, or at least find it interesting

but what would everyone's tastes be, in regards to Earth music?

time to talk about music for a long time!!! strap in, enjoy some tunes

we already know Cyclonus has impeccable taste and enjoys some of the best jams the 80s had to offer.

I can't help but imagine Rodimus being given a media archive of Earth tunes to approve for the Earth Dance would only result in chaos

(it's not like he would say no to anything, he absolutely blanket signed it all, it's just an obligatory thing-- or Ultra Magnus tells him it is, solely to keep him away from Important Captain Things that he would rather handle himself or hand off to Megatron, lmao. the shit that really needs to get done)

and this is how Rodimus discovers the somewhat questionable yet amazing genre of "mid-90s underground techno rave mix tapes"

(somewhat related, I still think Testarossa might as well be Rodimus' theme song, although it's not a 90s track and has more of an 80s synth vibe)

Rodimus would love that "computers are the future, fuck yeah let's make Digital Cool Future Music" mid-90s shit, there is no way he would not. it has the exact energy level that appeals to him and is also cheesy and weird and chaotic. and has like 500 different sub-genres, so his selection is endless, lmao.

he would probably find it cute that this is what humans imagined to be the peak of "digital sound" at the time. like lmao this was the best humans could do when asked to create music that sounds like it was made by robots or other mechanical space future cyber lifeforms--high concept!!! he would probably find it interesting and endearing. this is what organics think non-organic music is like!!

anyone acting as DJ at Swerve's on any given night would be so, so mad that Rodimus keeps requesting shit like "DJ MASSIMO ITALO DISCO BEST RAVE TUNES LIVE FROM LONDON 1995" or "DJ ARMPIT SLUDGE FEST HOUSE-RAVE-DRUMS N BASS SET 1996" for them to play, lmao

not individual tracks. the whole album. entire mix tapes of random, somewhat questionable mid-90s techno house rave bullshit.

that having been said, that good ass early 90s trance techno might send him into a spiral depending on his mood at the time, lmao (it's been known to happen)

but at the same time I can imagine him sharing tracks like Solar Quest - Space Pirates with Drift and they'd both just sit there and jam out, but quietly, thinking about shit while sitting in a port window next to each other (this was peak sleepover party techno, Back in My Day-- many deep conversations were had while listening to stuff like this, lol)

Drift would probably find some of Rodmus' recommended stuff to be pretty good for meditation-- although once he finds out about the human drug culture involved and certain concepts of experimental consciousness etc. that surrounded techno/rave and other related genres, it might cause him to pull back a little bit

(until he finds out about kandi culture, in which case, Drift would love the idea of hand-made unique bracelets and sentimental trinkets being made and exchanged at warehouse shows purely out of Good Vibes and Love for Fellow Beings and it turns out actually he fucking loves this shit, a chill vibes based "expand your mind" kind of music subculture appeals to his Spectralist sensibilities and he likes sharing tunes with Rodimus in return)

Drift picking tracks on his own would likely lead him down more of a classic rock road, but more of the chill side of things, more of the folksy type of classic rock -- I can see Drift really enjoying Spirit in the Sky - Norman Greenbaum or California Dreamin' - The Mamas and the Papas. or like, Incense and Peppermints - Strawberry Alarm Clock.

I mean, Drift might even go Full Earth Hippie and end up liking Green Tambourine - Lemon Pipers, lmao. in fact I am fairly certain of this.

I can see Drift loving Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In - The 5th Dimension. the whole vibe would probably appeal to him.

he'd quite possibly also like I Need a Dollar - Aloe Blacc, but it hits him in a place that still hurts to think about. so it's in rare rotation.

meanwhile Ratchet would probably be fine with classic rock too, like the good Dad Rock shit, just a lot of tracks from the 70s/80s -- a couple tracks he and Drift could probably agree on would likely lean more into the experimental/psychedelic rock side of things, like White Room - Cream or something like Wheel in the Sky - Journey

Rodimus tries to troll Ratchet by recommending Old Time Rock n Roll - Bob Seger, but joke's on him because it turns out Ratchet loves it, lmao

Swerve would go all out on classic bar jams for the evening playlist. Chill, good shit like Do It Again - Steely Dan.

Megatron would love Sinnerman - Nina Simone; He'd send it to Drift in a command crew level secured data packet, and they would both feel the hell out of this song. They don't need to talk about why. They never mention it to each other.

Megs would also probably love These Old Bones by Dolly Parton (mostly due to the lyrics, rather than the upbeat tune, but he would find it relatively relaxing), as well as 9 to 5 (of course), and similar music. Country from back in the day when country music was more about the struggle of poverty and the working life of rural people. Country music from back when songs told all the untold stories. He can respect that.

He'd listen to You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive by Patty Loveless and it would get him right in the fucking spark. Megatron is the Cybertronian equivalent of an Appalachian miner, god dammit. He understands.

Megatron would also like Johnny Cash; He would overthink Ghost Riders in the Sky and it would depress him, partly because it reminds him of Seekers... sigh.

I think he'd also like Cold War - Janelle Monae. He'd be way into good lyrics; What's being said in a song matters most to him. "This is a cold war, you better know what you're fighting for..." Indeed.

anyway I like thinking about what jams Cybertronians might like from their available selection of Earth tunes

[airybcby]

જ⁀✦ it's time to duel!

( bllk x yu-gi-oh crossover lowkey )

✩ a/n — i'm so deep into my ygo junk that this idea hit me like a bus

✩ word count — 700

✩ content — me yapping and lowkey reaching bc i want my two loves to crossover somehow. also ofc this isn't a full deck, but i did deeepp research for this so 6 per character it is!

✩ synopsis — bllk boys - isagi - rin - nagi - and what cards they'd have in their deck ( and why )

── .✦ isagi yoichi

✦ mind control

take control of one monster your opponent controls until the end phase

✦ isagi is always predicting his opponent's moves and using them to his advantage, i mean we've all seen it. and this card literally lets you use your opponent's monster and strategy !

✦ decode talker

a tactician who gains power from connection

✦ a card that gets stronger with careful positioning and the energy you put into it, just like isagi's playing when he's in his flowstate. and if we want to get silly with it, it's also a "talker" which fits isagi being a thinker and communicator !

✦ field barrier

protects your field spell card from being destroyed

✦ isagi treats the field like a chess game, showing his need to control and protect his "territory"

✦ psychic tracker

if you control a level 3 monster, you can special summon this card

✦ a support-type card that works best with others, just like how isagi's strength is amplified when he plays along with others he meshes well with !

✦ sangan

a small creature that helps search your deck for better plays

✦ isagi is borderline obsessive about finding the "formula" or even just the one piece he needs to run a perfect play

✦ the eye of truth

reveal your opponent's hand and keep it revealed

✦ i mean, what can i say? isagi's "meta vision" is pretty much this card in action.

see rin and nagi utc!

── .✦ rin itoshi

✦ dark armed dragon

cannot be normal summoned. must be special summoned by having exactly 3 dark monsters in your graveyard

✦ ruthless, overwhelming, and scarily precise. like rin, this card needs setup and punishes hard.

✦ mystical space typhoon

destroy 1 spell/trap on the field

✦ rin always cuts through noise and distractions. mystical space typhoon is a fast, clean removal. two peas in a pod.

✦ red-eyes darkness metal dragon

a lone dragon that calls forth others, yet stands dominant

✦ it just gives rin's whole "im above you all" lone wolf type of vibe, yet it also hints how he does have the ability to bring out others potential (isagi...) and how he just doesn't see it / doesn't want to

✦ raigeki

destroy all monsters your opponent controls

✦ is literally "screw tactics. i just need force" and it's just like rin just pummeling through a defensive line...slay

✦ royal oppression

pay 800 lifepoints to negate any special summon

✦ prevents flashy plays. rin doesn't want anyone doing anything unpredictable. they will play on his terms.

✦ fabled raven

a solitary beast with deceptive strength

✦ symbolizes his cold exterior and powerful play style. also, to me, the name "fabled" suits rin's god-tier prodigy status ( im reaching )

── .✦ nagi seishiro

✦ cyber dragon

can be special summoned if your opponent controls a monster and you don't

✦ lazy but also peak strategy. just gets to come onto the field for free. i would imagine he'd do this at the start of the match.

✦ mystic tomato

when destroyed, special summon a dark monster with 1500 or less attack points

✦ a scary looking, but relatively chill card, that turns into something better without any real effort.

✦ scapegoat

summon 4 sheep tokens to stall or use as tribute

✦ i feel like nagi wouldn't plan on using this card, but somehow his tokens lead to his win. i can't explain it.

✦ junk synchron

pulls low-level monsters from the graveyard to synchro into big threats

✦ nagi can turn the simplest thing into genius ideas. i just feel like this card is his philosophy.

✦ black luster soldier - envoy of the beginning

must be special summoned by banishing one light and one dark monster from your graveyard. can attack twice or banish anything on the field

✦ really, it's the banish anything ability to me. when nagi sees an opening, he takes it, and he's gone.

✦ limiter removal

double the attack points of all machine monsters. then destroys them.

✦ sudden burst of power, no regards for the consequences. kinda like nagi being bored then also being the leading reason as for why his team won?

જ⁀✦ ©airybcby ✩ masterlists

✩ likes ✩ comments ✩ and reblogs are appreciated

[phantoms-world-and-more]

I like the feral Casper High students trope. So Danny is a senior in High School and his job as a hero is not really needed any more. Amity Park is much more at peace with ghost now. Something happens to Vlad (maybe he fades, decides to go on a very extended vacation to find himself outside his obsession with Maddie, gets locked up by Walker, etc). Danny inherits Vlad's billion dollar company. At first he doesn't want it but then he starts thinking about starting a space program. He can't be a NASA astronaut due to his ghost side not passing normal health levels. But if its his company then he can make the rules and get to go to space. He doesn't want to run the company just focus on his space stuff so he gets his classmates in on running the company. Paulina and Star become the CEO and COO. Valarie is Chief of security with Kwan and Dash as her right and left hand. Tucker is head of R&D, with Sam in charge of charity work. He even gets some ghost to work for him, Lunch Lady is in charge of the staff cafeteria, Techinus is in charge of cyber security and Box ghost is head of shipping. So you have a bunch of 17-18 years olds running a billion dollar company and they are bulldozing the completion with how competent they are.

I love this

[croxot]

MORE Armored Core 6 Thoughts - The Corporate Military Leaders

After coming to the conclusion that Armored Core is my game of the year, I've been thinking needlessly deeply about many little bits of the game. I wanted to put some thoughts out there about the Corporate Military Leaders (V.II Snail & G1 Michigan). More specifically what makes them so different in how the player perceives them -- How their corny characterization makes them all the more engrossing. Spoilers to follow.

Michigan

• Massive blowhard military type, speaks with all the bravado of your stereotypical US army drill sergeant.

• Despite this, he is somewhat endearing. He's still a shill for Balam, but he has a clear level of respect for those under him, and grants even more respect where it's clearly deserved.

• Knows all his underlings by name.

• Will chastise his own men for not showing you enough respect on the mission where you are expected to kill him and his entire force. Seems to take it well despite what's happening.

• Despite his position placing him as one of the defcato villains, there is very little direct animosity to muster for him. By the point in the story where you can decide to kill him, Balam has already lost the race, and Michigan has shown very little ill will towards you personally (even if you've previously betrayed the Redguns).

---

(Quick note on V.I Freud: While Freud is Technically a higher rank than Snail, he's clearly turned over military leadership to Snail, which makes Snail more of the de-facto face of Arquebus. Freud's just an ace who shows up to have a good fight, and otherwise doesn't make much of a show. Which, yeah, that's fine.)

Snail

• The Immediate difference here is that Snail is consistently depicted as conceited and selfish. Where Michigan is on first-name basis with basic underlings, Snail is verbally disgusted with the thought of acknowledging anything or anyone that isn't directly and immediately beneficial to him.

• And that's great because this game ABSOLUTELY benefits from having someone that's so easy to hate. Snail treats everyone around him, including his ranked allies, and even Freud, like dirt.

• He's even worse to you in the sense that he's convinced his type of space-cyber-lobotomy is so much newer and shinier than yours and makes him objectively superior to you. Like calm down dude this isn't a brain damage contest.

• This makes the Liberator of Rubicon Ending immensely satisfying in a way the other 2 endings just don't compare to. The game has spent around 15-ish hours having this guy be a gigantic douche in nearly every line he speaks, and then he shows up to fight you when realistically he doesn't even have to considering the circumstances.

• And so with Rusty's theme blaring in the background, he has an angry breakdown while you send him and his Balteus 2: Scuffed Laser Edition™ directly to the shadow realm. It is the most satisfying boss kill in the game.

[bitingdrivers]

Another post about Bones AU!

hello again! This time I want to talk about the supporting cast: interns, fbi agents and some other guys.

I want to preface this with a little note that my knowledge of american education (and any other) system is very surface level. And all of this is made up anyway, so don't sweat it. also acab

Mr. Alex Albon

Minors in veterinary medicine. The honorary intern on the case where they find a bull penis in the evidence. After that it's revealed that he has 7 cats, 2 dogs and even a horse. After graduating he will probably go work as a vet at the National Zoo.

Alex is bright and funny, he is down to earth, but very professional and smart. Rumor has it he is in some kind of relationship with George Russell.

I imagine he is fine working with corpses, but at the end of the day his heart is in the veterinary medicine, so after a few internships in the lab he announces that he managed to get hours at the Zoo, so he won't be in the lab anymore. Despite that, he still has to help on some cases when no one else can.

Mr. George Russell

Besides anthropology, he also studies archeology and will probably end up in the Authentications Department after graduating.

He is usually interns in Authentications, but a few times he has to help at the lab, when other squints are unavailable. He hates working with corpses and one time is found crying in the lounge after he has to help solve a child's murder.

George is reserved and serious about keeping it professional in the lab. But after you know him better, you will learn that he is very passionate and a big gossip (he probably started that rumor himself)

Dr. Fernando Alonso

Works in Palaeonthology department, but has anthropological education so a couple of times he helps in the lab when there are no avaliable squints.

Since they are both Spanish and share a passion of biology and geology, Carlos and Fernando are good friends and often help each other.

One time he has to help in the lab and one of the Institute's sponsors, Lance Stroll pays a visit. Something happens between the two

The Stroll family

The Strolls are the main benefactors of the Institute and sponsor a lot of it's campaigns. Lawrence Stroll is the head of the family and has a son and heir of the company – Lance Stroll.

Lance is very enthusiastic about the Lab and sometimes likes to visits and hover around to see how the cases are solved. After a couple of times people just accept it and even include Lance in conversations and explain things to him. In return Lance tries to help with fundings and internships. His knowledge in business and other affairs helped solve the cases on numerous occasions (he is very proud of that).

Mr. Yuki Tsunoda

Yuki studies anthropology, but is very passionate about chemistry. He is a food enthusiast and is very interested in the field of molecular kitchen. Despite studying to be an anthropologist, he plans on working in a molecular kitchen restaurant, although he still takes studying and working in the lab responsibly.

Daniel is a big wine enthusiast and dreams of making his own wine one day, so when he learns about Yuki's food hobby, the two quickly bond. Yuki even takes Daniel to a few molecular kitchen restaurants.

Mr. Liam Lawson

Liam is a the first intern to fill the space after Oscar. Because of that the crew feels really weird about him being there. But after a few weeks of working together they became good friends.

Daniel and Liam quickly bond over their shared love of American football and sometimes even play the sport together.

Yes, Liam also thinks Max is flirting with him at the start, but Charles quickly explains that this is just Max being Max (this happened in the show, I swear)

Agents Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon

They both work in the Cyber division of the FBI. Their friendship feels weird and strained to the outsiders, but Pierre and Esteban refuse to tell anyone what happened between them. Despite that, they often work together and do it well.

During one of the cases where a hacker is involved, Agent Gasly is put on the case and he and Charles work together to catch the killer. During this time they develop a connection and quickly start dating after (this happenes when Charles and Carlos decide to take a break). But since Carlos is Charles' true love, the relationship with Pierre doesn't work out, but they stay good friends afterwards

Mr. Guanuy Zhou

Guanyu spends a couple of months in America as an exchange student from China. During that time he is given internship hours at the lab and helps to solve a case. He is studying to be a forensic anthropologist in China.

Agents Kevin Magnussen and Niko Hulkenberg

Agents Magnussen and Hulkenberg used to serve with Daniel in military and went through war together. But after Daniel went to Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch (specifically the violent crime division), Hulk and Magnussen went to National Secutiry. Sometimes they meet to have a few beers together

Valterri Bottas

As one of the best anthropologist in the world, Max is asked to go to Finland to assess and authenticate some very old and important remains. Daniel decides to go with Max (obviously). But in classic Bones fashion a murder happens during their stay and Max and Daniel have to solve it. A local police officer Valterri Bottas helps them with the case.

Prof. Gianpiero Lambiase

Ok so in the show it's established that Brennan has slept and dated her professor and mentor (although I don't remember if it happened after her graduation or during her years in the university)

So I decided why not. Max dated his professor and mentor GP after graduating university. It was brief and they never took it seriously, because it was mainly just lust.

But one day GP decides to visit the lab. Daniel is not thrilled to find about Max's and GP's relationship (but at this point he won't say anything about it to Max).

Agent Sergio Perez

So uh. I kind of forgot about him till this moment and almost hit post lol.

I decided just now that he works in Organized crime division and helps during one of the cases. Sorry Checo, I forgor.

Ok so this is obviously not all the people in f1, but at this point I think it's enough. But feel free to make your own headcanons about how this or that f1 person fits in this au.

[feministbirdcreature]

Why is the content that gets posted in certain “femcel” spaces 99% centred on cyber bullying women (in the case of lolcow) or picking apart every single aspect of their looks (lolcow again and subreddits like Vindicta and Vindicta Rate Celebs).

The users who post in these types of message boards claim to be women and often describe disliking or hating men, so why do most of their comments consist of gossiping about women and picking apart their appearance? This is such stereotypically male behaviour to me that it makes me doubt these posters are even female in the first place. As someone who 1) dislikes men and 2) likes women, I have not felt the need to participate in behaviour like this since I was maybe 12 or 13 years old. If you claim to hate men and be a feminist, why is 99% of your post history bullying women?

Vindicta is on a whole other level. “Billie Eilish is a 3” or “Sydney Sweeney is a 4”. Their irrational hatred of certain features like large breasts or sanpaku eyes. Picking apart flawless women because their eyes are slightly downturned or because their philtrum is 1mm too long. Tell me, why are these supposedly straight women getting enjoyment out of this? Are they even women?

It’s bad enough having to deal with the millions of posts from males criticising women for how they look and now we have to deal with this shit from self-hating borderline male incel-aligned women with internalised misogyny. It’s ridiculous what a large percentage of the content on the internet consists of people just discussing whether a particular woman is hot or not. I want to see this sort of energy extended to male celebrities.

If you are an actual woman who posts in these spaces and participates in this sort of content, I’d love to hear from you what the appeal of these sorts of posts are. I just can’t wrap my head around what enjoyment women get out of picking apart celebrity women. It’s such male behaviour imo.

[riddle-me-fear]

Dear Riddler

What languages do you speak?

And do you have a doctor title or master's degree in any subject?

Edward Nygma | The Riddler

Let's see, obviously English, as my mother tongue, then there's Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, German - all of which I speak fluently - I'd say mid-level Greek and Hebrew, I'm still learning those, and a little bit of Russian. Of course I know a couple words and phrases in a large variety of other languages, but those hardly count.

Jonathan Crane | The Scarecrow

Tshh. Show-off.

Edward Nygma | The Riddler

Nobody asked for your opinion, Jonathan.

Jonathan Crane | The Scarecrow

Aight, genius, genuine question: Why do ya know so damn many languages?

Edward Nygma | The Riddler

Better. Well, Latin is obvious. French I learned while working with Oswald, since he just loves to surround himself with French women and is generally obsessed with France. Quite useful after the fact, to spy on his meetings and flirt with his assistant to anger him, mh-hm-ha! Of course, I've also visited the country myself, and the locals are much friendlier when you speak to them in their language. Moving on, Spanish is obvious as well. Ah, Italian, because I took quite many trips to Italy, for multiple reasons.

Jonathan Crane | The Scarecrow

Do these "reasons" by chance have anythin' to do with our local kitty cat?

Edward Nygma | The Riddler

Perhaps, perhaps not. Right then, German, oh, there are just too many reasons, from the music, to the inventors, mathematicians, psychologists; To read the works of such great individuals in their original language gives a much broader understanding than to make due with a translation. That isn't just the case with German, obviously, any language I learn is to further and deepen my knowledge in any way, shape or form I can, and learn of the country's history and culture, while I'm at it. Right, Greek and Hebrew, I am learning for that very same reason, and finally, Russian because of too many run-ins with the Bratva to my liking, and I'd rather understand what they're saying to each other, while I'm being held at gunpoint.

Jonathan Crane | The Scarecrow

Hm, neva had any problems with 'em.

Edward Nygma | The Riddler

Lucky you. Next question! Doctor title - nope; Master's degree - yes, two, actually. I've got a master's in Computer Forensics and Cyber Security, and another in Forensic Pathology. Initially - ahah, aaah this is hilarious thinking back on it - I was very motivated to fix the corrupt police system, and tried to achieve that from within.

Jonathan Crane | The Scarecrow

Hehehe, s'ppose that didn't last long.

Edward Nygma | The Riddler

It indeed did not. A person of my incredible intellect would quickly come to realize the GCPD is beyond salvation, something the Gordons still refuse to accept, and have to face the harsh reality thereof each and every time. But my studies were in no way for naught - Now, I have access to the vast digital space of databases the police keeps stored. Sure, they change their security system every year, but it's oh so easy to crack ahahahaha! Aaah, the dirt I have on so many officers, investigators, and what have you... The stories I could tell. If you buy them off me mh-hahaha! Oh, another thing on degrees, though; I'd have even more of them by now, as I am self-taught in quite a number of things. Unfortunately, the university isn't corrupt enough to hand out certificates to criminals. Shame. Not that I need them to prove my genius. They'd just look nice on my wall.

[thankskenpenders]

So I wrote a whole long thing about Amy's tarot cards, but what about, you know... the rest of the Sonic Frontiers DLC? The new alternate story route, the hours of new gameplay, all that?

Having now played it, I'm not sure Sonic has ever had this specific combination of good ideas that make the future of the series look bright, and execution that I fucking hate.

(Full spoilers ahead.)

The good

There's a lot to like here, conceptually.

First and foremost, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy are finally playable in a new mainline 3D Sonic game for the first time since 2006! Seventeen years! We've been begging for this for so very, very long. Nature is finally truly healing from the fallout of Sonic '06. Early on I hedged my bets and expected them to be locked to Cyber Space or something like that, assuming that there was no way they'd be fully playable in the Open Zone. But sure enough, while they're a bit limited compared to Sonic, they're still all full-blown characters with skill trees to unlock and lots of exploration to do.

We also got a more bombastic alternate final boss fight, after the first take on The End kind of underwhelmed. And it's obvious that Sonic Team has listened to our pleas to focus on the 3D platforming over the forced 2D sections, and to reduce the amount of automation in the level design. This update is chock full of Actual Platforming. Wow! I can only pray this means we never get an area as agonizing to explore as Chaos Island again.

Sure, there's still some jank - especially with Knuckles' movement, which is kinda rough. But if this is the stuff they're trying out so that they can refine it further for the next game, then I'm really excited.

On the other hand, good fucking lord is The Final Horizon tedious. And that tedium sapped most of the fun out of it for me.

The frustrating

The new scenario massively increases the difficulty over the base game, seemingly out of a desire to give the hardcore players who were posting speedrun videos and whatnot more of a challenge. It's the Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels of Sonic. This difficulty comes in many forms throughout your playtime, some worse than others, and continues to ramp up over time.

Rather than giving you a tutorial level, the new scenario dumps you directly into a remixed version of the final island and makes you do some fairly precise platforming with Amy, Knuckles, and Tails - new characters with new movesets that you won't have any experience with. You'll also need to find character-specific Koco that give you free levels, because Sonic's friends all start at level one and certain locked moves in their skill trees will be mandatory to progress. They don't even have Cyloop unlocked at the start. And because they're all low level, that means you'd better steer clear of the beefed-up bosses scattered around the map, which will absolutely annihilate Sonic's friends. (I honestly just avoided them and never bothered beating any of them, not even with my high-level Sonic. I have no idea if they're beatable with the others.)

None of this is explained to you particularly well. I spent my first few minutes with Amy wondering why the attack button did nothing, only to eventually think to check her skill tree and realize that I had to unlock her basic attack. If you don't bother to take the time to read through the skill trees, you'll very quickly find obstacles you have no way of getting past with no clues as to what exactly you're supposed to do.

Adding to this confusion is the fact that objective markers often tell you to go half a kilometer into the sky, and you'll have no idea how to get up there because all of the relevant platforms are out of your draw distance. Many objects seem to only pop in for me when I'm within about 60 meters of them, which isn't a long distance for a high-speed open world platformer like this. I was having this problem running the game with high graphics on PC, so I can only imagine how obnoxious it is on Switch. I'd frequently find myself poking around nearby clusters of platforming objects and praying that they'd lead me to a spring, rail, or cannon that would eventually point me in the direction of the floating objective marker.

There were always complaints about the art direction in Frontiers and the way it relies on floating rails and prefab platforms that are visually disconnected from the natural scenery of the islands, but it's even more dire here. The new platforming sections are dense and complex, but they seemingly didn't have the budget to change the topography of Ouranos Island at all, so it all takes the form of these prefabs. It very strongly gives the vibe of a Forge creation in Halo 3, back when there were no blank canvas maps and people just had to make "new maps" by jamming a bunch of shipping containers and barricades together in the sky above one of the default arenas.

I was still more or less having fun, though, despite the jank. It's a big creative swing, I told myself! They're trying stuff out! They're experimenting!

And then I hit the towers.

The towers are agonizing because they're SO close to being great. The logical part of my brain understands why some people love them, but god, I just fucking hate them. The platforming there IS cool! These layouts are cool! The individual challenges along the way are a bit tough, but totally doable. You know what's not cool? Making one mistake and slowly falling 800 meters all the way back down to the ground, forcing you to start over. Because none of these towers have checkpoints. For me, this one decision transforms what should have been a fun set of platforming challenges into a massive, unfun difficulty spike.

I enjoy some masocore platformers, but those are typically games with quick deaths and restarts like Celeste, Super Meat Boy, or VVVVVV. Hell, the Mario games tend to get way more difficult than the average Sonic game, and those are obviously all great. Quite frankly, unlike those games, Sonic Frontiers is nowhere near tight or polished enough to make this difficulty feel fair. Bits of jank that I could ignore in the base game due to its lower difficulty are now matters of life or death. Missing a jump because I boosted off an incline in a way the game didn't like for reasons I don't understand is not fun. Falling off a tower because the camera was pointing in the wrong direction while I was in midair and I couldn't see the next thing I was expected to homing attack is not fun.

And it's such a jarring spike when moving from the base game to the DLC that it feels like the game is suddenly quizzing me on skills it never bothered to instill in me. Maybe if you've spent the last year labbing out the movement tech in this game this is all a no brainer, but for the average returning player it's a kick in the dick.

I'm sure I could've beaten these towers normally if I gave them enough tries. They aren't the hardest thing in the world. But I very quickly decided I had better things to do with my life and turned on easy mode, which adds tons of extra springs and homing attack balloons to make all of the platforming piss easy. I wish there was a middle option between Only Up: Sonic Edition and this extreme hand holding, but when given the choice between the two I gladly picked baby mode. I just wanted to see the story.

(The new Cyber Space levels are also long, challenging, and devoid of checkpoints, not unlike the towers. But I only ever found the entrances to two of them. So I only did two. They're theoretically required, because they give you "Lookout Koco" that you need for... some reason? But in a rare act of mercy, Sonic Team put Cyloop treasure spots that give you free Lookout Koco all over the map.)

As I continued, so many little things started adding up to piss me off. Why do you only reveal like five tiny squares of the map at a time? I would've loved to find all the new 1-on-1 dialogue scenes, but not if I had to do dozens of hard mode versions of the stupid little puzzles and challenges to reveal the whole map. Why does every character need their own unique collectibles? What is this, Donkey Kong 64? Why can't I just grab this EXP for Amy when I find it as Tails? Why can I only manually swap characters by talking to an out-of-the-way NPC unlocked right before the final boss? Why is fast travel disabled? Why are the new vocal themes you hear when playing as Amy, Knuckles, and Tails so monotonous, with a single verse repeating over lo-fi beats ad nauseum? Why is the jukebox feature completely disabled throughout the DLC, even after rolling the credits? Why can't Tails homing attack? Why do I have to wrestle with the camera so much while also holding the jump button to fly as Knuckles and Tails? How many right thumbs do they think I have? Why is this animation for picking up animals in the Cyber Space levels so incredibly slow, and why can I still take damage while it's playing? Why does the stupid starfall event have to make it so hard to see what I'm doing when climbing these towers? Why does this shitty combat trial have a popup that makes it seem like I should be using the Cyloop when the actual strategy revolves around repeated parries? And on and on and on...

The story

What about the new story? Well, there sadly isn't much to chew on here. Most of the DLC has the cast running around and finding different macguffins for arbitrary reasons, as part of some sort of plan to divide up the work on the last island so that Sonic can go train with the spirits of the Ancients and harness the power of his cyber corruption. What the fuck is an Impact Form? I don't know, but Knuckles needs something to do, so go find one.

It's a thin excuse plot meant to make you do platforming challenges around Ouranos Island, with little room for Ian to add any real flavor of his own, even though he certainly tries. Having Sonic meet the spirits of the Ancients who controlled the Titans, who are revealed to directly parallel the personalities of him and his friends, is kinda neat, I guess? It's something. The optional conversations seem to have some fun bits, including both conversations between the supporting cast and additional lore. But again, I only found a few of those because of how tedious filling out the map was.

The writing is also let down by the voice acting - or I guess the voice direction, because I know this cast can do better. Roger's voice continues to be weirdly, distractingly deep as Sonic, which was clearly something that was requested of him just for this game. (For a recent example of him going back to his regular Sonic voice, see this LEGO trailer.) The performances of Sonic's friends are also WILDLY mismatched. This is most clear when they start feeling the effects of the cyber corruption. Knuckles seems to be barely affected at all, Tails sounds like he's moderately hurt and low on energy, and Amy starts completely overselling her pain out of nowhere. The extremely strained performance makes it sound like Cindy's literally being tortured in the fucking booth. I have no idea what's going on over there.

The final challenges

People have debated whether or not things like the towers and the new Cyber Space levels are fair challenges. What's not up for debate is the fact that Master King Koco's Trial is complete and utter bullshit, and I can't believe they shipped this.

Before you can fight the new final boss, the game forces you to do a boss rush of the first three Titans - INCLUDING the pre-Super Sonic climbing sections - with a hard limit of 400 rings. For all three lengthy, heavily scripted fights. Back to back. You can't even cheese it with the leveling system, because you're forced to do this at level 1. This all but forces you to look up speedrun strats for the Super Sonic fights so that you don't run out of rings and fail the trial.

And the real kicker? They changed the parry just for this trial! Originally, you could just hold down the bumpers endlessly and Sonic would ready himself to parry the next attack, whenever that may hit. Now it requires you to do a "Perfect Parry" with specific timing. And you HAVE to hit those parries if you wanna clear this trial and get to the new ending. Miss a few and you're probably fucked. You just have to reset. Time to go through all those fights, all those climbing sequences, all those QTEs, and all those unskippable mid-fight cutscenes all over again. This is by far the most egregious example of the DLC deciding to quiz you on new skills that the base game never required of you, and it's one of the most absurdly unfair things I have ever seen in a Sonic game.

Easy mode does make this trial easier by making the timing window for Perfect Parries much more generous, but that's all the help you get. It's still easy to lose time failing to parry Wyvern's hard-to-read animations, or to lose rings by getting hit on the climb sections, or for things to just fuck up because these fights were always kinda jank. I gave it a few shots. I looked up guide videos. I tried the Quick Cyloop and stomp combo strat that seems all but mandatory. But I quickly decided that, again, this wasn't a worthwhile use of my time. It just sucks. And I really, REALLY didn't want to overwrite all my fond memories of these Titan fights, some of my favorite setpiece moments in any Sonic game, with memories of this shit ass boss rush.

So I cheated! And if you're on PC, you should too.

With the worst hurdle out of the way, I turned cheats back off and moved on to the new final boss. It was pretty cool. It's much flashier than the original fight against The End, that's for sure. It's still kinda annoying, and it requires you to do very specific shit without properly telegraphing it, but it's nowhere near as bad as the preceding challenges. I was hoping for one last new metalcore song to go with the new fight, which we sadly didn't get, but at least the new version of I'm Here is good.

The ending is... mostly the same, with a couple altered scenes that don't really change anything in the long run. But overall the new finale was pretty good. I just wish it hadn't been such a slog to get there.

Closing thoughts

Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon wants to be three things:

A patch that adds a new alternate ending that was probably supposed to be in the base game in the first place.

An experimental take on making Tails, Knuckles, and Amy playable again, presumably testing things for the next game. And...

An official Kaizo Sonic Frontiers mod for the sickos.

The thing is, the people showing up for #1 and #2, the main things that Sega hyped up about the update, are not necessarily going to be down for #3. If they had announced some uber-hard new Cyber Space levels for the arcade mode or whatever, I'd be like, neat! And then not play them. I would never touch Master King Koco's Trial if it was an optional challenge. I would leave that for the sickos. But instead, they made the hardest content mandatory for anyone who wants to see the new Good Ending where the final boss gets an actual budget.

I'm mostly left in a state of shock that it shipped like this. I cannot believe they playtested this and decided this was the state The Final Horizon should be released in. That this should be the note Frontiers ends on. That this should be how we remember those Titan fights. That this should be the lingering taste in our mouths as we wait however many years for the next 3D game.

Armchair devs always love to say that things would be "easy to fix," but like... there really would be easy fixes for the insane difficulty and general tedium here! Add a few more tutorial popups explaining what the game expects of you with Sonic's friends. Give the Cyber Space stages and the towers a couple checkpoints. Give the combat trials more generous time limits, especially on the lower difficulties. Remove half of the map puzzles, and make the ones that remain uncover twice as many squares. Skip the startup animation for Knuckles' glide. Let me turn on the goddamn jukebox. Since so much of this update was designed around fan feedback, I can only pray that Sonic Team is still listening, and that they tweak at least a few of these things with a balance patch.

But still, after those many, many paragraphs of complaining... this still somehow makes the future of 3D Sonic seem pretty promising?

Sonic's friends are FINALLY playable again, and the focus is back to proper 3D platforming, rather than railroading players into awkward forced 2D sections in what's otherwise an open world. These are the things that they hopefully want to carry over to the next game. The difficulty? Well, that's just because it's the postgame DLC that's supposed to be the toughest challenge in the game. It's just an unreasonably cruel one of those - an example of how designing and balancing for a vocal minority of your fanbase can really hurt your game. But Sonic Team is onto something here, and I hope that they can learn the right lessons from this expansion and not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[hauntedraggedyanne]

A collection of small character flaws

All the ones I’ve collected

—always making the conversation about themselves

—lying about something incredibly stupid but they refuse to back down from

—expecting others to pay for them at every store, restaurant or hotel

—subtle jabs at other people that they always respond with ‘I wasn’t SAYING it was bad! YOU’RE the one making ME look bad!’ (Watch one of those ‘alpha male vs modern feminist’ videos or clips for inspiration if you are brave enough)

—messy, except this time they have other people in their space (like a dorm, shared apartment, or any kind of shared living space) so their messiness makes everyone VERY upset

—refusing to understand or learn another friend/teammate/partners culture or background to even slightly understand then

—loud obnoxious voiced people who physically can NOT make a subtle entrance or just simply exist in a room without yelling or eating very loudly

—asks for permission to do absolutely anything even with people who are on the same or even a lower level than they are

—doesn’t listen to music with headphones on in a crowded space so EVERYONE has to listen to them

—Can’t keep a plant alive to save their soul

—Gives up too easily

—Every time they go out to eat with others and they all order their food, they go last so that they can condescendingly ask for a salad

—Acts surprised when someone has a hobby and they’re not monetizing that hobby (ex: crochet. Actually this all about crocheting)

—cyber bully

—Keeps turning the conversation on its head so that they have an excuse to talk about themselves

—The type who compares traumas (oh I’m so sorry your dad’s a terrible person. BUT AT LEAST YOU HAVE A DAD 😭😭😭)

—Never asks for permission to do anything. It stops being cool and bad-boy after a while

—Nonchalant about everything. Even when you shouldn’t be.

—Steals little things for absolutely no reason. It’s not like they’re poor. It’s not like they need it. They just take it.

—They question every single detail about the things you say like they’re solving a murder case. (“Yeah, life has been really tough—“ “IF things have been as difficult as you say, then WHY—“)

—Talks about how unique their music taste is. All the time.

Doesn’t turn their blinker on when driving (or just drives horribly in general)

—“Take a break” for them means 5-8 weeks of doing nothing and telling absolutely NOBODY about this break

—‘No’ does not mean ‘no’, it means a challenge

—Every time there’s a holiday/birthday and the characters VERY CLEARLY tell them what hey want, they go out of their way to NOT GET IT and only get what THEY think the character wants.

(Okay that’s personal but it can foreshadow the characters not actually knowing each other as well as they think they do)

—Never. I mean NEVER. doing group work and then insisting to the teacher they were the ‘leader’ of the group. There’s no excuse.

—Turns every fight physical

—Tries to talk out everything even when it’s WAY too late for that and then acts surprised when the cannibal monster that ate one of their other friends decides to eat them next.

—One of those extreme musician stans. That���s it. I’m just very scared of them.

(If you see any traits that just so happen to go in hand with something you do, I am so sorry I’m not trying to say anything. You’re probably not evil)

[8um8le]

Hiiiii! I hope you’re doing well and taking care of yourself! *gently kisses and pats your forehead*

So I see the connections between all the other toons/mall space friends and their corrupted counterparts abut how does moons fit in?

Nerdy hydro and Toon Moon seem SO different from our sc chaotic guy. Did he retain anything from his original code besides the go with the flow attitude similar to hydrokenisis?

Heheh ty for the lov :33

It’s funny cuz when we look at cyber crew, we usually assume Sun would be the brains while 8ot and Moon are the brawns, when it’s actually the opposite

Moon knows where the money’s at, he’s cunning, even getting on Sun’s good side during their scrapyard days to take advantage of Sun’s already built-in combat skills. He’s a fast learner, despite not being a fighter, he still managed to somewhat get on Sun’s level.

Also the moon bot’s shallow emotions makes it easy to financially ascend, and go through decisions that more emotional sensitive people fail to go through. Toon Moon and City Moon have very different personalities, but their “heart” remains the same

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

🤖 Anatomy of a Cyberman

Cybermen are humanoids 'upgraded' through cybernetic conversion, stripping away organic weakness to create efficient, nearly emotionless beings.

🧬 Cyber-Conversion

Lacking any natural means of reproduction, Cybermen rely on "Cyber-conversion" to, uh, recruit volunteers (okay, not always volunteers). Organic bodies are overhauled, trading flesh for metal, inhibiting emotions, and installing pure logic processing for survival, with unquestioning loyalty to the Cyber cause. And there's no going back.

🎩 Varied Cyber-Bodies

There's no one-size-fits-all in Cybermen fashion, but they do keep a few classics in rotation:

The Classic Metallic Look: Shiny and silver. Most Cybermen follow this silver theme, but they've had other styles—black Cyber-Scouts, and even one in wood.

Mondasian Legacy: The early CyberMondans from Mondas had visible circuitry and gauze-covered faces; they were a little more DIY. Later versions from the Mondasian colony ship still retained parts of their human body like hands, and had an eerie, sing-song voice.

🛠️ Features

💔 Emotional Inhibitors: For Cybermen, emotions are nothing more than a liability. So they simply switch them off. Each Cyberman is fitted with an "emotional inhibitor" to keep pesky human feelings—like regret, fear, or the utter horror of their situation—at bay.

🔫 Weapons and Adaptation: Laser-firing helmets, chest-mounted blasters, and adaptive armour make Cybermen formidable. They're also masters at adapting to new threats and sharing it with the hive mind. Speaking of ...

👥 Hive Mentality: Cybermen pride themselves on efficiency, and what's more efficient than a hive mind? Linked by an extensive network, each Cyberman can share information, adapt to threats, and communicate without those bothersome MS Teams meetings.

🔧Self-Healing Powers: The later models could heal almost instantly, and detach body parts entirely. Resistance, honestly, is futile.

⏳Primitive Time Travel: Yes, Cybermen have tried time travel, and while it's more of a space hopper than a sports car, it does mean they'll show up at the most inconvenient times.

⚠️ Weaknesses

Though resilient, Cybermen have notable weaknesses:

Gold Sensitivity: Cybermen have an allergy to bling. Gold clogs their respiratory systems, making it highly effective against them. Mr. T is practically untouchable.

Weak Against EMPs: A strong EMP will disrupt their circuitry, temporarily putting them out of commission.

Explosive Fragility: Although tough, Cybermen are not invulnerable—some well-placed explosives, a bazooka, or a Raston Warrior Robot can bring them down.

Emotional Overload: Either by the Cerebration Mentor, or breaking the emotional inhibitor. If the inhibitor were to break it would be messy, painful, and involve more existential angst than Proust, so it's best not to dwell on it, unlike Proust.

Hive Hacking: Their hive mind is both an asset and a vulnerability. A skilled hacker—or a particularly clever Time Lord—can exploit it to turn their collective mind against them.

Other Lesser Known Methods: Cybermen can also be disabled or weakened by a chemical mixture known as Polly Cocktail, high radiation levels, and the scent of a particular flower from a particular planet (though we have no idea what flower on what planet).

🌌 Eternal Threat

The Cybermen genuinely believe they're doing the universe a favour by spreading the 'gift' of conversion. After all, who wouldn't want to live forever in a buff metal suit? The Cybermen may not have feelings, but they sure have ambition. And with each new upgrade, they're getting closer to making sure that everyone joins the Cyber club.

Gallifreyan Cyberman Biology for Tuesday by GIL

Any orange text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →📢Announcements |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts → Features: ⭐Guest Posts | 🍜Chomp Chomp with Myishu →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴