#i've done a couple others but they're not as big transformations as these

[chaifootsteps]

If we're sharing thoughts on Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond -- I'm at a point where I REALLY DO appreciate the story they're trying to tell with her character... but it also seriously bothers me, for a reason I haven't seen anyone else ever bring up?

To just get to the point: the Diamonds genuinely are the only Gems who can make change in the world. "Lower-casted Gems" have no power; all the autonomy belongs to the Diamonds.

Before the twist, it was a lower-ranked Gem (Rose Quartz) who made the choice to stand up against tyranny -- and the other oppressed gems stood with her! And they won! The Diamond Order was NOT right, was not invincible!

But now that we know Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond, and that the rebellion would never have started without Pink Diamond stumbling her way into it.... we know that lower ranked gems could have NEVER freed themselves. No enslaved Gem ever stood up in the history of the empire, and never would do it, and never would be capable of it. You may have a couple unruly gems here and there (like Ruby and Sapphire, or perhaps a few Quartzes, MAYBE a handful of pearls or even an aristocrat or two), but they were not the ones who had the autonomy to organize and fight for their freedom, or even think in those terms of "rebellion" and "freedom". Only a DIAMOND had the power to make a decision and cause this to happen. If the DIAMOND had never made the decision, the rebellion would have been impossible to happen.

(And it doesn't matter if Pearl was the "brains" who inspired Pink to turn into a Rose Quartz -- because PINK is the one who had to do it. Pearl could have never held the Rose Quartz transformation for hundreds of years to lead the others. Without Pink's gentle advice to Garnet about "you already are the answer", Garnet may have been confused and lost for so much longer. Bismuth would have stayed a laborer building structures the rest of her life if she hadn't met Pink in her Rose disguise. And so many other instances where it doesn't matter if many others INSPIRED Pink, because it had to be PINK, THE DIAMOND, who did the active actions to kick everything into gear and keep it going.)

If this figure of Rose Quartz HAD just popped out of the ground AS a Rose Quartz? She never would have been able to start the rebellion. Only the Diamonds have the power to make change.

But that just sticks in me in SUCH an awful way. It doesn't matter to me whether Pink was the best person ever or an evil person or somewhere in between, because saint or demon, she was a Diamond, and Diamonds are the only Gems who can Make Things Happen.

Even Steven. Steven didn't solve his series crisis as a Quartz. If he HADN'T been Secretly Royal this whole time, he would have never been able to stop the Diamonds. Because again: only a Diamond is capable of Making Things Happen.

That's just an opinion I've always had and I don't know if anyone else feels the same.

I agree that this is something they should have done a lot more with, because I feel like they almost did. I'd actually have to watch the series, but I know that so much of the fallout of the plot twist was centered around just that...everyone grappling with the realization that Rose, her philosophies, and her revolution were all based on a great big hideous lie.

I think the edge is taken off by the fact that ultimately, it wasn't a Diamond who brought about lasting change. Pink's plan just kicked the can down the road while getting all her allies corrupted. It was Steven, a human hybrid armed with powers he barely understood, and Steven couldn't have done it alone and would have been dead a thousand times over if he'd tried.

But nah, you're not wrong. It's a valid point of contention.

[torpedopickle]

I finally watched Transformers Earthspark Season 2 today. I have a lot of thoughts and I wrote some paragraphs for every episode. As you can see I wrote a LOT, enjoy my way too long cartoon analysis:

Episode 1: the cracks are showing but it hasn't crumbled yet

The animation feels less alive than in season 1 even if strong storyboarding still carries some scenes, as I know several of the season 1 storyboarders did work on this episode. It has a couple good sequences, a couple incredibly stilted ones. The overreliance on slowmo feels weird, and the animation struggles to properly convey things, like how we're supposed to take Hashtag's injury very seriously, but it just looked like she got bumped lightly.

the Decepticons are butchered and watered down into "evil because they're Decepticons". Chaos Terrans is an interesting concept and the way they're executing Aftermath would provide a foundation for exploring topics such as delinquent youth, but knowing how the series will go on to treat them in later episodes, I'm not hopeful.

the Maltos feel like they're sleepwalking. They have a lot of screentime but for some reason they don't feel present at all, it's like I'm watching their shadows move around on screen without the things that made them feel alive shining through.

If I didn't know beforehand what this season would eventually stagnate into, I could see myself being fooled into thinking the gripes I have with this episode are just growing pains, however i'm not so hopeful.

Episode 2: Improved in some ways but not in others. The episode premise is decent, and the narrower focus compared to episode 1 does help make the focus characters feel a bit more like themselves again. Unfortunately i just don't think the premise was utilized well at all. Introducing quintessons to the conflict is kind of a big development, but it doesn't flesh them out well IMO. They treat them like wild animals with no characterization for a majority of it, and then hint at some deeper conflicts at the very 3nd before promptly disposingof them. So ultimately it feels unsatisfying (although we do get some expositon in episode 9, but it doesn't add up to much).

And once again i must comment on the character acting on the humans especially being severely lacking.

Robbie and Mo having helmets for like half their screentime definitely feels like a cut corner not to animate their faces

Episode 3 review: some well animated sequences this time around, i'd seen the storyboards for them on twitter and they're really well done, but then there's some others that really werent as decent, so big ups and down in animation quality. Most of the episode did feel like a slight return to formula for Earthspark tho, with how it felt like it was actually making a point about something for once, which so far has been rare in season 2, although the conclusion wasn't the most satisfying with the whole "you can't have everything" message but then hashtag kinda gets most of what she wanted anyway.

Episode 4 is like.... baffling.

Like the fact that they swapped to a wholly different and much cheaper animation studio was so far just somewhat shining through, but now it's impossible to unsee. The animation here feels BEYOND stilted, in every way. Like not even the 2D FX animation looked convincing this time. That clip of Robbie dropping a cake is the weirdest animated thing i've ever seen. It's like it gets sucked out of his hands by a magnet.

The Faire Maestro is a type of character I feel like would have been handled really well in Transformers Animated but was just kinda nothing here, super ugly design too and very odd voice direction. Lots of just bizarre and mindboggling things in this episode, like them seeing faire maestro having an emberstone shard, and then deciding to steal it right in front of his face for absolutely no reason even though they think he's a normal guy and not a villain. And tiny inconsistencies like Mo knowing his name even though he never said it. Bizarre episode all around, Weird Al cameo is cute but then he's gone.

Episode 5 review: Finally Jawbreaker gets to be in it. Except now he feels like a baby. Just a big stomping juvenile baby.

And speaking of big stomping babies, Aftermath is one too. He feels like he's supposed to be a representation of troubled/delinquent youth who don't get along with their peers and who don't have positive role models or a support network, but he really comes off as being just... chaotic, no real sense of interiority to him other than "I'm mean and I enjoy being mean and I can't help it". He's entertaining on a surface level vibes basis, but it doesn't feel like any attempts are being made at making a point. He's barely been in the show so pretty much anything that could make his character interesting is completely missing. Like there's no development of how the decepticons are raising him other than the basic assumption of "bad role models", and the decepticons barely get to be characters this season either. Aftermath feels like an Afterthought, as Chaos Terrans have basically been less than a footnote, and the series has attempted to do no form of storytelling with them beyond surface level observations that honestly feel insulting to the other characters like how the decepticons are just evil now, and the autobots/terrans have lost all nuanced expressions of empathy and solidarity in favor of just "they're generally friendly"

oh and also the evil mushrooms are boring.

Episode 6 review: Man this episode just *feels* wrong, like viscerally.

The show's handling of the chaos terrans just keeps getting worse. There's absolutely NOTHING about spitfire that compels any form of empathy. Like there's not even a mote of her being a troubled and misguided youth, she's just straight up ontologically cruel, like nothing about the conflict in this episode regards a failure to understand, communicate, or empathise with each other, it's just a straight up rejection of those things on both sides. For this chaos terran delinquent analogy thing to work you NEED there to be a sense of humanity or waywardness to them. You NEED to be able to conceive of them as being capable of more than just anger. This just feels meanspirited, especially the way the Maltos have no desire for Spitfire to be better. They just wholeheartedly accept that she's ontologically evil, and honestly, the way she's presented in this episode you'd think they were right, but they're not SUPPOSED to be right.

It sucks too cuz chaos terrans are a great idea

season 1's terrans were all representations of good natured minority kids, particularly third culture kids, who despite their best intentions and kindness end up having to fight for acceptance.

The chaos terrans are a natural progression of that, with depicting kids who end up on the fringe of society because they're inherently different from others and have a harder time being understood, and who don't have a support network to set them straight.

So it starts out in a place where they'd easily be able to build on it, but it's squandered imo. And for several reasons:

1. the Decepticons are 1 dimensional bad guys this season so they fail to capitalize on any potential storytelling they could have done with how their generational resentment might be passed down to the younger generation. They also fail to build any sort of relationship between the Chaos Terrans and the decepticons, so any obligation to stay or debt of gratitude that they might feel is just not there. You get no sense of why they'd want to be decepticons other than wanting to be enabled and encouraged for cruel behavior. They could have given breakdown an actual father son dynamic with aftermath but instead undercut it and play it for laughs.

2. Because the malto's solidarity have been completely watered down into just being "good guys", and never really get to articulate any sort of deeper point in their attempt to appeal to the chaos terrans, so you don't get a sense of how they might help them if they were allowed.

and 3. because the chaos terrans themselves don't really feel like they have much of an inner struggle, interiority, or conflict, it doesn't really feel like there's much of a foothold for

Anyone to latch onto to get through to them. Which makes them feel unredeemable.

so to reiterate and summarize these 3 points; 1. there's no sense of how the chaos terrans are being given negative reinforcement, 2. there's no sense of how the Maltos might help undo this, and 3. there's no sense of how the chaos terrans might want to be helped or not helped.

I understand that like part of the point is that they don't understand the chaos terrans, which supposedly makes them feel more alienated and further pushed towards anger, but there's no nuance or attempt at solidarity to the way these misunderstandings occur. Like there's no hint of Twitch and the Maltos trying their best to reach out to spitfire in meaningful ways. There's no sense of there being some fundamental difference in perspective or circumstance that make them able to understand eachother's point of view, it's just straight up "i tried to be nice but you were mean so now i won't be nice anymore" and it never goes beyond that. It's insulting how easily the Maltos give up on them.

Episode 7: serving as a direct followup to the last, it continues a lot of the same flaws. It squanders any chance of giving Spitfire some depth, like they could have spun her obsessive competitiveness into a deep-seated need for approval or validation or something, but no, she's as one dimensional as her behavior would suggest. Her behavior just becomes more and more destructive to a cartoonish degree where it no longer becomes possible to feel empathy for her.

the whole freaky friday misunderstanding thing too also feels super forced, which isn't helped by the animation failing to convey a lot of ideas.

Comparing this season to season 1 so far, man it just really sucks at juggling the characters. We've had practically 0 focus or development for any of the autobots and decepticons, and the maltos for that matter, despite their overwhelming screentime.

This is likely a casting budget thing. Which is why bumblebee has been demoted from main cast member to a guy who maybe says 2 lines every 3 episodes.

The quality of season 1's writing would go up and down quite drastically between episodes, but so far season 2 has consistently been on par with some of season 1's worse entries. It's juvenile and it has next to nothing to say about anything. Barely even any basic surface level messages, just mostly meaningless antics with next to no focus on exploring characters.

Episode 8 review: it's fine. No notes. It's a competent comedy episode. Fun premise with the whole "thing getting continuously stolen by different people" trope. Basing an episode around optimus's trailer is funny. Animation isn't stellar. Overall it's just an ok episode. I have nothing to say about it other than it's well executed even if it's not very ambitious.

Episode 9/10: okay! End of the season. The finale's mixed for me. In a different universe, this would have been an OK finale for the most part, but the fact that the season has tarnished every single character and plotline from season 1 and made no successful attempt at building anything new of value makes it lack any impact it could have had.

Interesting angle to flip the quintesson creator race narrative that transformers fans are used to. Although they too were an afterthought for this season. Aftermath and Spitfire getting killed really was the rotten cherry on top of their miserable cake. First they're treated like dirt by the story and handled as poorly as they could possibly be, squandering the excellent potential they had, but then they just kill them. Just so starscream's heelturn is even more evil. It honestly feels sad to me that they even bothered to acknowledge the fact that starscream was redeemble in season 1. Just makes it feel even more annoying that they conciously gave up trying to make him nuanced. Some of the animation was good. The shots of terratronus rising were very well composited and communicated the scale extremely well. As for the actual climax, it felt pretty lacking.

Overall a dissapointing season. A shadow of what earthspark was. Most of the characters are completely sidelined (likely for lack of a casting budget), and the few who aren't don't get a single story that feels reminiscent of that immensely strong sense of confident identity that season 1 had.

Hasbro cannot help themselves can they

[faranae]

Rant incoming (OTW/AO3 funding)

Pardon the ramble, this has been going on for months (years technically) but I saw a post again today shared by someone moderately influential and it's a "straw that broke the camel's back" thing. I'll probably pop it later.

It hurts to see how vitriolic folks can be when it comes to the OTW's (Organization for Transformative Works) fundraising. The OTW is more than just a "fanfiction host". The work they do and have done, not just with AO3 but also their other projects and occasional legal advocacy, is important to some people.

Is the OTW perfect? No. Are they struggling for funds? Also no. But these "righteous" PSAs implying the OTW is super wealthy and donations are just throwing money into a fire are misleading at best and positively reek of semi-malicious intent at worst.

So why would anyone rage so hard and write PSAs over which harmless causes other people spend their disposable income in support of?

[tinfoil hat below the cut]

Could it be partly caused by the small (but vocal) fandom-adjacent cliques that astroturf to sabotage the OTW's public image at every opportunity because they're Big Mad that AO3 fights to preserve content they don't like?

Do you really believe that if they win re: the big-nope taboos they'll abandon efforts to sour the other topics they hate? For example, LGBTQ+ content (emphasis on the T, gotta protect them kids /s) has been targeted by these same groups--over literal decades of fandom history--as have works and content created by and for victims of various abuses.

[/tinfoil]

I do not personally support the aforementioned big-nope taboos, but censorship in fandom is a slippery slope that we have fallen down before and I do not want to see that happen again.

I'm NOT saying everyone complaining about the OTW/AO3 fundraising is campaigning for or agrees with the TERFs/bigots et al who seed this shit into our communities, far from it. I am saying it is painfully obvious when a post is blindly parroting their rhetoric (which has often been carefully trimmed and presented in a way that appeals to them).

Next time you see a post hating on something (anything, really) out of nowhere, take a second to think about where they are getting their info, and whether or not that source is credible. For fuck's sake, I've even seen fake screenshots of the OTW's website tweaked just enough to "prove" their points. It's childish.

"But they have a couple million in net assets! They're not allowed to have savings!! They're a nonprofit!!!"

No, no, no. Perfect example of the "parroting" I mentioned earlier. Net assets are not cash. That is the value of everything in and owned by the OTW combined minus their debts/liabilities, not how much they have in the bank.

The OTW is pretty transparent about how much it brings in and where the money goes; They have to do this by law to maintain their nonprofit status. Hell, they'll even toss you the numbers if that's your schtick.

Again, not perfect, but nowhere near as greed-riddled as has been implied by so many posts on my dash over the past couple months. I think I'm more just upset at seeing people I know and respect falling for it hook line and sinker. It makes me angry to think about the people I love being manipulated by folks who seem to be allies, but who are simply waiting for permission to destroy us next.

/endrant

[citadelofmythoughts]

Please could Team SREN introduce themselves to us?

A beautiful young woman with, well, sandy blonde hair done up in a ponytail and heteromorphic eyes (one lilac and one amber) grins at you.

"Hi everyone! I'm Sandy Xiao Long, I'm seventeen years old, a huntress-in-training at Beacon and I'm the leader of Team SREN! Um...my semblance is Ignite which means I can turn the kinetic energy from the hits I take into actual flame!" She hefts a heavy armored gauntlet and puts it on her right hand. "This gorgeous thing is 'Hammerhand' It can amplify my punches tenfold, it can also function as an impact gun, so with different types of Dust I can freeze, burn, etc. Grimm. It can do long range too, but what's the fun in that?"

A tall, powerfully built girl with dark blue hair with a streak of white in it comes up behind Sandy and puts her hand on her shoulder in comradely fashion. "Guess it's my turn, huh boss? I'm Kenzie Rackley, the 'R' in SREN. I come from, essentially the middle of nowhere. So when I got the shot at attending Beacon I took in a heartbeat. Not that I hate my town, but it's BORING." She hefts a huge war hammer "This beauty is Thunderstruck. Forged her myself! She can convert into a shotgun too! Professor Valkyrie even complemented her!"

"I guess I'm next." says a pretty girl with long, curly red hair and deep green eyes. "I'm Erica Heath and...I ran away from home to be here. It's a...long story." and her eyes go a little misty which Sandy notices and comes over to hold her hand. "I'm the 'E" in SREN. My semblance is 'Jet' which is a speed semblance but it also leaves a trail of flame behind me, if I want it to that is." She pulls a short sword and a dagger out of their sheaths on her hips. "These are 'Tooth and Nail' they're not fancy but really useful when I'm going at speed and they do have a couple of tricks and she quickly converts one into a long barrelled handgun and the other into a much smaller 'holdout' pistol. "Um...I think that's it." Sandy grins and kisses her on the cheek. "Not quite. There's one more thing, we're dating!"

There's an audible groan from the last girl on the team. She has a slight frame, long green hair and inky black eyes. "I'm Nori Kano and if you think that Rackley came from the middle of nowhere, then I come from wherever is more isolated than that. My village doesn't...didn't even have a name. It's another long story that I don't want to get into. I met up with Kenzie on her way here to Beacon and then fell in with these two gross lovebirds."

She brandishes a kusarigama. "I've never named this thing. Didn't see the point but maybe I will someday. My semblance is "Light Step" which decreases my weight so I can leap much, much farther or even be thrown a long distance. "

Sandy then pulls her team into a group hug which even Nori reluctantly joins.

"So that's us, Team SREN!" If you're interested in our adventures and want to meet the rest of our friends and family, like my big sister Rose then please follow the link at the bottom. Our friend Citadel has been documenting our lives in embarrassing detail."

[koyue]

Finished uploading all the chapters of Fragments! Normally I struggle with endings, but the ending was actually the first thing I wrote and I really love how it turned out, so if you'd like, please check it out ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶

Random trivia for this fic (with spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen and the fic itself) and personal ramblings are all under the cut (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

—

I've been wanting to write a SatoSugu fic for a long time and it was really the ending of JJK that made me start writing it. I actually liked the final chapter because I love that Nobara, Megumi, and Yuji just got a breather with a silly little case, but I was definitely unsatisfied with a lot of the lead-up and I didn't like how we didn't get any proper closure on Gojo (Plus, isn't the world of JJK a lot worse off now? And nobody really talked about it? And Sukuna had some sort of backstory that never became relevant until the last three pages? Plus Yuji found out the truth of his parents offscreen?? Huh???)

So I wrote this to cheer myself up ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

—

I had fifteen chapters written out before I posted it because originally, I'd done the outline for twenty chapters. Then stuff happened and it somehow ended up being thirty five chapters long. I couldn't decide whose POV I wanted it to be from, so I settled on switching between Gojo's and Geto's POV

—

I loved Riko's character from the get-go and, even though I knew it was going to happen, I was heartbroken when she was killed. So I had to include her in and give her the happy ending she deserved. I like to think she would've been good friends with everyone at Jujutsu High had she lived. I also gave her a water-based cursed technique because a lot of her happier times in JJK seem to revolve around the water (the beach, the aquarium, the river)

—

Somehow this fic turned into a little personal contest to see how many of my favorite characters from JJK I could include. I just wish I could've expanded on Yuki's character since I really liked her too, but I just couldn't figure out how

—

Shoko was supposed to appear at some point, but by then, the story had gone in a whole different direction than what I had drafted, so I had to cut her scenes out because they no longer made sense

—

I made Gojo and Geto childhood best friends just because I love that trope so much. I love the idea of them being reincarnated in a peaceful world where they got to grow up with each other. I'd like to write a oneshot one day set in this universe where they're kids getting into trouble

—

God, I struggled with chapters 29 and 30 and rewrote them several times. Everything sounded a little OOC because there's a lot of emotional vulnerability and neither Gojo nor Geto (especially Gojo) seem like the sort of people who would allow themselves to be that vulnerable with another person, but eventually I came up with something I liked. Plus hey, maybe they're a little more emotionally intelligent in this world ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

—

I like writing dream scenes. They show up in a lot of the fics I've written and there are a ton in this one. They're not prophetic dreams, but mainly manifestations of the character's fears coupled with past and present memories

—

I'd always planned to include original characters since it's a reincarnation AU, but I didn't plan for Satoko (Gojo's grandmother in this fic) to have such a big role. I made up a whole story of what happened to her during her first life as a member of the Gojo clan, but it was too much and just didn't fit with the rest of the fic, so I had to cut it out. I really wish we could've learned a little more about the previous Six Eyes users in canon (actually, I wish we could've learned a little more about everyone in canon, particularly their families)

—

I wrote most of chapter 31 while listening to the Digimon: The Movie soundtrack (yes, that "so bad it's good" pastiche of three different movies that came out in North America). I'm a Digimon fan myself, so I had to include a few references in the fic

—

The final chapter is my favorite. The idea of the trio somehow seeing Gojo's ghost when they visit his grave is hilarious to me. I also wrote it while listening to "Ao no Sumika/ The First Take" because it's just perfect

[oodlyenough]

aa6-5 turnabout revolution

finished 6-5 over the last couple weeks, which means we've only got the DLC left for soj and the main series of games.

i gotta say ... i liked this finale a lot more than i expected to. i thought it was fun, and in turn that elevated SOJ overall. by far not the best ace attorney game i've played, but definitely not the worst. from the way fandom talks about this game and especially the finale i expected something awful, but i thought it had some fun ideas with mid execution, which is how i would describe ... basically every AA game after the og trilogy lol

anyway. more specifically (spoilers)

the first half of the case -- apollo vs phoenix -- is way up there on the "great idea, mid execution". i was immediately willing to assume phoenix had undisclosed reasons for doing his thing so i was immediately willing to let it slide, lol. "maya is kidnapped again!!!" is not the most compelling angle they could've done, but, whatever. also NPC nick seemed to have a brain in his head unlike player-nick, so that was nice

i also got a huge kick out of phoenix playing (essentially) the role of the prosecution and doing every dirty trick the prosecutors have done to him for 6 games: hiding evidence, leading the witness, manipulating the judge, etc. this prosecuting shit is easy!!! i imagine him making pointed eye contact with edgeworth in the gallery every time. also the idea of edgeworth and phoenix creeping around off screen for the first portion of investigation day 1 was awesome lmfao.

the fey lore was ???????????????? but i guess we can assume paul was lying about most of it lmfao so ... i guess. i WAS very annoyed by the kurain storyline mostly being about dudes and i did spend the whole case certain we were building to a reveal that the crystal of ami fey=the founder's orb bc ami=the founder. but uh. no i guess not. whatever

dhurke is a character i knew to be relatively popular in fandom but i can see why, he really cracked me up. actually his whole return out of the blue and apollo's extremely prickly reception are one of the relatively rare moments of interesting and competent character writing in these later games imo. i thought their relationship was handled pretty well and quite interesting. i mean, i suppose i find it a bit unreasonable that apollo got over 14 years of abandonment in like two days but lots of things in AA happen in hyperspeed

over in khurain i still found that case pretty good and even the trial days kept me pretty engaged, something SOJ had struggled to do to that point.

nahyuta is a bit of a weird one in that i find him overall underwritten and a little dull but i absolutely cannot fathom why fandom hates him so so so much while loving others lol, esp blackquill whose motivation is the same but more inexplicable. is he my favourite prosecutor? not by a long shot, but his circumstances were insane and his motivations were clear by the end and i ultimately just felt kind of bad for him. i liked him much more than blackquill or godot lmao sorry fandom.

but i still cheered when he was not the prosecutor for the last case LMAO bc i LOVED garan and her crazy anime transformation lmao, finally khurain delivers the True Fey ancestor experience: insane sisters who hate each other. chefs kiss. rayfa + garan + the dhurke/amara drama was very interesting imo. i knew that chick couldn't channell!! maya for queen tbqh

rayfa's a good character and i enjoyed her a lot. i was frustrated in the end that they tried to make it seem like her big development/inspiration/etc was apollo ... like ... it should definitely be phoenix, who spent more time with her and investigated with her and started trying to show her other ways of thinking etc. plus she just lost her parents and is clearly searching for guidance and it makes way more sense for her to find that in phoenix than apollo who showed up 2 days ago. i guess they're trying to 1. use the player character 2. push the dhurke connection, but it was stupid when shes obviously more attached to phoenix and/or nahyuta lol

jove "jangly" justice is the funniest name i've read maybe ever and i assume apollo's middle name is jangly. it's so funny how they build to doing his divination seance only to spend almost no time on him fhgkghhklg

anyway in conclusion i liked 6-5 a lot more than i expected. i thought it was pretty fun. i don't really get why fandom is so negative to this game, like even way moreso than DD, when this game is better by any possible margin from gameplay to animation to story coherency imo.

stray other thoughts:

-apollo's backstories are such a meme but i thought his backstory in this game made sense enough with aa4 (where he had no motive/little backstory at all and wasn't much of a player in his own story), and the characters implicated were real characters we got to spend time with and interact with. unlike clay.png

-edgeworth is there for No Reason At All (fanservice) and i find that deeply hilarious. he's nick's +1 and he had to sleep on the floor with a bunch of strangers and crawl through the sewer. hysterical.

-for maya fey's big return game i sure thought maya was going to get to do stuff besides what she always does in a finale, be absent for plot reasons. sigh. oh well at least i got a laugh imagining her and edgeworth spending the rest of the trial arguing about the plumed punisher while nick and apollo are held at gunpoint

-athena cykes sweetie i'm so sorry your role in this game was a fucking embarrassment. so insulting that they turned it all into impressing simon and shit, fuck off man!!! my earlier criticism of this game being sexist even by AA standards remains. even phoenix is like well i can't have you risking your life you're too young (reasonable) and then "simon would kill me" which she acquiesces to???? hfjhgkjg

-nahyuta bamboozling apollo's perceive power by being like "thats the secret... i'm always anxious" was so goddamn funny

[starry-blue-echoes]

okay so I went on a walk and my brain started rotating the Merstars AU SO hard so I'm just going to yeet a bunch of random bullet point thoughts that I came up with and see what comes out of it-

the "world" the AU takes place isn't really like "real" life and is instead a super huge archipelago with hundreds of thousands of islands of varying sizes and kinds

Mers and other various Sea Magics are pretty well known as A Thing That Exists. Is it accepted? Depends on the location and the people, and Mer Hunters are unfortunately a pretty common thing, but it's slowly started dying out. This is actually thanks to Speedwagon since after Jonathan's death he started trying to use his influence as a Very Important Wealthy Merchant to change public opinion, and it's actually been working

Jonathan was a pretty well loved and very social member of the mers. He wasn't their leader by any means, but almost every mer in the archipelago knew about him, and his murder pissed a LOT of people off. Luckily thanks to Speedwagon, since then relations have gone from "it's on fucking sight" to "don't approach me and I won't approach you"

Morioh is one of the more isolated islands and a bit of an exception to the above thing, being the most accepting island in the whole archipelago. Honestly, at this point like half the town has at least a little mer blood in them, but they are primarily human passing. There are a couple of full blooded or half blooded mers that hang around, but Josuke was one of the first ones born in the town in a long while

currently debating how exactly the Morioh Trio are gonna be, since I want them to be a "full blood, half blood, human" trio for the funnsies, but other than Josuke I don't know which should be which. My current thought process is 1) Okuyasu is the full blooded and when he was younger he had a run in with Hunters which is where his scars came from since his dad more or less just fucked off and left him at their mercy at which Keicho had to save him which led to the two of the moving to Morioh, Koichi is the human and is Their Little Guy, is super familiar with how to work around mers and climbs them like a god damn jungle gyms, or 2) Koichi is the full blood and a really small mer but still Big for humans, he's a cuttlefish, got separated from his family when he was little which led to him being adopted by the Human Hiroses and Okuyasu is human and the resident Normie Guy, he's recently moved to Morioh and is getting used to how Positive human mer relations are here

still trying to figure out how the Stand Arrows work, since Stands..... aren't really a thing now. Probably some kind of super powerful Sea Magic thing going on, maybe turn partial mers/humans into full blooded ones?

the "Italy" of this world is a collection of islands that are under Passione's control, aka a group of pirates that have a literal fleet. Diavolo and Doppio are brothers, with Diavolo being a half-mer (maybe lion fish? I'm still deciding tho) and Doppio being a full human. Doppio is the face of the operation, but his brother is always lurking in the depths below the ship and even makes a couple appearances as the True Boss in human form. Trish is by extension 1/4 mer and they want to kill her so the truth about Diavolo won't get out

Passione, despite all the shitty stuff they do, is actually a surprising area of Human Mer teamwork. There are a lot of hybrids and even full blooded mers to the point they're almost the majority. For the most part people don't care what you are as long as you get your job done, and honestly if what they did wasn't drug trade and trafficking, they'd be pretty cool

the Bucci Gang don't have a whole lot of mer blood, and any they do have is pretty distant to the point they're almost human save for a couple little features (they also don't get full transformations), with the exceptions being Trish and Giorno. Trish I've explained, but Giorno is...... Really Really Weird with what he is. His birth mom was a mer, but Dio had mostly been using her to try and lure other mers so by the time Giorno was actually born she was killed. Giorno was then taken in by the Shiobana's, which obviously sucked ass, but he was able to pass as a human for a shocking amount of time because Sea Vampire Genes fucked with his aging, so he also looks a lot smaller than he should be. He's also been forced to stay in his "human" form for much longer than is strictly healthy which ALSO fucked with his size and health

Giorno is gonna be a giant sea snake, because I think it'll be funny because That's The Traditional Sea MonsterTM. Maybe during the final fight with Diavolo he gets shot with the arrow and falls off the ship all dramatic and everyone thinks he died but SIKE he suddenly grows to full Absolutely Fucking ENORMOUS Size And Kicks Ass

Jolyne is a siphonophore, I don't make the rules, she's Really Fucking Long

[nellie-elizabeth]

What We Do in the Shadows: A Weekend at Morrigan Manor/Exit Interview (5x09/10)

Oh boy. Lots to discuss.

Cons:

The biggest con I have here is... well, if Guillermo was going to be made back into a human at the end of the season, I wish we'd gotten to see more of vampire Guillermo. I actually don't mind narratively this turn where he goes back to being human, but why couldn't we see a whole season of him getting to be a bat and go flying and do all the other vampire things, in full-swing? That way the fact that he's not ready would hit a little harder: he can't bring himself to drink human blood, which is the only way he can continue to be a vampire, even though he's experienced all the perks. I just think that would have been a more fun way to play it. Instead, we spent a whole season waiting and waiting to finally actually see vampire Guillermo, and we... never fully got that at all. He did look good with those fangs, though.

Pros:

The Morrigan Manor stuff was so charming and fresh and different. I truly had no idea where this episode was going to go, from the invitation, to the amazing fencing choreography with Lazlo and his large group of combatants... I even thought the Guide's role in the story added something fun.

All season I've been complaining that they haven't done enough with the whole vibe of her being an outsider, but in this episode, when she finally takes matters into her own hands, I did feel the weight of her relative insignificance all season, finally coming to bear. I realized pretty soon she had to be behind all the disappearances, but it was still fun to see it play out. And I like how she acts as a contrast to Guillermo, who now feels included in the group in various ways. One good moment is at the beginning, when the recording says "six of you" and they're confused about the number six, because they were forgetting to count the Guide. Which means they think of their family as being five people, and that includes Guillermo. So sweet!

And the moment of truth... everyone else trying to distract Nandor form realizing the big secret... Nadja: "I like this cage." That was so funny. The reason that a ridiculous show like this works is that when they want to play up something other than the laughs, they don't shy away from that. All season we've been told that once Nandor learned the truth about Guillermo, he'd kill him and then himself. And then he finds out, conveniently locked in a silver cage, and what does he say? That he's going to kill Guillermo. It's not funny, his rage is played 100% earnestly.

It's also cut up really humorously with Nandor instantly figuring out why Guillermo is only a half-baked vampire. His slayer blood from his Van Helsing family is interfering with his transformation. Everybody else is just like "ohhhhh" but I think this is such a great detail to include, that Nandor actually pays attention and knows enough about Guillermo, has given all of this enough thought, that he instantly knows what's going on.

Lazlo remembering the right tape to play to get the Guide to forgive them was also really funny. I knew instantly there would be a punchline where they undercut their kindness towards her right after Lazlo has the tape cut off, and I like that the Guide doesn't see the mid-credit bit like we do, where it turns out they're trying to get Colin to fall in love with the Guide so they become a couple and move out and leave the rest of them alone. Lazlo continues to get my season MVP award, for being clever enough to manipulate the Guide!

The second episode is full of so much great Guillermo goodness, I don't even know where to start. I think the big thesis of this season is that Guillermo is family with the other vampires in the house. He already achieved that closeness, and in fact it was sort of in spite of becoming a vampire, not because of it. We see it in the way that Nadja, Colin, and Lazlo all sneak off to say goodbye to Guillermo, as they believe he'll be dead soon at the hands of Nandor. The episode with the Guide reminded us that these vampires are never necessarily going to be open about their feelings; they'll care about each other on their own terms, and it doesn't mean they don't treasure those relationships. Guillermo has learned that now, and that being a vampire, something he still greatly wants, isn't the only way to connect with his chosen family.

I love that Nandor just straight-up murders Patton Oswalt, like, he's dead within the What We Do in the Shadows universe now and it's so fucking funny. Especially the fact that he gives good advice, Nandor kills him in punishment, and then is like "he has a good point, though..."

And again with this show knowing when to play something dead sincere, I love how Nandor's grief and anger is over-exaggerated but one hundred percent earnest, too. He says that he can't imagine anything more painful than having to kill his friend. And then he makes a promise to Guillermo, holding a stake to his own throat, in his original language of Persian, that he will spare his life. It was... well, it was charged, to say the least.

Also played entirely sincere was Guillermo's grief and discomfort over the thought of killing people. It's rendered comedic by the fact that he's killed so many vampires, and lured so many innocent humans to their deaths, but it makes sense that the actual drinking of innocent human blood would feel different to him. Nandor knows him well enough to understand that this isn't what Guillermo really wants.

There's something so narratively satisfying and also funny about Nandor being the one in the dark all season, having no idea what's going on, and then once he's in the know, he has sole custody of the only damn brain cell in the whole group. He figures out how to forgive Guillermo, he figures out what his friend really needs, and even guides him into discovering that for himself.

Even Derek gets a happy ending, hopefully to make friends with his new zombie brethren, where he might fit in the way he never did among vampires!

I've seen a lot of people online disappointed with this finale, calling it an anti-climax and a letdown that Guillermo and Nandor didn't kiss on the mouth or whatever. On some level I do understand that disappointment, in the sense that I wish we'd gotten to have more fun shenanigans with vampire!Guillermo while we had him, instead of this half-assed version of it all season. But at the same time, that's the nature of this kind of comedy show. If you divert from the status quo, the show kind of... ends. And we've seen such huge development this year for Guillermo, in the way he is now given the kind of respect from his chosen family that he's long pined for.

And that's that for season five! I really deeply love this show, all the crazy shenanigans of this bizarre cast of characters. I'm ready for season six whenever they have it prepared for us!

9/10

[d--dandelions]

tagged by @chaos-monkeyy and @cordeliaperry for what i didn't initially realise were two separate ask memes 😂 thank you 💛

i'm gonna merge them both into one big list so this is going to be enormous, sorry in advance 😂🙈🙈 edit: it's horrifyingly big, i had to hide it behind the cut for everyone's good

1. when did you post your first ever fanfic?

july of 2020

2. first character you wrote for:

jaskier XD who i have since written. lots. for. 🙈

3. main character(s) you’re currently writing for:

i feel very unequipped to answer this one XD

4. character(s) you haven’t written about before but plan on writing about soon:

....same with this one XD i have a couple of thronebreaker wips and haven't written for that before so let's go with that

5. fandom(s) you’re currently writing for:

picture me looking awkwardly between my quiet ao3 and my tangled jungle of google docs in bafflement

6. platonic pairing(s) you currently write for:

i simply Have Not done that XDD 🙈 i don't tend to read/watch a lot of romance-heavy stuff outside of fanfic and so fic is basically my one outrageously sappy outlet and i take full advantage of that

7. romantic pairing(s) you currently write for:

...see previous fandom question 🙈

8. your top 3 tags on AO3 (if you post your works on AO3):

watersports

omorashi

wetting

can we all just pretend we're shocked? XD

9. your current platform where you post your works

'tis i

10. snippet of the wip you’re currently working on:

oh no, the thing i'm bad at 🙈 have a unpolished bit of radskier from right at the beginning of that free-use fic

He felt loose and liquid. Something in the wine, maybe. Or, more likely, in the time spent beforehand, with Radovid laying him down on the cushioned table and readying him. Loops of soft rope, wrapped to display rather than confine and, finally, a band of thin leather wrapped around the base of his cock, enchanted so his own pleasure didn’t get the better of him too early.

meme the second:

How many works do you have on AO3?

i've got 15

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

47,634

3. What fandoms do you write for?

so far i've only written for the witcher and sga but who knows what the future holds 👀

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

poached, reunion, got you on my mind, hold that thought, distractions

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

oh absolutely every time!! putting fic out there is vulnerable and terrifying and it means the world to me when someone takes the time to comment 💛 and, having been on the other side of it, i know how nerve-racking it can be to leave a comment 🙈 so even if it takes me ages, i like to say something back and let them know they're appreciated

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

oh god XD maybe this one? i'm a sappy fuck

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

....pretty much all the others XDD due to aforementioned sappy fuckiness

8. Do you get hate on fics?

i don't think so, at least, no one's ever put any where i could see it. i think i tend to fly pretty under the radar in fandom spaces and i normally stay in my nice damp niche

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

fuck yeah 😏😏 although i often lean more into kink than outright smut 🤔 it's all horny shit, which is what counts XD

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

i haven't yet!! maybe someday, although i think i lean more fusion than crossover (disclaimer: i have written neither XD)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not as far as i know

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

that's another no

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

i have not, i'm not sure i'd be any good at that XD

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

i have never and could never be able to choose 🙈

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

hmmm, i try to leave my options open and never fully count out a fic 🤔 but there's more than one i kind of lost confidence in and am now too scared to open the google doc for 🙈 sigh

16. What are your writing strengths?

i don't think i can answer that

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

i sort of mentioned this before but i think a lack of confidence? sometimes, often, i talk myself out of a fic before i've really given it a try, or i get too bogged down in self-doubt and end up struggling to get any of the actual writing done. double sigh

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

hmm, it's never really come up for me. i would say, unless it's a fictional language or a super common, easily translatable phrase i'd probably avoid outright writing in another language unless i could check it with a native speaker. just in case 🙈

19. First fandom you wrote for?

the witcher <3

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

i think i'm a little biased towards my first published fic? just because it was huge for me to finish and post something and i'm still amazed i pulled it off XD🙈🙈

[garebearandnan]

LITG S2 EP15 Pt1 Love in the Air

POSTED on A03 and Wattpad.

NOTE: Some believe that if you and your significant other witness two dragonflies mating, it is a sign that your relationship has developed into something truly special. It could also be an indication that a relationship like this is in your future.

SUMMARY: It’s Day 12 in the Villa. The place where Islanders who recouple stay together. Bobby and Ibrahim are scheming whilst Priya and Noah are having their own discussions.

CHAPTER TEXT: You settle into the dinghy next to Gary. “May not be a romantic gondola, but it’ll do.” Your legs brush against each other. The dinghy drifts gently across the water as you both enjoy the bright sunlight. “It's a good scene, isn't it?”

“It's unbelievable,” you replied, smiling, but the buzzing gets louder.

He strokes your cheek for just a second and then grins. “It is fucking beautiful.”

The cosy moment is abruptly interrupted. You scream, standing up, trying to get away from two flying insects. “Oh, my God, what was that?” While you are off balance, the dinghy almost tips over.

“Fuck,” he cries out, grabbing your legs and trying to keep you both from falling into the pool. You put your hands on his shoulders to steady yourself. His muscles are strong and solid. “They're just dragonflies, Grace.”

“That one was massive. It was, like, buzzing right in my ear.”

As you settle back down his arm moves behind your shoulders. “It's fine! Relax, relax!”

“I've never seen that before!”

He questioned, “Never seen that?”

“What IS that?” You asked, pointing at the dragonflies.

“You’ve never seen two dragonflies fucking before? You blushed and he smiled. Damn, how can a pretty bird be so adorable and sexy at the same time.

“Oh.” You pause to look at him and bite your lip. The two of you watch as the dragonfly pair fly about connected tail-to-head.

Gary comments: “When the male is ready to mate, he will grab the female by the neck with his pincers or his genitalia. The female makes a bending motion, bringing her genital opening into contact with the male's organ. The couple forms a heart as they fly together. It can take them many hours to mate.”

Grace (thinking): Holy fuck.

You share a flirty smile with each other, chemistry in the air. “My nan says it’s good luck to see dragonflies mating.” Gary grins at you and tucks a loose strand behind your ear. 

Trending On Twitter:

@samberg1996. Good for Priya and Noah. I think they’d make a good couple.

@jlopez76. I am shook to my core about Noah and Priya! What happened to honesty? What happened to integrity? People …integrity, look it up.

@ Jens12018. Noah and Priya talking about him picking her? It's shady AF. This is the sneakiest thing she’s done even stealing Gary from Grace. Poor Ibrahim! I thought they were a good couple. I felt so bad for him because she mentioned several times that they were a strong couple and she was happy with him. Then all of a sudden, she says their relationship isn’t going anywhere.

@diehardLI. Lottie is irritating, but honestly, since the whole basis for her crush on Gary is one kiss and Gary says multiple times he isn’t even into Lottie.

@lindseyHun21. I really like Gary and Grace as a couple. They are so sweet together. He’s a melt around her.

@WoodandWife. Big agree. Love this crane obsessed man for her.

@geostyler009. This episode of Love Island was totally al dente!

[the-firebird69]

People like the two-tone our son loves it and he loves the front lights yeah he says those are lights but they're blacked out it's awesome and he says you should black out the real lights and make that the vent and our son and daughter have it on their car it serves too. And it's the channel and the way the air comes in the water doesn't come in even a severe deluge unless you're underwater it's excellent and it goes out the channel so if this excess flow it'll go out the channel and the channel what about the light sockets which got left out with those guys didn't want to modify the whole car and they ran out of time actually so we want this to go ahead and he wants to go ahead with it he sees the use and he is actually in the transformers movies because of it and will and Bill are still trying to find us so we are interested in seeing them get it done we want to use more and they want to see some more of them and people find those might be real people and they have high tech radar and they have scoops real scopes if you look through a visor and it's not the same that's what you might think it actually manually fix yourself to the scope and you're looking for objects and it is a manual scope it's not tech there's a few things about this car you should know this car the way it looks is close real close to what it is I'm sending daughter I've been working on it for years and have been designing Porsche Ferrari Lamborghini Bugatti and a couple of them aftermarket vehicles race cars the Aston Martin which is number one right now and more and this guy for some reason gets involved in iron Man stuff on TV. And Goodman goes nuts on it it is why we also have a few other things to talk about but he's going to lower it try to and you'll have the vents become the rear lights. And there are no channels underneath but the black cutouts on the bottom can be removed and then you put in narrow ones that that the same size as the channels and they're vent covers on purpose there's no real ventilation from the front air vents I'm very small and controlled. The channel that goes to the backside is up front behind the front wheel well and is obscure and hard to access and it's better than running it from under the vehicle which is always wet or head on it's always wet. The lowering will be nice and the cockpit change most of the cockpit will be solid the front will be glass but it won't stretch forwards then I'll be the body in that shape and it won't really look like Batman's no real tail is not necessary that would leave it on because the images wouldn't know to take it off and up to about play with it you can even have it turn so you can control but after that I'll just rip off and they know that it hurts very fast and missiles are about twice that now and the new one is almost 2 million they went out there The burning Man couldn't figure it out and he told them that there it is. And Mr Goodman doesn't seem like a Mac but he might be he's not really now they're upset cuz I heard it and they want to do something. So we are getting ready we're going to have a couple battles and problems and we will have to fight them but right now we are enjoying the fact that people are starting to work and this vehicle is going to be cool

The Baja buggy from the Polaris is taken off this is safer than any vehicle on the road and have lightweight big tires and it's coming alive but really it's big and people love it you might as well do a car there's a truck they just put the tire there and the car you can put the tire and stuff in the trunk.

Thor Freya

Olympus

These girls suck his idea was so much fun that they did a video and they did a video of them pushing cars around and they put the lemony first joy down and they thought it was so easy that they couldn't believe it and thought that they were going to get in trouble so they put it right under the tires and they move it it says all right one of you in costume each one so they're doing it in costume and people saw it and thought it was crazy as s*** this is awesome this is so much fun and really it looks like effort that doesn't take too much effort I push it look like a superhero movie so they're saying separated movie company production they need 15 minutes so you need some men to be left I guess and they had several characters and they're probably going to be the amazonians but boy did they have fun with it

Hera

We had a lot of fun with it and we pushed the cars all over the place and jumbled them up and we washed off the parking lot never came out and said what is this and they couldn't figure it out and slipped a little on the way out but wasn't that bad I have to do that again that's a good time it really doesn't mess with them that much cuz their memory is so bad it's a mess of them if you did downtown if you put on a different block then again it might not haha lol

The lady from the sons of anarchy damn it and the rest of us from the diner show that's on right now for crying out loud

[victorluvsalice]

We have hit Winter Sunday in the Chill Valicer Save! And with this update, we enter the period of time in this save that I like to call "Time To FINISH FILLING THOSE DAMN SHELVES PLEASE." AKA, the next few updates are all about trying to get their grocery store into an openable state! Hope you like farm chores and food processing! *big smile, thumbs up* And speaking of the former, let's get right to it --

-->We start in the wee, wee hours of the morning, as we usually do around here as Smiler doesn't need sleep and Victor and Alice's bed is so good, they have developed a bit of a wonky sleep schedule as a result. XD (Victor having chugged a Potion of Plentiful Needs at the end of last "episode" also didn't help!) Specifically, we start in the old crafting barn, where Victor, after using his powerful magical talents to Scruberoo a slightly dirty Smiler, returned to making candles for his "bee products" shelf at the store! As he'd leveled up in Fabrication skill, I decided that he could make a black-dyed molded candle to show off his new talents...a process that I quickly discovered really just consisted of a lot of the Sim just standing in front of the candle bench, waiting for the wax to cool in the mold. Which, okay, probably accurate, but not exactly the most exciting thing to watch, huh? I prefer dipped candles, at least then they're DOING something.

-->As for Smiler and Alice -- well, the gardening bots Elmer and Bugs needed another tune-up, so that kept Smiler busy for a good chunk of the morning. Alice, for her part, snoozed until her energy bar was full, then came downstairs to fix some broken wind turbines because the phase of the moon meant that she would get extra Handiness skill from it. :p She was feeling rather hungry after that, so I had her transform and go out for a hunt -- hey, nothing like fresh meat for a werewolf tummy! And it's always a good source of XP.

-->Once Victor was done with his candle, I decided to check what he needed to brew up a potion of Emotional Stability, as he was all set with the ingredients needed for Plentiful Needs and Nimble Mind. Turns out he needed some Obtainium if he wanted to brew up emotionally-calming drinks, so I quickly checked Alice's metal collection upstairs to see if she had any. To my delight, she did indeed have a sample! So Victor got sent up there to use his overpowered Copypasto spell on it a couple of times. XD Seriously, I would be SOO lost in this save without that spell now...

-->While Victor was doing that, Smiler finished up their bot repairs and decided it was the perfect time to make some drinks! And I decided "actually, yes, it IS the perfect time to make some drinks -- so you can give them to the damn specters floating around the greenhouse and the back yard, distracting everyone." So Smiler poured out a few glasses and went searching out specters to give them to. Happily, both the specter floating by the tree annoying Shadow and the specter bopping around in the greenhouse appreciated the gifts, and both rewarded Smiler with the same thing -- soul scraps! I put those in their inventory for later -- I don't think I've used one of these yet? Probably should at some point...but they do look VERY cool with that little flame glowing above the disc, don't they? There's a reason I have a few on display in the seance room. :)

-->Anyway -- with that sorted, Smiler set Elmer and Bugs on the greenhouse and started cleaning up all the spoiled plates of chicken saltimbocca left everywhere from the family reunion. Victor fed Toothy the cowplant (I do not blame him for looking so nervous -- cowplants are very ENTHUSIASTIC about being fed), then went to check on Shadow, who was angry about something or other -- possibly all those specters hanging around. Victor calmed Shadow down as Alice returned from her hunt and gobbled down her fresh meat...

[shi-daisy]

Small Scare

Day 6, we're nearing the finale! Today on the Wavewave agenda we have the continuity I like the least because my favorite boys have so little screentime and also Sam is the bane of my existence! (At least Megatron is gorgeous as always) Anyway, I hope you all like!

Wavewave Week - Day 6 Fear (Bayverse)

"I would much rather be a fragging satellite again." Soundwave muttered.

Being stuck on this forsaken rock was bad enough but being stuck on this rock in a human body to properly hide from the damn Autobots was a torture in it of itself.

His new body was a fleshy, bruisable, pale thing that made him look like something out of a bad anime. His hair was long and pitch black akin to that of emo band members, he still had the same big optics but were now blue instead of red, and worst of all he could not even transform.

"Your grievance is understandable, but there's nothing to be done. It was either this or death. At least now the humans won't be able to find us."

Shockwave whispered to him. His new frame was taller than Soundwave's with black grey hair, pale skin, and heterochromic blue and brown eyes. The scientist now also wore glasses and looked like a human doctor to anyone else.

They were out picking up the lunch order for themselves and the rest of their companions, as they all had been given a human form courtesy of Shockwave's apprentice, Sunbeam.

Sadly, now they were all stuck living as humans.

It was demeaning, it was infuriating but most of all it was scary.

Soundwave didn't like having the same needs as the fleshy creatures or being just as delicate. He didn't like the fact that their cause was now reduced to a dozen humans hiding out in a mansion instead of leading a charge against their enemies. He hated having the same hunger and discomfort as the other humans in the area had. He hated how weak it all made him feel.

The restaurant's bell chimed as another pair of costumers arrived. Soundwave would've paid them no mind had it not been for the fact that he knew these humans. It was Sam Witwicky and his girlfriend.

He tensed up and quickly looked away. If there was anyone who could discovered them it was that whiny little human.

Shockwave noticed and simply pulled him close, wrapping his arm around his waist as human couples often did. "Go along with it. He won't notice."

Soundwave nodded staying as calm as he could, while a sense of fear filled him. The other couple stood close to them, seemingly not recognizing them, but that did little to calm him. It felt as if they were mocking him, waiting until he let his guard down to uncover his secret and have him dragged away by the military.

'They're going to open us up. They'll want to know how Sunbeam was able to transplant our consciousness, they're going to kill us again!"

"Order up for the Wave family!"

The employee's voice startled him, Shockwave wasted no time in picking up the food and dragging them both out of there as quick as possible. Even when they got back to the car Soundwave could still feel their hands tightly intertwined.

"He didn't suspect anything. They were both on the own little world and know nothing of what I've thought Sunbeam. Not even the autobot scientists know of this, we are safe."

It sounded like he was trying to convince himself just as much as Soundwave. The drive home was tense but at last they arrived.

They weren't done putting the food on the table when Sunbeam immediately noticed their discomfort.

The formerly yellow bot was now a small blonde woman with hazel eyes and seemingly permanent pigtails. Despite her chirpy appearance she'd been able to follow Shockwave's research perfectly and bring most of them back and into human forms, after testing the procedure on herself.

"What happened to you two?" She asked concerned as she took hers and Barricade's order from the bag.

"Sam was there. It seems he didn't know it was us but...we can't be sure."

Her eyes went wide and she nodded. "Cade! I need assistance!"

Barricade looked as if he'd just woken up. His black hair was messy his tan skin had the markings of the pillow and he had yet to shave. "What wrong, bitty?"

"The human boy, we must track him!"

She didn't give her boyfriend a second to even ask anything before she dragged him away to the computer room.

"What do we do now? They might know, we're all going to die!"

"Soundwave you need to calm down! We can't do anything now other than eat. So come, let's go have lunch and worry about this later."

He decided to listen to the scientist, even taking him on his offer to eat together in his room, they were almost done when Sunbeam peeked through the door. "Good news! Sam's as oblivious as ever. I checked the cameras from the area where he and Carly traveled and they didn't head to any military station or anything like that. They just went home. I'll check on them tomorrow again just in case."

He was impressed that the tiny girl was keeping tracks on their enemy so seamlessly, maybe she'd make a good spy. "Thank you Sunbeam, sorry for the unnecessary trouble."

"Don't worry Soundy! I'm here to help! Next time Cade and I will go, or maybe I can convince Lord Megatron to finally go out and relax. He's really taking all of this in strides" She huffed. "Enjoy your lunch! I'll see ya later!"

"As ditzy as she seems she's the best pupil I've ever had." Shockwave spoke like a proud human parent.

Seeing him smile was a rare sight, but Soundwave absolutely loved it. "Im sorry for troubling you. I suppose I'm not yet used to being a human."

"You have nothing to apologize for. I was also terrified. This isn't the outcome we wanted and it's only been a few months since we became humans but I am somewhat glad we have eachothers company. It makes things far less difficult."

"Thanks Shockwave."

They finished their meal in silence, but simply by being in eachothers presence, Soundwave was far less scared. "I'll do the dishes, while you wait maybe put on one of those science documentaries you liked so much. I'd like to watch it with you."

"Very well, I'll make sure to choose something we both enjoy."

Maybe this new human life wouldn't be a total loss, if he could spend it like this.

***

He ended up chosing a documentary in human music, much to his own surpise. Soundwave was fascinated, as he expected but also looked tired as the programing came to an end.

"A pity we couldn't meet Motzard, he seemed like an interesting human." He commented.

"Oh I agree, but perhaps he might've reacted poorly to our previous forms."

"Could you imagine? Having to deal with humans throughout history?"

"No thanks that sounds like an absolute nightmare."

He chuckled at that, noticing that both him and Soundwave were very close together on the bed. They almost looked like a couple.

Soundwave yawned, snuggling close to him. "Do you think we'll stay safe?" He asked.

"It's possible. Nothing is ever certain but I'd like to believe we can rest calmly for now."

Shockwave looked down at the man sleeping beside him. The fear probably wore him out.

Barricade came into the room, stopping himself when she saw them. "Oh sorry! Am I interrupting?"

"No. Any news?"

"Nah, bitty just asked me to check on you both, she's making contingency plans just in case."

"Tell her we're fine. And do be careful not to get caught though, Sam might be more wary of a cop than of us."

"No problem. Rest easy."

They were left alone again. Shockwave pulled the blanket over them, staring st Soundwave's sleeping face for a moment. It had been very disconcerting seeing such a brave and smart man get so scared, but the fear was not unwarranted after all they'd endured. He hoped one day they would get past it.

Until then he was happy to provide Soundwave comfort as he cuddled close to him while they slept. Perhaps he would grow fond of this new human existsnce in time.

[forallthepjostuff]

I need to know the pjo/marvel fic rn. Name and website.

Ok, I really wanted to answer this and go 'here it is!'....but to be honest, I don't remember the name, and I've been looking for it since I saw this and still haven't found it.

I'm assuming you're talking about the fic I mentioned where Thor's heard of Percy, and everyone's just confused as to how. Because, I'm not sure where it was, but I also remember mentioning a fic where Percy and Peter had already known each other and hadn't seen each other for a while.

So I don't remember that one but here's another one that has the whole 'Thor recognizes Percy' thing, Percy Jackson: The New Avenger by Firestar1218 on FanFiction.net. It's about Percy becoming a SHEILD agent after Annabeth and the others die, and joining the Avengers right before Loki escapes Asgard. Fair warning, it's incomplete, only 7 chapters, 11k words, some grammar mistakes and the last time it was updated was 2014. But it had a scene where Thor recognized Percy, which--because I was on a kick for that trope at the time--was all I wanted out of it, to be honest.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10583829/1/Percy-Jackson-The-New-Avenger

There's also the one I'm reading right now (that I found while I was looking for the original one I read) called A Hero's Fate: A Percy Jackson and Avengers FanFiction by bookaholic4ever on FanFiction.net that had a scene in the first chapter where Fury tells the Avengers to capture Percy because of him being suspected of terrorism, and Thor fanboys over Percy and then refuses to fight Percy and warns the Avengers against it because Thor's heard of what he's done. The summary also mentions another prophecy, but I'm only on chapter 4 out of 39. It's complete, and 74k words, but it also has a few grammar mistakes and the rest of the seven are all dead in this one, too.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13738012/1/A-Hero-s-Fate-A-Percy-Jackson-and-Avengers-Fanfiction

This is also the one I mentioned where Percy and Peter knew each other from before Percy found out he was a demigod. I forgot they become a couple in the end and that it's a series of a few one shots.

Then, of course there's my favorite PJO/Marvel fanfiction of all time, The File series by denimbeans on Archive Of Our Own, which is currently 237k words. The first two stories are complete, and the third story and the text fic in the series are, no joke, the only stories where I actively check for updates and read updates as soon as possible.

The first story is an AU of Blood Of Olympus, with one of the big things changed being that while Percy and Annabeth are in Tartarus, Annabeth dies and Percy goes blind, and Percy gets brought to Atlantis to heal and mourn. Also this one does have descriptions that could possibly make someone slightly squeamish. The second revolves around Percy, who used to be a SHIELD agent (and used to be on a search and rescue team, and used to be a mercenary...basically this whole series is very much deserving of the Badass Percy Jackson tag), being Tony Stark's bodyguard, and then starting his own replacement for SHIELD, because this takes place after Civil War and after SHIELD'S file dump. The third one goes more in depth about the organization Percy starts, and is about the aftermath of Civil War, with Barnes standing trial and the Rogue Avengers in hiding. The forth is a text fic that follows along with the stories, includes Peter more, and is funnier than the others (also has Percy being slightly ominous and cryptic, which is always fun to read.)

I know they're probably not exactly what you want, but I hope they're close enough? Or the first two are, at least?

[alesreadings]

Hi, bookworms. Today, I come here with a big-ass recommendation.

Thanks a lot to Netgalley, Holiday House and Alexene Farol Follmuth aka Olivie Blake for the e-arc!!!

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. (Yes, Bel, my mom would say something for this, lmao)

This was hell of a ride, so, let's start.

I'll try to not to spoil things, so, I'll give a general review.

Bel Maier doesn't know what she wants to do with her life once school is over. And by accident, she ends up showing a talent: engineering. So, Mrs. Voss sends her straight to the robotics club. Worst of all? All the boys ignore her. And Neelam—the other girl on the team, doesn't seem to like her either.

Teo Luna (my boy) sees potential in Bel, so he helps her out to polish her talent and to build up bots.

FYI, I don't understand a shit about physics, hydraulics or robotics for the matter (I once read a book of nuclear physics and had a really hard time trying to understand something, but it was a good thing that I had a base back then, lol), but I pretended like I did. Please, I'm a literature girl, I envy (in the good way, always in the good way) the girls and women in STEM— they're fucking baddasses and goddesses. They rule the world.

I liked the way Alexene/Olivie showed up how hard it is for girls to try to fit in a world/worklplace/study place "ruled" by men, or at least with men on them. I can totally confirm this. Let me explain. My career (literature) is plagued by girls, there's a lot of us and like 11 boys (in my classes) but teachers (mostly men, ugh) only ask for their opinions to the boys, what about us? Well, we can overreact or argue. We don't "share our opinion", we just fucking yell and fight— which I've done with many teachers because, duh! I'm not a fucking dumb and I am so fucking smart (mind you, it took me years to accept the fact that I'm smart because people told me for years that I wasn't smart, not even a bit) and I have good opinions of my own.

So, even if it's not the same study/work field, I get it. I get how frustrating is try to prove your own worth, work your way and show how worthy you are. It's tiring and exhausting.

I really liked Neelam. Once I understood her position and hear her thoughts, I loved her. At first, I was unsure why it was that she didn't like Bel, but I get it now.

The romance was cute, funny and soft. I liked Bel and Teo together and separated. They're really smart, clever, also funny, and a couple of nerds, and weirdos. And the way that Bel transformed Teo into a Swiftie? *chef kiss*

I love nerds, they're my weakness, trust me. And Teo is my new fictional boyfriend, one of my faves. Straight to the top 10 shelf.

The side characters were okay. I don't complain. Jamie and Lora were wonderful. But Dash? Dashius ma boy, love of my life. He's the fucking MVP, I love him so much and I must protect him at all cost.

I liked the complexities of Bel and Teo's families. Teo is basically the perfect guy: excellent grades, going to MIT, captain of the soccer team, a nerd, a fucking handsome nerd, funny and smart, but even he has problems that he struggles with, and many flaws, and I liked it.

I thought I was gonna prefer Gabe over Luke, but nah, Luke is way better and a good boy. He supports Bel all the way and he's funny, too.

In overall, this book was really amazing. I was hesitant once I heard Alexene was Olivie Blake, the one who wrote The Atlas Six, because I'm not liking TAS as I thought I would and I have it on my "on hold" shelf, lol. Buuuuuut, I liked this book, a lot for my own sanity. I mean, please, I have to keep a reputation of a cold-hearted bitch, and this book made me cry and throw my phone away and blush several times.

I truly loved it. I found a new comfort book and a new fave one!

[toujoursmiraculous]

Thoughts and Reaction to ROCKETEAR!

It's a long post, but when are these ever really short? xD Seeing Carapace first made me so excited. I've been sad we haven't had much of him in the show. And then I saw that it seemed like Ladynoir was doing pretty good as they only had Carapace helping them this time. More S2 & S3 like. So I was like cool, cool, this is great. But what the heck scientist WHY ARE YOU BRINGING TYRANNOSAURUS REX'S BACK! Obviously she's going to be something big later on, she's too nicely animated not to be back. Not to mention Bob Roth's plans. Anyone else both intrigued but also scared at what that could do later? Big upcoming plot point, I think.

I screamed awwww because this is everything. I've wanted a LB/Carapace and Marinette/Nino friendship bond in this show since season 1. This scene made me incredibly happy! I'm a huge Nino fan, for those that don't know, so you can imagine how much I love this episode. Even though sad Nino.

"Alya, everyone has to believe that you will never use the Miraculous again!" End of episode: So anyway... So what I'm seeing here is, Alya's not fond of the idea of being just a spy, not being in on the action. Even though it's Ladybug's plan. Chat Noir isn't fond of what's going on right now either, where he thinks what's going on is all Ladybug's plans. Alya makes the decision to not do what Ladybug wants and tells Nino she's still Rena Rouge. So what's Chat Noir going to do to go against her? Because that's coming up on the horizon. Despite everything being easier for Marinette since everything's not just on her shoulders now, she's still been unable to play video games with her dad, and we know how much she loves doing that. :c That's really sad she doesn't even have time for her family anymore. DJWifi over here being all adorable. "You don't love me anymore!" Me: *Chat Blanc flashbacks* Alya suggests her new content could be Chat Noir edits and Marinette's like YES DO THOSE. Then those edits helped push Nino into thinking she was into Chat. Big oops. Not gonna lie, the rewind freaked me out for a moment. Last time I saw that was Chat Blanc so I thought something big was up. But nope, it's just like that scene in Puppeteer 2. Ugh poor Nino! He knows something's bothering Alya, but she won't say what it is and her behavior's too off from how she normally is. Poor guy. x.x Grumpy Nino that Carapace doesn't get attention and then they wrote his girlfriend with Chat Noir. I remember when Alya was grumpy for a bit about Rena Rouge not getting a party to celebrate her. Movie Ladybug telling Movie Chat Noir that he's better with Movie Rena Rouge. Is this a reference to the episode in Avatar, The Ember Island Players? Getting strong vibes when Play Aang and Play Katara were like, we're just friends nothing more and it's great! Play Katara was extremely into Play Zuko. I can see why Ladybug dismissed the movie (or was it the previous one since it's been awhile? Maybe?) because Rena Rouge and Chat Noir???? The writers (of the movie) just wanted to be different because everyone can see Ladynoir, unless they're blind. Alya and Nino are Andre's favorite couple. YES THANK YOU. I mean they're not my favorite because Love Square. BUT they're my second favorite next to them. Those kids are super adorable but definitely that kid playing Chat wasn't doing Nino any favors. First picture Alya shows. Chat with a heart tail. Yeah that's not doing her any favors lol. Nino: UGH CHAT NOIR'S COMING IN BETWEEN ME AND MY GIRLFRIEND. I KNOW, I'LL CALL MY BEST FRIEND TO VENT TO ABOUT IT. Best Friend Chat Noir: Best Friend Chat Noir: Welp maybe I should see what's up. Maybe I went a little to hard on the cat charm and she's fallen in love with me. Me: Oh oof here we go. Also can I ask, if anyone knows, who animated this episode? The fluidity is great and it looks really pretty. But it doesn't quite look like SAMG's work either. Whoever did it, I love it. S2 Chat Noir: You're not replacing me with a turtle, are you? :c S4 Nino: Who would want a reckless turtle as a partner? BOYS STOP. But yeah this whole scene had me laughing so hard XD Very dramatic and I love it. Nino's hilarious even when he's worried and sad! I would've absolutely loved to have heard this in English with the old English voice of Nino, but the new one worries me on whether or not he'll do a good job sounding like Nino and less high-pitched and whiny. :/ New York Nino was great but S4 Nino....x.x THE TRANSITION BETWEEN HIS INNER MONOLOGUE AND SPEAKING REGULARLY AGAIN 😂😂😂😂 Brilliant! It doesn't really feel like Miraculous Ladybug this episode, and I love it. Not that I don't love the show as usual but wow this is great. Okay, I want to point out that Chat Noir

probably was more worried about it than he would've been otherwise because of what happened with Marinette in Weredad. It probably made him more cautious about this sort of thing.

LOL Chat's sulking because Alya's laughing at the idea of being interested in him. 😂😂 I know that's a blow to one's ego and all, and he's dealt with this kind of thing a lot so I do feel bad for him, but that is his best friend's girlfriend and he definitely doesn't want her to like him. Alya: With him it's not just ❤️it's *makes massive hand gesture indicating she loves him deeply* SO SO SO CUTE OKAY ALL THIS DJWIFI 😭 Alya: And I don't even know your secret identity! I would never fall in love with someone I don't know. Chat Noir, literally fell in love with Ladybug, whose identity he doesn't know. Well Alya, I wonder if you saying that matters for later somehow.... o.O Nino running away crying is honestly one of the things that hurts me most in the entire show. Ugh. Adrien over here being all, I'm having a good day. I'm happy and smiling and it's great. And then it wasn't. Adrien, if Nino let him and didn't interrupt, would've told him about how Alya really doesn't love Chat Noir, and that would've seriously led up to his identity being exposed since Nino was watching and filmed them. o.o Did you notice how he was going to tell him about it? S4, the basement is where it's at. Adrien: Uhh, when did you arrange all this? Nino: *pounds fist on desk* I ASK THE QUESTIONS! 😂 So like. Why is Nino interrogating Adrien when he's after Chat Noir? He doesn't know they're the same person. XD He's looking at him like Adrien has info he's keeping or something omg.

Also again this animation is so nice. Adrien, feeling uncomfortable and so turns the music off. Nino, wanting his dramatic music on while he interrogates Adrien, turns it back on. Adrien, feeling even more irritated and uncomfortable, wants the music OFF and turns it off. Nino, turns the music back on. This may be a reference to something, I don't know, but lolol it's so funny. This episode is both super hilarious and super angsty! Honestly they've done such a good job in my opinion. Nino: I'm talking about something that I shouldn't tell you! ...but I'm going to tell you anyway! Alya's Rena Rouge and I'm Carapace! Okay but the way Adrien went from shock to utter anger, knocked his chair back and grabbed Nino's shoulders like "Tell me the truth. You two know about each other?" Aw man, my poor sunshine boy. A lot of the stuff bothering Adrien is all circumstantial, none of it is to purposefully keep him in the dark. And yet from his perspective, that's how it looks. "I thought secret identities must be protected at all times! If that was the truth, you would never tell me this!" Alright so three things. If he's referring to him saying that Nino and Alya know about each other, that was situational and important info for him to know now that this is out. It wasn't important to know before this. The time it happened was dire and was really no time to get around it. If he's talking about Nino telling him the secrets, well yeah that's not supposed to happen and Nino broke that trust. But also, I get the feeling pretty strongly at this point Adrien's going to be breaking some rules too and one of which is he's going to tell Nino who he is. Adrien's being too emotional in this scene to not be involved in it all, I'm wondering if that's going to be questioned later by Nino. He's acting like he knows too much to be a random viewer of the heroes like the rest of Paris. Also Adrien's best friend just totally dissed Chat Noir and went off about how he throws himself at Ladybug whenever he sees her with roses and love confessions. 😂😂😂 This is just too funny! "But he's always rejected because Ladybug finds him annoying! And she's completely right!" Omg Nino, that's not the reason anymore, shush! "And then Rena Rouge appears and he goes *tickles under Adrien's chin* hey pretty lady! You look elegant and you have great perfume." OMG does Chat Noir actually say and do stuff like that to Rena Rouge or is he just exaggerating here XD "If I could I would shut his mouth forever!" Yeah Nino, say what you really think about your best friend in the entire world. Yikes poor Adrien though. I never imagined he'd hear all these bad things about himself from his best friend directly like that. :/ That's a major misunderstanding of him. Which kind of pushes me more towards the "he's going to tell Nino" theory. Sad Adrien transformation DDDX Alya: *explained everything about why Chat Noir went over to her house in the middle of the night* Marinette *facepalm* Ugh that Chat Noir... Well at least there will be no misunderstandings there! xD "Chat Noir, you stole Alya from me! I will steal your life from you." Good lord man calm down. You can't just kill a man! Fanon: Chat Noir gets attacked by a guy over Marinette. Canon: Chat Noir gets attacked by a guy over Alya. Time to go back to the basement! lol Nino's music's still playing xD And the video is left with it paused on Chat Noir hugging Alya. Marinette looked a bit sad, but it was probably more about the situation being a mess rather than being sad he'd hug her. Meanwhile, Chat Noir's fighting Nino and would rather get beaten up by him than fight. x.x "I can't believe that I doubted you." "I can't believe I chose to do anything but be with you!" She wiped away akumatized Nino's tear just like how Ladybug wiped away akumatized Chat Noir's. ALL THE PARALLELS 😭😭😭 But that hug is so sweet!! Nino broke off the akumatization just like Alya did :o Dang, I wonder if that means something later too. "Love and secrets do not go well together, Ladybug. And I'm sure you have a lot of

them!" Secrets = from Chat Noir. Love = for Chat Noir. Yeah even Shadow Moth knows at this point. xP Thanks for that foreshadowing. Nino's charm is my favorite charm so far! It's my favorite shade of blue. Chat Noir: Everybody has doubts sometimes...even me." Ladybug: Is everything okay, Chat Noir? Chat: Oh yes...pound it!

So um. The placemet of Adrien's poster in between Chat Noir, Ladybug, and just with this entire situation feels very strange. Very intentional. But no clue exactly what that could mean..... Nino and Alya are happy over there watching those two, like they're waiting for them to figure things out or something. But really, Adrien should've talked to Ladybug when he could still do so calmly and be reasonable. I doubt that's going to be the case later on. And honestly Ladybug doesn't even know what's going on. Every episode we've seen really either has them working together or she's unable to be Ladybug when he's unable to be Chat Noir most of the time. I've said it before but these two really need to communicate. Nino and Alya are like a less adorably romantic version of what they'd be. "But they're a couple and they know their secret identities, so why does that rule exist for us but they can know?" Very simple. Because they were temporary holders and the Miraculous they had, Hawk Moth hasn't made it his life's mission to obtain, unlike them, who are permanent holders and Hawk Moth's been after them fiercely to make a Wish that could destroy everything. But. The fact he's asking this, and Marinette's Chat Blanc nightmare, really points in the direction that he's going to eventually find out that while she's thought about telling him all along, Chat Blanc's kept her from doing so.

Okay, so while it looks like he's staring up at the moon, if you notice, it really is just one of the pink bubbles.

Now, they could be making it seem like it's the moon though to give it a double meaning. But poor Kitty, he's feeling so awful right now over in that dark corner Dx Nino felt bad for only two episodes? and it got resolved, so hopefully this all won't last too much longer for him! Marinette had a few shaky episodes so hopefully he'll have a few before it gets resolved. But somehow I think that may be wishful thinking. This episode was so amazing, honestly. Wonderful writing, made me laugh a lot, aw a lot, and hurt a lot. It focused on the core 4 characters which I've wanted more of for a long time. The animation was beautiful. And it just felt so different in such a good way. Chat Noir's having a hard time right now, and I know there's a lot of anger and hate about it going around. But please, think of this as him hitting a rough spot in the road to a much better and brighter future. He's going to end up okay, he'll understand it all someday. And that day's honestly not that far for him if you think about it.