#is still very respectful of authority as a principle

[jules-and-company]

gauthier delacroix on the first meeting with isa :

isa, 25 years of career behind her, with more brilliant references than there are stars in the sky, whose police file must be thicker than a concrete wall, literally older and more experienced than her chief :

[llycaons]

while I enjoy an AU where sect cultivators stood by wwx in his defiance against the cultivation world or supported the wen remnants with him, they can't hit like canon does bc they always feel a little...hm. like if the author is super invested and insists THIS is what should have/would have happened its like they're missing the point of all the characters and their arcs?

[cepheustarot]

What does your soulmate want to tell you?

Attention! This reading is for entertainment purposes only. This tarot reading does not give a 100% guarantee that all the described situations will occur or being ultimate truth. You build your own life and destiny and only you know yourself best.

✧ Masterlist ✧ Paid readings

Pick a pile. Choose one or more pictures. Trust your intuition.

Pile 1: Your soulmate wants to tell you that you will meet soon. This will happen at a time when you will be recovering your strength and resources after some events in your life. These events happened from the outside, you could not have foreseen or prevented them in any way, which is why you are so exhausted and you need time to rest. Your soulmate also warns you to calculate your strength and resources correctly, you are probably inclined to do something or help someone even in a state of physical fatigue. That's why your soulmate tells you to take care of yourself and give time and attention to yourself rather than other things. You may also be going through an important period in your life right now, worrying a lot, being nervous, and here your soulmate wants to tell you not to rush yourself. Give yourself as much time as you need to live through all the emotions and let go of the past.

Pile 2: Your soulmate feels that your relationship is in a stage of change or is close to it, as if your relationship is ready for a new stage and is already smoothly moving into this very new stage. Your soulmate also wants to share with you about his feelings: your relationship is very important to them, they value it very much and appreciate that there is a person like you in their life. You are the closest person to them, whom they trust and are not afraid to open their soul. They feel safe and comfortable around you, they also consider you their soulmate, they think that there is a strong connection between you. They may also have romantic feelings for you, but they are still at the nascent stage. You can say that they show romantic interest in you and feel sympathy for you.

Pile 3: Your soulmate may look like a detached and closed person, whose emotions are difficult to read, and in general it is difficult to understand what is on their mind. However, your soulmate wants to tell you that despite their character, they trust you very much and are happy to spend time with you, they really feel good with you.  They consider you to be a person they can trust and rely on, to some extent they see you as an authority and have great respect for your views and your principles. They would also like you to share your thoughts and plans with them – for them it will feel like a sign of intimacy between you. They would also like to tell you about their ideas, offer you an adventure, implement your joint plans, and they would also be interested to hear something from you. After all, in any case, they share your desires and therefore are ready to agree to everything that you offer them.

Thank you for reading! I will be glad of any feedback 💕

[lady-of-endless]

Risotto Nero romantic headcanons (sfw+nsfw)

Author's Note: Sorry for being an old-school romantic and writing headcanons like these, don't come at me. I wanted to take my time with Risotto as he is so complex. I really hope that those are not too far-fetched. I hope you'll enjoy it! The lovely gif is not mine, I'm thanking the owners for it.

P.S. Prosciutto will be next. I just have to calm down from the feels I have for the husband, I mean Prosciutto.

SFW

- The most beneficial context for your relationship is for it to start off as a partnership, a team. This way, you go through many critical and dramatic experiences together and that will only bring you closer and strengthen your connection. Even after confessing, this dynamic remains, you are still a team, watching for each other.

- Everything about him indicates a slow burn. From obtaining his trust first and then his heart. Even after those two are won, he's still reluctant to the new dynamic. He will never deny those feelings even if he thinks that someone in his position should. Risotto is not just rationally intelligent but also emotionally intelligent so he knows that such desires of the heart cannot be stopped. He doesn't deny the feelings but he suppresses them. He knows how complex those emotions are and that's the problem, it complicates everything around him and you. But little by little, he starts giving in and surrendering to his love.

- At first, he analyzed you only from a strategic point of view (regarding your abilities and how you can work with his team) and in time, it escalated into a deeper and more emotional point of view. Because of this and because Risotto values other opinions and perspectives from his teammates, he seeks advice. No, he won't ask directly but he'll be more attentive when the others talk about you. However, the only one who Risotto might ask for an opinion is Prosciutto because he shares some morals and principles with him. Surprisingly, Prosciutto will put his rational arguments aside a little bit because more than the respect and admiration he holds for Risotto, he wants him to experience this sort of happiness.

- Risotto will not know how to react when receiving your affection, at first. There are many thoughts and morals that don't let him receive affection right. Many of those thoughts are regarding his line of work. He has made peace with the fact that he's not a good man, that he doesn't deserve good things. He's okay with it now, he did what he had to do.

- His preferred love language is acts of service. He's used to doing things for others (but even so he doesn't see how selfless he is) so acts of service are his way to show his feelings. He would do anything for his close ones so for you, his loved one, he would die for you, kill for you, protect you, anything, you name it. Plus, Risotto is always very observant and because his interest is your well-being, he pays extra attention to your needs. About receiving, it can be anything. Again, he doesn't see himself worthy of love.

- He rarely smiles so when you finally catch a glimpse of this rare occasion and compliment him, Risotto is lost. Any sort of comment like this will have him feel things he never felt before, in a good way. As a result, he starts smiling softly more at you in privacy.

- If you get severely injured on a mission, he still keeps his composure in your presence while helping you, patching you up, and even trying to heal you with Metallica. He's serious while doing it but it will be the only time in which his hands start trembling. After helping you, while you rest, he's still there watching over you fully neglecting his need for rest. As you sleep and he looks at your injuries, that's when his composure breaks. The guilt he's feeling is heavy in his heart, thinking how this way of life is not what you deserve and it's his fault.

- He's capable of many things, he's also a strategist but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have moments in which it all gets too much to process. That's where you come to the rescue. He doesn't want to pass his difficulties to you so it will take a lot for him to let himself tell you what's wrong.

- Secrecy and subtility are a must. But he'll get you (he'll make it), a dainty and thin silver bracelet with a charm that resembles some sort of blade. Whenever he's thinking of you and wants to let you know it, you'll feel that bracelet move a bit from his magnetism, as a reminder.

- As subtle as he thought he was, in time, every member of La Squadra will know what his feelings are towards you. Melone was the first to notice the way Risotto looked at you. Since his discovery, Melone couldn't keep it for himself and since then, they all started behaving suspiciously. They smirk every time you talk to Risotto about missions and other formal details, they try to let the two of you alone more, and so on.

NSFW

- Contrary to popular belief, he's not rough (not every time at least) or freaky behind closed doors. His usual and favorite approach is slow and deep. He likes to take his time with it as he sees sex as not just a way to get pleasure but a moment of deepening the connection you have already.

- He never wants to use sex as an outlet for his pent-up frustrations and stress but if you give him the green light, he might give into it when things get too much to bear. But he still holds back a little bit, worried about how rough he can easily get. If you're into this rough approach as well and it's noticeable, he'll feel less guilty but still careful.

- He can go on with the foreplay for hours. Risotto likes to feel the tension build. Enjoying the reactions and the growing desire gives him the most pleasure, more than the act itself. Because of this, he might sometimes slip into trying orgasm denial with you.

- At first, he doesn't see the point of experimenting with kinks because he's so touch-starved. He only needs you. However, gradually he will start asking you for consent about some ideas he has. Watch out for your hands. If you get them close to the metal bars of the bed, your wrists will get caught in metal bindings in the blink of an eye.

- Quiet in the beginning but soon you'll see him losing his composure and start grunting and growling close to your ear as he buries his face in the crook of your neck. Not only that but you'll hear sweet words of affirmation, unheard before as he gets lost in the feeling of you.

- Aftercare is obligatory. It always gets intense, sometimes even rough, and he's aware of his size too so calming you down and taking care of you is both a way of showing his gratitude and also a duty (don't get this one wrong, he sees the act of aftercare as important as the rest of his duties, that's it). The aftercare always ends with him holding your hand and kissing it as another silent expression of his gratefulness and adoration for you. It's his unbreakable habit.

- He has to admit, he likes to mark you. Not in a possessive way, that's why those marks will only be on parts that are not usually visible. But because he loves the image and concept of your skin reacting to his affection. You can leave marks on him as long as they're not visible, again, it's about secrecy and subtility. He might feel a bit proud, just a bit, when he looks in the mirror at the scratches you left on his back.

- Doesn't get bored of being on top. After all of that slow burn and build-up of your deep connection, of course, he wants to look into your eyes when you both let yourselves be engulfed in the pleasure. Might even get a little mischievous with it when he's in a good mood. "If you look away, I'll stop."

The only situations in which you are the one on top are when you simply ask for it or when you tell him you want to help him relax. Hearing those words coming from you while you start touching him with care and warmth is going to be the death of him.

- Not a fan of quickies. He needs the whole thing. As mentioned before, he needs to feel the tension built and loves taking his time with it. But also, above all, he wants to treat you right so a quickie will never be enough for this.

[unfair-water-plane]

So one thing that has always made me chuckle in ME2 is the fact that Kal’Reegar is a marine in a Quarian suit. And he fits in with Shepard easily, the same attitude and headspace and cadence (for mShep at least). And I’m sitting here at work and the thought just hit me.

What if that’s because he is a marine in a Quarian suit?

Hear me out. Kal is older than Tali, or at least gives off those vibes, and so he would have been on his pilgrimage a while ago. Like maybe right after first contact. And here are these brand new people who came out of nowhere and had apparently enough fire power and attitude to give the Turians a very brief pause. The whole galaxy wants to know more. And humanity has no idea who is out there, but surely they can’t all be like the creepy bird people?

Cue one very curious Quarian in Shanxi, just as curious an out humanity as humanity is about everything. Meeting with early alliance brass, giving them information common palace to any kid with an extranet feed but wholly new to humanity. He explains that the Quarian don’t have ground forces because they don’t have a ground, and is honest about the geth, and is like ‘so how did you make the Turian Hierarchy freak out?’

And somehow ends up observing basic training, and falls in love with it. To the point where he actively asks to go through marine boot camp in Hanshan, and is just earnest and endearing enough to be allowed. So he goes through it, puts in the work and the blood and sweat and tears and makes the kinds of friends that you sort of have on the Flotilla, but everyone also knows you are all going to separate ships eventually and getting attached is hard.

But the humans will pack bond with a robot vacuum without issue, and when they meet a Quarian who wants to learn and thinks it’s amazing that they stood up to the biggest military in the galaxy running on old fashioned rocketry and spite? The marines adopt him as one of their own. They are brothers, something most single child Quarians have no experience with, and Kal gives it back in spades. He talks like them, fights like them, jokes and learns and is like them.

And when it is over and they graduate, it’s hard to turn down the offer to stay. But humanity respects the loyalty to his people that takes him back to the fleet, and it almost brings him to tears when his graduating class passes a cap for his passage back to the fleet in more comfort than sitting on a box in a volus cargo ship.

It actually brings him to tears when his drill instructor informs him that while it might not be in great shape, Arcturus has authorized them to gift Kal’Reegar with a battered but space worthy corsair and an official greeting from the Systems Alliance to the Migrant Fleet.

The SSV Jarhead is perhaps the best gift anyone is his age range can give to a future captain, though his practical military experience is a gift to the whole fleet. It catapults him through the Quarian military, from for soldier to instructor to commander, and somewhere he hopes that his brothers and sisters are as proud of them as he is of every transmission that makes it back to him.

On Haestrom, that training keeps him alive long enough to watch his squad die, and that cuts like nothing else. But he can’t stop, because the principle is still depending on him, and until his suit gives out he has to fight to her.

But then the voice cuts through the chatter of his own mind, and he *knows it*. Knows the cadence and the phrasing, knows how a human mouth forms the phrases that he has spent years trying to teach. Commander Shepard might not be a marine, but they are a human combat specialist and the fraternity is there.

Maybe it’s just three more people who are going to die for this fools errand, but somehow Kal doesn’t think so. There are two bone deep beliefs that he will carry it’s him to either the home world or the afterlife, and it has always felt appropriate to him that they rhyme. That they sound similar, when he breathes them into the air.

Keelah Salai. Semper Fi.

[holdmymetaphor]

okay heres some things about houses childhood i think about

theres clearly a few dynamics here

-he hates his father, resents the abuse, recognizes that bad things were done to him

-probably when he was very young, he didnt understand why bad things happened to him, was not intentionally A Bad Kid

-because he surmised his dad was not his dad at 12 i assume the abuse started from a young age.

-house mentions ice baths and sleeping outside, but he also mentions his father not speaking to him for months at a time, which is interesting to me. when house tries to qualify the severity of abuse to eve he says "not as bad as your [trauma] if how your acting about it shows how bad it is." which to me is pretty noncommittal. was he doing that bc he was still kind of lying, trying to get info out of her? if not, it seems like house is actually unsure of how to qualify his own abuse, which would lead me to believe it was largely emotional and verbal. although i suspect that his father did physically abuse him at times, to me this exchange implies that house thinks the ice baths and sleeping outside were the worse of it (interestingly both acting on his whole body and ability to regulate temperature)

-at some point he acts out intentionally, instead of unintentionally, bc his father is Wrong and shouldnt be abusing house in these ways(the fact that the thing he wanted to hear from his father was "you were right, you did the right thing" 😭😭)

-this leads to worse and more cruel punishments, which house both detests and wants to avoid repeating. furthering his resentment, but reinforcing his fathers authority

- despite his knowledge that his father is wrong, his dad claims to do these acts out of love, to teach dicipline, to toughen him up. (in this way his struggle with god is really an allegory of his father: is it better he hates me (i deserve pain) or loves me (i dont deserve pain) when he does awful things to me? or is it better for him to not exist at all (things just happen, there is no deserving)?

-in my perspective, especially as house got older, into his teens, he was actually probably really "well behaved" finally smart enough to fake social cues and swallow his pride so that his father wouldnt hit him or what have you (which is why he regresses to a child often as an adult, because he was not allowed those things)

its interesting to me, to see how all of houses character is shaped around the shadow of his father. the parts where he is similar: rigid, principled, yell-y, and where he is intentionally different: encourages independent thinking, respects challenges to his authority (only when he has authority lmao that all falls apart when people take his power(read:agency) away, his biggest trigger)

and none of this even gets into his mother, blythe (a word which means both happiness and bland disintrest) which is a whole nother can of worms. the fact that at the funeral she said that "the war was over" (which implied that no matter how much house actually listened to his father, there was still a part of him that couldnt help but to point out the logical issues, and therefore continued abuse)

lastlly, she had said that john loved him. which i think house believes to be true. especially when he tries to talk to his dead father in season 6, he says "i think i focus on the wrong things," implying that he did want to find some peace with that relationship, and that he wanted his fathers love, despite it being illogical, painful and confusing.

that he was willing to look past the abuse was shocking to me, because house is right his father shouldnt of abused him. but it was coming from a place of love, however ill concieved.

this is as close as we get to house praying to god. to admit that the suffering of life cannot be defied or denied, and grasp for the love nestled in between all the pain, however flawed, wrong, or illogical.

in a lot of ways, his story is so much about houses struggle with the body, its agency, its disability, its doom. he literally becomes a doctor to grasp with this ideologically (at times paradoxically) instead of physics because his question isnt really about existance in general

its about why he exists in the broken, painful way he does. and at the end of it, he sets down his need for an answer, righteousness, and admits that despite it all, his body cant help but love. and that love is the death of him. the end of his suffering.

[uwmspeccoll]

Fine Press Friday

This 1944 edition of the biblical Song of Songs, with illustrations and border designs by American illustrator, designer, and wood worker Aldren Watson (1917-2013), was printed for the Peter Pauper Press in Frederic Goudy's Deepdene italic types on Archer paper by the Walpole Printing Office in Mount Vernon, New York.

Both the Peter Pauper Press and the Walpole Printing Office were founded by Peter Beilenson (1905-1962), and later joined by his wife Edna Beilenson (1909–1981), in 1928 and 1929, respectively. They are known for using fine-press principles and practice to produce well-designed, but very affordable publications. Peter Pauper Press is still a family operation, but today it mainly produces commercial novelty, miniature, and children's books.

Art was also a family affair for Aldren Watson. His mother was the American artist Eva Auld Watson and his daughter Wendy Watson is a children's book author and illustrator. Our copy of this book is another gift from our friend Jerry Buff.

View our other posts on books by the Peter Pauper Press.

View other Fine Press Friday posts.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 1/21/2025

hey it's fucking snowing here in houston texas! what the fuck!

listening: toes by the glass animals

reading: the steerswoman series by rosemary kirstein, and the gay and lesbian erotica book of the week, candidate by tracey richardson

watching: various david attenborough documentaries

playing: brief genshin impact report

making: banana bread

listening

glass animals' toes: my best friend's husband and i were chatting about music my best friend introduced us to, and my god there's been so much! i remember back in 2018 i did not expect to like them bc we had wildly diverging indie rock tastes at the time, but they really do scratch something in my brain. very good writing music, bc each album has such a tightly curated vibe and the words are recognizable english but so poetic as to be mostly nonsense. this song is loosely about The Island of Dr Moreau. my best friend has described this song as "like listening to crayons melt"

I'm a man, I'm a twisted fool My hands are twisted too Five fingers, two black hooves I'm a man, don't spin me a lie Got toes, and I can smile I'm crooked but upright

a song for very few blorbos but when it hits for a blorbo it Hits yanno

-

reading

im having a brain time that is favorable to reading many books in one week. we're going to start with some i loved and then go to the gay and lesbian erotica, which i did not love and did not finish.

talking about which post led me to this series would give you an enormous spoiler for the book. we're going to yoink the Setting from wikipedia:

A Steerswoman is a traveling scholar, required to answer any question asked of them, as long as the asker answers truthfully in return. Anyone refusing to answer a Steerswoman's question is placed under a ban, and no Steerswoman will answer their questions in future. Only wizards do not respect the Steerswomen, maintaining intense secrecy around their magic. Kirstein's work is often characterized as science fantasy. Jo Walton describes the Steerswoman series as "not only science fiction, but more science fictional than anything else."[1] Cory Doctorow says of The Steerswoman, "even the book's genre is a riddle that you'll have enormous great fun solving."[2] The Steerswoman series addresses themes of technological development, inter-species interaction, and distribution of knowledge.[4]

i ADORED these. i did basically nothing for two days except apply to jobs and read these books. these are physics brain books. these are Science Fiction with the capitals on books. the first chapter has someone derive a bit of orbital mechanics from first principles by making logical inferences from a chart she drew in the dirt about distribution of certain jewels. despite that, it's never boring! sometimes the steerswoman Rowan will puzzle over something for several chapters before something finally clicks for both you and her. the books are one big nested riddle, and you have all the pieces from the beginning! it just looks so strange from Rowan's eyes that you don't figure it out until she does! and even when you figure out one bit you just have more questions!!! and despite knowing a huge spoiler going in, part of it really blindsided me! it was a very clever bit of writing! good job rosemary!!!

and now for the gay and lesbian erotica book, which again has a 3.8 on goodreads and again i have no idea why. published in 2008 by Bella Press in a very indifferent perfect-bound ~250p softcover with the most creasable cover imaginable, our author Tracey Richardson is a Canadian writing about an American presidential candidate. from what i read, the political speeches were the best part of the book. this was genuinely groundbreaking and revolutionary in 2008 for a Democratic presidential candidate to openly support the LGBTQ+ community! i think Tracey put a more progressive veneer on some of JFK's speeches but that's okay they still hit! that man did have some talented staff members and a great stage presence!

i tortured my best friend by reading snippets of this aloud and removing her toddler daughter from various mischief as she cooked, and we got really stuck on the presidential candidate Jane's age. she is forty three. she is a medical doctor. she lost her husband ten years ago when she had her own private medical practice at THIRTY THREE. she left for a year to do Doctors Without Borders, started a nonprofit in America about healthcare access, and is now a second term senator. this had my bestie and i doing back of the envelope math and we can only conclude she never slept or went on vacation.

i have many beefs with this book, both petty and with regards to construction. my best friend got extremely peeved at the description of someone's accent as "a well heeled eastern seaboard accent". WHAT the fuck does that mean. WHERE on the eastern seaboard??? the standard American Newscaster Accent is faintly midwestern. did they have a sort of bland tidewater politician faint drawl? who knows! this canadian author cannot tell us :(

Tracey is a big fan of dropping details very late. eg we only find out on page 8 after a lot of dialogue that love interest/Secret Service agent Alex has a southern accent. Five pages into a party scene we find out she’s wearing a hawaiian shirt. i had to go back and reread the entire party scene with that in mind. on page 42 we find out Alex is an Olympic gold medal hockey player in the first year women were allowed to play Olympic hockey. earlier in the book we see her playing hockey for funsies with her rec league and we also go over her dossier in detail with Jane. either place would have been a great place to bring this up!!!

this book is also very reverent of the office of usa politicians in a way i find strange for a canadian. and for alex, a somewhat jaded civil servant. alex!!! she’s just a rich nepo baby and has good stage presence!!!! stop falling for it!!!

as a bisexual, novels about straight widows turning lesbian really bother me sometimes. this was one of the ones that really bothered me. it's kind of insane how little bisexual fiction there is compared to the strongly represented pan and poly communities. this was 2008 though so pansexuality wasn't really as mainstream, i don't remember hearing much about it until i went to college in western massachusetts in 2013.

i had to stop reading this book bc it hit me with the following:

these are both cis women. does she have an infection??????? is she okay???? the book is not going to get better from here. books rarely start out bad and then improve. i have only a limited amount of time here on god's green earth and i want to read the thirteenth volume of witch hat atelier instead. gentle reader, i hope you understand.

-

watching

again if i could log individual children's tv show episodes i would be winning letterboxd. i half-watched a lot of david attenborough docs in the background and fell asleep on a couch to his soothing voice. there are some fucked up little guys on this planet.

-

playing

good fucking riddance, even though this is basically a slap on the wrist. the multiple-step in-game currency exchanges in order to get the main in-game currency for pulling for characters is one of the more underhanded gacha systems. gambling is an ancient human activity, it is not instantly harmful or instantly addictive, and there will never be a good way to legislate it out of existence, but i do think some more predatory practices (like this one!) should be legislated.

nothing to report about actually playing genshin this week. a big yearly event approacheth, however. excited to bring you news of the new four-star character, a basket weaver

-

making

banana bread embarrassment. i hate my kitchen so fucking much. my fridge and oven both need to be replaced but will my landlord do that???? no. this oven is from 2007 and does not hold a consistent temp, which is fine if im roasting chicken thighs and it randomly spikes the temp and doesn't heat in one quadrant, but it makes it Very Difficult to bake. i think this was a combo of an inconsistent inner temp and forming a slightly burnt crust that did not want to pull out of the perhaps undergreased pans. fuck an aldi nonstick spray i guess. i SLATHERED that thing and it still had to be persuaded out of the pan.

i consistently forget that martha stewart consistently produces baked goods that are just a touch oilier than i like. you could lose a good two tablespoons of butter in this and not notice it much, i think. a very wet recipe. added in one orange's worth of zest bc i like it.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

Do you think Percy Weasley could have gotten on with your version of Tom? Like, obviously they'd need a situation to get past Tom's general Tom-ness, but Percy did do 12 OWLs (also where'd you get Tom's OWL scores I can't source it) and I feel that he gets a hilariously bad rap in canon for just... wanting to learn things and not be poor.

What's the Deal with Tom's OWLs?

Your second question first.

There is no source, we don't know canonically anything about Tom's coursework and scores beyond that Dumbledore said he did very well.

We gave him 13 to put him ahead of known canon characters like Barty Jr. and Percy and make him a super special boy (who to be fair would then be remembered for his overachieving mad academic prowess that turned out not to matter at all).

It's one of those things we made up in fics so as to be able to write stories in which we needed such a detail on hand.

Would Percy Get on with Tom

With mine and @therealvinelle's version? (see here)

No.

I actually think Percy gets the short end of the stick much of the time. As you note, even before he made the great betrayal of expressing doubt regarding Dumbledore, he was generally disliked by Ron, Fred, and George at least and when the split happened between Percy and the Pro-Dumbledore family it felt weirdly as if Percy had been excommunicated until he learned to admit he was wrong.

But that doesn't mean he gets along with Tom either.

Tom as a schoolboy would likely view Percy much the way Fred, George, and Ron did. He'd ask himself "who is this ponce with the over-inflated ego and need to please?" (never mind that Tom is doing the same thing himself, save that Tom excuses himself because "I am poor and Muggle-born" and no, Percy being poor doesn't count).

Tom would chafe at Percy's entire personality of unironic overachiever.

That Percy then does go on to get positions like secretary to the Minister would have Tom despising him on principle.

Tom as an adult would likely think that Percy's surprisingly reasonable and ambitious for a Weasley but would think nothing of his life/trials and tribulations and would probably just find it funny the complete ostracizing of Percy (to be fair a bit in both directions) over agreeing or disagreeing with Albus fucking Dumbledore on every batshit thing the man has ever said.

But Tom would not feel any personal connection with Percy and if ever in conversation with him would probably be very disinterested.

... And if they were to be trapped in a conversation with one another, I imagine Tom would still think to himself "who is this ponce with the over-inflated ego and need to please?" (nevermind that Tom at this point is a stylized Dark Wizard who sometimes refers to himself in third person by the fancy title he's given himself).

As for Percy, if he got to know Tom on any real level, he'd think he's fucking nuts (which he is). If he knew him on a superficial level--he'd either be a heated academic rival he distantly respects but wants to beat or if the man's older then an authority figure he wants to impress.

You said it yourself, some drastic thing has to happen to get past Tom's Tom-ness. And I just don't see what that drastic thing would ever be.

Just because Percy doesn't deserve his reputation among the family or Harry for that matter does not mean he and Tom Riddle would be buddies.

(Though it sounds like you really want this, anon, so you should just write the fic.

(gif credit by @franzias-cave)

(Also, as a caveat, I love this insistence that overachieving nerds must sit at the same lunch table and like each other. That that quality is alone that the stamp of friendship must be placed upon you both.

"You both took so man O.W.L.s!" - someone's grandmother at a Christmas party.)

[problemnyatic]

maybe internet leftism would be more effective if so much of it wasn't framed in this sneering, shame-on-you language that seems mote intent on guilting people for not being leftist enough than actually extending an understanding hand to people who people who, believe it or not, do actually realize that something is deeply wrong with society despite not being Properly Enlightened And Educated on All Of Leftist Theory as to why.

Yeah, we all post the You Are Not Immune To Propaganda jpeg, but do you still have an internal threshold of propaganda exposure by which others stop being human to you? Do you write off anyone who doesn't already understand the things you do as stupid? Do you understand that to create a genuinely far-reaching movement, you need to be willing to reach people that are substantially different than you and meet them on their level?

Yeah you believe everyone deserves human rights, but do you actually respect the differences in life experince you'll face when engaging with people outside your circle of theory-reading leftists?

And just to be excruciatingly clear: none of these are rhetorical questions. None of these are accusations, and if your response to these questions is to get defensive rather than to self-reflect on whether your practices reflect your principles, I urge you to then ask yourself if your desire to create effective change is being impeded by your apparent need to feel like a "good leftist".

I really, really get feeling frustrated with the world, with how fucking many people seem content to just buy propaganda, with how frustrating and exhausting it is to walk people through the baby steps of what feels like having a very basic grasp of reality. Your outrage is justified and your feelings are very real and deserve to be respected. I'm not here to tone police people expressing their very real anger and grief at the horrible ways global imperialism is hurting us all.

My point here is that, when your goal is to actually inspire others to seek further education on leftist matters, to actually increase the total amount of leftism in the world, you need to be asking yourself if the methods you are using are actually effective. It can feel excruciating to be patient when the world is already so on fire, but you can't just shame people into not needing to be met on their level. It demonstrably does not work, and will work against all of us if the impression you're giving others is that leftism is the mean, scary option even to people who genuinely mean well and want to do better.

I see so many posts rightfully trashing on the widespread culture in the US and beyond of teachers and authority figures simply punishishing people who don't know what they're expected to yet, instead of actually teaching them. I see so many posts on here about how it's okay to need to learn life skills you were never taught. Why does this seem to evaporate when it comes to teaching others leftist theory? That's not rhetorical either, please, really, genuinely ask yourself this question, let it sit with you for a long time.

I know how urgent it is to get people to come around. I'm panicking too. I'm angry, and I'm frustrated, and I'm dumbfounded at how long its taking so many folks to get a fucking grip on what's so broken about society. But I understand that the assertion that the answers should be obvious does nothing to change the fact that, to so many people, to enough people, it isn't. That we need to meet them on their level, with kindness, if we're to get them on our side. Leftism starts at home. It starts with your personal relationships, how you treat others when it's inconvenient and difficult.

Leftism starts with kindness.

[la-pheacienne]

So @faintingheroine said that Javert is more of a class traitor than Ηeathcliff because at least Heathcliff directs his cruelty towards upper class people. I think that, technically speaking, Javert's class traitor traits are indeed worse. I mean his life purpose is literally to extinguish people that have a background similar to his, which is the very definition of a class traitor. The peak of his brutality and inhumanity is the way he targeted a famished, sick prostitute, the way he treated her like an animal, terrorized her, prevented her from finally getting her daughter back and gloated while tearing down her last anchor in life. This deliberate, senseless cruelty against a person as weak, as helpless, as innocuous as Fantine is truly something that technically exceeds even Heathcliff's evil deeds. Heathcliff too targeted people who were weaker than him (Isabella, the children) but at the very least these people belonged to the privileged upper class and he still deep down felt inferior to them, so you can at least give him that.

And yet I feel Heathcliff is more "morally reprehensible" than Javert. Heathcliff's motivations are purely individualistic, he's a very selfish human being and above all, he wants revenge. Javert may be a textbook class traitor but he does have his principles, bigoted principles but principles nonetheless. He has a specific mission and he does his duty, following a specific set of rules. When he fails at his duty and violates this set of rules, he immediately applies to himself the exact same cruelty he applied to others, and this happens twice. The first time, when he thought that he had accused an innocent man and questioned an authority (double vice), he immediately demands his removal from the police. The second time, when he realizes he fucked up, he kills himself. Hugo is particularly respectful of his blind devotion to duty, even in Javert's most hateful moments. Ironically that can also be used against him because it gives him this inhumane, robotic quality. Heathcliff being a classic, egotistical villain who's after revenge gives his evil deeds a much more "relatable" vibe. We can all relate to the desire for revenge, whereas Javert's sterilized, distorted view of the world is particularly eery. But in my opinion this is precisely why he's a level above Heathcliff. Or at the very least their brand of antagonist is quite different.

Receipts:

"I have often been severe in the course of my life towards others. That is just. I have done well. Now, if I were not severe towards myself, all the justice that I have done would become injustice. Ought I to spare myself more than others? No! What! I should be good for nothing but to chastise others, and not myself! Why, I should be a blackguard! Those who say, ‘That blackguard of a Javert!’ would be in the right. [...] Mr. Mayor, I must treat myself as I would treat any other man. When I have subdued malefactors, when I have proceeded with vigor against rascals, I have often said to myself, ‘If you flinch, if I ever catch you in fault, you may rest at your ease!’ I have flinched, I have caught myself in a fault. So much the worse! Come, discharged, cashiered, expelled! [...] Mr. Mayor, the good of the service demands an example. I simply require the discharge of Inspector Javert.” All this was uttered in a proud, humble, despairing, yet convinced tone, which lent indescribable grandeur to this singular, honest man.

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

“Excuse me, Mr. Mayor, but this must not be. A mayor does not offer his hand to a police spy.” He added between his teeth:— “A police spy, yes; from the moment when I have misused the police. I am no more than a police spy.”

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

Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand: their majesty, the majesty peculiar to the human conscience, clings to them in the midst of horror; they are virtues which have one vice,—error. The honest, pitiless joy of a fanatic in the full flood of his atrocity preserves a certain lugubriously venerable radiance. Without himself suspecting the fact, Javert in his formidable happiness was to be pitied, as is every ignorant man who triumphs. Nothing could be so poignant and so terrible as this face, wherein was displayed all that may be designated as the evil of the good.

He's still a piece of shit though, just to clarify.

[vindicated-truth]

Despite how one of Beyond Evil's primary points as a story is to expose the police system as it is—a system that's inherently corrupt and abusive—it's also a gross oversimplification to say that all the people in the system are automatically evil, and that all people are eventually corrupted by the system.

Aside from the fact that it takes away the intricacy and profound depth of meaning the creators of Beyond Evil have meticulously crafted, an oversimplified reading like this also takes away what's important about humanity: our freewill of choice.

While it's unquestionably true that the police system is broken, it's also fatalistic to assume that all the people involved in the system will eventually succumb to the system.

It's not the system that turns the people into monsters. In fact, it's the other way around: it's the choices of people that defines what the system will be, and what the fate of people will be.

At the end of the day, even the police system is simply what it is: a system. A tool used for people to make our own choices about what our fate should be—and what our own choices mean for the fate of other people.

It’s fatalistic to assume that people within the system are helpless to its machinations, because if there's one thing Beyond Evil also proves without a doubt, it's that the system is worth fighting against precisely because there are people in it worth fighting for.

There are people like Lee Dongsik, the system's biggest victim, from false accusations, to police brutality and corruption, to overt betrayal by the people he trusts, to losing the people he loves, and in many ways losing his own sanity and peace—he still, to the very best of his ability, tries to do good. Tries to save as much people as he can, the little people the system tends to overlook, because he knows precisely how it feels like to not be given priority by the system.

There are people like Oh Jihwa, who does her best to stand her ground and stand true to her principles, despite the fact that—even in this day and age—a woman is rarely given authority, let alone respect, in any field, and refuses to be cowed by the machinations of men.

There are people like Han Joowon, born and bred to be the next in power, only to willingly forego the easy path laid bare before him because he knows choosing the path less taken—the one that Dongsik lays before him instead—is the one that's right. Not the path towards power, but the path towards justice. A cross he willingly bears for sins that aren't even his own, simply because it's right.

The intricacy of Beyond Evil's story lies not in the oversimplification of what is good and what is evil—not to paint the system as deterministic of the fate of people, nor to seek to idealize and romanticize the protagonists into unrealistic paragons of incorruptible goodness.

I think, more than anything, what Beyond Evil has been determined to demonstrate is what matters most are our choices. Because it's our choices, big and small, that affect not only our own lives, but those of society as well.

And Beyond Evil achieves that precisely by painting a very specific picture of the far-reaching and everlasting repercussions of these choices through the story of Lee Yuyeon.

Our choices matter, because human lives matter.

And that's what is worth fighting the system for.

[mariacallous]

For a decade, the husband of Michelle Bulang, a 44-year-old mother of four, made her life hell. He drank and gambled, failing to provide for her or their four children, even as he forbade her to work. He was also regularly abusive “physically, emotionally, verbally, and sexually,” Bulang said, choking back tears. Once, he poured boiling water all over her—her back and legs still bear the scars.

Bulang has since escaped the relationship and not seen her abuser in years, but on paper she is still married to him. The overwhelming power of the Catholic Church in the Philippines means divorce is not legal. That might be about to change. A divorce bill has passed the House of Representatives and faces the Senate, as the power of the church wanes.

“There are two policies which are seen as a litmus test of Catholic influence. The first is abortion, which is forbidden in the Constitution. And the second is divorce,” said Manolo Quezon III, a former speechwriter for Philippine President Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. There are only two countries in the world where divorce is still not legal—the Vatican City and the Philippines. Other heavily Catholic nations legalized the practice long ago, such as Ireland in 1995 and Spain in 1981. But the lingering influence of the church in a country where nearly 80 percent of the population is Catholic is proverbial.

Yet, from 1917 to 1949, divorce was legal in the Philippines. The right was only abolished in 1949 as U.S. control ended and the anti-clerical legacies of the Philippine Revolution faded. Under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., the church became a locus for democratic opposition—even as the president was rumored to keep a divorce bill in his desk to brandish at bishops during meetings when he wanted to keep them in line.

The 1986 People Power Revolution that saw the end of Marcos also saw the peak of church authority. The revered Cardinal Jaime Sin, archbishop of Manila, called people to the streets to protest a rigged election. The Philippines faced a potential Tiananmen moment as tanks rolled. But they stopped as nuns praying the rosary knelt in front of the troops and crowds linked their arms behind them. Marcos fell and fled into exile. The new President Corazon “Cory” Aquino, known for her devotion, inaugurated a new constitution that enshrined democracy, banned abortion, and committed to preserving the family.

Those days are fading. “There is a realization that the Philippines is a secular state, and it should not be subscribing to church principles or doctrines, which we respect but not must not control the policymaking processes,” said Rep. Edcel Lagman, who has helped spearhead the divorce bill. On May 22, the bill narrowly passed the House of Representatives with 131 votes in favor, 109 against, and 20 abstaining.

Under the current system, Muslims, who make up about 5 percent of the country’s population, are allowed to divorce. For Christians, their options are to either having their marriage annulled through a civil court, modeled on the Catholic process—reasons including bigamy, psychological incapacity at time of marriage, or use of fraud or threats—or filing for separation—reasons including physical abuse, adultery, abandonment, homosexuality, and drug addiction and alcoholism. The new bill would allow people who currently seek separation for these reasons to now simply seek divorce.

The inadequacies of this system are well understood. It is both extremely expensive and very slow-moving, leaving victims, usually women, trapped in marriages to monsters. Stella Sibonga, a 47-year-old mother of three, has had nothing to do with her husband for decades. Dug out of hiding and marched to the altar after he got an 18-year-old Sibonga pregnant, he took his vows drunk and proceeded to abuse Sibonga and the children she bore. Out of despair, she twice attempted suicide. Later, he tried to kill her and her children with a machete.

In 2005, at age 27, Sibonga left him, and in 2012 she initiated legal proceedings to have her marriage declared null on the grounds of her husband’s “psychological incapacity.” In 2017, a judge ruled in her favor, but the Office of the Solicitor General, charged by the government with upholding marriage, appealed and won in 2019. The case is still ongoing. Sibonga estimates that it has cost her around 300,000 pesos—over $5,000—to pursue the case. This more than most Filipinos will earn in a year. Her experience of the court system is not unusual.

Those who would reform this system smell victory but are treading carefully, keen to reassure the potentially uncertain. “We sympathize with the concern of some of the conservatives as some states have given divorce a bad name. So they don’t want us to have a Las Vegas type of divorce,” said Paul Roxas, an activist with the Divorce Pilipinas Coalition. A recent poll showed that that exactly 50 percent of Filipinos supported divorce among irreconcilably separated couples, with 31 percent opposed and 17 percent undecided.

Navigating the Senate will be tricky. A divorce bill previously passed the House in 2018 but languished in the Senate. So far, at least seven of the Philippines’s 24 senators have are thought to be in favor of the bill. But four have voiced opposition to the bill, and another 8 have previously made statements against divorce. Still, Roxas is optimistic: “A significant proportion of the senators are sort of fence-sitting.” The Divorce Pilipinas Coalition is lobbying hard those they feel are persuadable and has staked out fall back concessions like only allowing people to divorce once in their lifetimes.

Should the bill pass, it will be the fourth big defeat the Catholic Church has faced in 12 years. In 2012, the Philippine government legalized contraception in the face of furious opposition from the church. In 2016, the presidency was won by Rodrigo Duterte, a man who cursed the pope during his campaign. Church condemnations of the man and the extrajudicial killings that took place in his “war on drugs” failed to dent his enormous popular support. And in 2022, the church all but openly opposed the candidacy of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., son of the former dictator. Nonetheless, backed by Duterte, he romped home to victory.

With each defeat, wariness of church power seems to have faded. “In the Philippines, there is no Catholic vote—in other words, we should not be afraid of any reprisal from the Church during the elections,” Lagman said. Indeed, he claims that private polling shows that congresspeople who endorse the divorce bill actually stand to receive a bump in support.

Father Jerome Secilliano, rector of the EDSA Shrine built to commemorate the People Power protests, says things very different from 1986. “People were already exasperated with the government” when cardinal sin made the call, he says. Now, according to Seciliano, people are “exasperated” with a church they don’t feel is doing enough for them. “Let’s admit it we don’t have the resources to provide for the people,” he said. “We are a poor country, there are so many poor people, and poor people expect too much from you.” Instead, they turn to politicians who can offer patronage, cash, and practical solutions. “And people have more practical needs than the Mass.”

Cultural change is also part of the story. Gone are the days of Seciliano’s boyhood when he would press his forehead to the hand of elders and all heard the Angelus toll at 6 o’clock every evening. “When we talk about LGBT in the 1980s, perhaps people will still believe us. But now it’s 2024—because of the many different opinions offered, it’s now very politically incorrect to even call him homo or gay.” Indeed, the Philippines is already strikingly accepting of homosexuality for a Catholic country, and polling shows that young Filipinos are among the most likely to support the divorce bill.

Not all the cultural change is necessarily inimical to the church. Pentecostal and born-again Christians are making big inroads among the Philippines. Theological differences between Catholics and these groups that once caused bloody wars now fade as these churches make common cause on promoting socially conservative Christian values. One prominent opponent of the divorce bill, Sen. Emmanuel Villanueva, is the son of Eddie Villanueva, a former politician who founded The Jesus Is Lord evangelical megachurch.

Still, it’s not always so simple as that says Joseph Bonifacio, a former pastor with Victory Church, another evangelical megachurch. These non-Catholic churches are less monolithic in their attitudes. “This allows for other voices, including more liberal ones.” A recent statement by the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches expressed opposition to the divorce bill, stating a preference instead for expanding grounds for annulment to dissolve the marriage. Given that the grounds for annulment are, with some caveats, close the grounds on which the current bill would grant divorce, the differences seem largely cosmetic.

The Catholic Church is trying to regroup. “The church needs to become a church of the poor,” Father Tito Caluag said. As the man who gives the evening Mass on ABS-CBN, the Philippines’s largest media conglomerate, he is perhaps the closest the Catholic Church has to a celebrity priest. Caluag is trying to take on this task himself reorganizing the church’s charitable efforts talking about professionalization, data analysis, and new fundraising that reduces reliance on single ultrawealthy donors. Notably past polls suggest the working poor are among those most likely to support divorce. Yet it is hard not to notice that the interview is taking place in the Village, one of Manila’s ultraexclusive gated neighborhoods. Caluag explains it was donated by a pious socialite, now deceased, and wryly accepts the irony.

Other tensions will be hard to solve, too. The church must also be a listening church, Caluag says, invoking the words of Pope Francis. “And we must genuinely listen. Because I’ve heard young people say we’ve talked our so-and-so, and he listened, but at the end of it all, he said was the same thing like nothing had happened.”

But he remains opposed to divorce—as doctrine requires all Catholic priests must be. For stories like Sibonga’s and Bulang’s, however, the church seems to have few answers.

[empressofthewind]

Headcanons you have of near?

Thank you for the ask!! He is my favourite little guy ever and the urge to write a 5000-word essay about him was SO strong, I had to physically restrain myself from doing so. But here are a few of my thoughts about him, divided into three categories:

1. His attitude towards L

Obata states in Volume 13 that he thinks Near disliked L, and while I don't agree to quite the same extent, I definitely don’t think he was a big L fan - certainly not to the extent that most other kids at Wammy’s House seemed to be. Near is very open about his disdain for people who blindly follow one leader/authority figure, and thus I think he’d find the general idolisation of L at Wammy’s House off-putting. He’d have some level of respect for L as someone who is very talented and accomplished, and he’d like the fact that he works for fun rather than for money/status/accolades/etc. However, I don’t think he’d agree with how extreme some of L’s methods are, and he’d hate how easy he was on Light. In my opinion, the reason he was so dead set on staying true to L in the C-Kira oneshot was partly to keep up the charade that L was still alive, and partly because he lost his sense of self when Mello died; but that is a WHOLE other can of worms.

2. His daily life & routines

During the Kira case, he wouldn't have had much of a life outside of work. I don't think that would have bothered him much, if at all - I do think he enjoyed the challenge of the case, and he was able to keep up many of his hobbies while he was working - but since it was such a big undertaking for his first ever case, he would have had to make a few adjustments to his daily life. Since moving into his own HQ at 17, I tend to think he started sleeping exclusively on the floor to make the transition between work and sleep easier. He thrives on consistency and likes having predictable routines to balance out the unpredictability of detective work. He wakes up around the same time each morning. He eats pretty much the same thing every day, and has very limited tastes. He takes long baths in the evening, and during canon, that was the only part of his day when he stopped thinking about the case. On that note, I also think he’s a very clean person and he hates the feeling of being dirty.

3. His relationship with Mello

Of course, I can't go through my headcanons for Near without talking about Mello. I am a very firm believer that Near has been in love with Mello since they lived together at Wammy’s House. I think he’s always been fascinated by Mello because of how completely different they are in their attitudes and approaches to problems, and he admires Mello’s passion and dedication to his goals. He recognises that their weaknesses are each other's strengths, which makes them far stronger as a pair. These feelings became more romantic in nature in his early teens. I think he would have been thrilled when Mello re-entered his life post-timeskip, if only because he finally had confirmation that Mello was safe and alive, and if Mello had lived after the Kira case, Near would have had his crimes pardoned as soon as he was officially handed the title of L (based on canon, it seems like L has enough legal influence to do this). I get the impression that the Wammy’s kids were raised on the “any means necessary” principle because that was L’s philosophy, so Near does not hold any of Mello’s crimes against him.

[chialattea]

Would you perhaps like to share your thoughts on WHA? 👉👈

YES INDEED

SO!! This is going to be a very disjointed ramble, I’d like to write a proper essay about the manga, its themes and the way it characteristically deconstructs popular character tropes and plot points while also serving as a love letter to manga as a whole. However the most important thing for me, at least while I’m writing this, is the way disabilities are treated in this manga.

The whole “magical world inaccessible to all but a select few” is something so common nowadays many shows take it as face value and run with it, not bothering to spend more than a few seconds to think about how such a place would naturally develop. Like yeah yeah you know the drill, magic exists but only if you’re cool or chosen, now let’s get on with the wish fulfillment etc. WHA however has too much respect for the reader to let that fly, and just as it does with so many different topics the author sits down and fleshes it out. Things like, “what sort of implications does a world where a life-changing power only exists for those born in certain groups” and “why the actual hell wouldn’t they just take over the world/ why would they hide/ how is it even POSSIBLE for them to hide/ are they stupid?”. Because. You mean to tell me there’s a group of people with the power to level continents flat… and they’re still paying taxes or whatever? Why the hell would there be kings unless they’re witches? And HOW would the common folk not know like, at a certain point some secrets are impossible to contain, and the existence of magic is quite the flashy one. The principles every witch has to follow works perfectly as both a quick way to set the scene (there are principles, which means they have superiors that dictate their code of conduct, which means that witch society is highly organized, which means it has a WAY of enforcing said policies given the existence of outlaws, which means there’s also a way for witches to communicate between each other plus their own culture plus so many cool stuff) and ALSO as the first taste of the conflicts the manga will deal with (blindly upholding rules of old without considering the subtleties of every scenario, a society clinging to tradition and denouncing any sort of change, the inherent classism of having the means to save people but refusing to do so in an almost paternalistic sort of way)

[lets-try-some-writing]

If tfa and prime met what would happen

Short answer: Lots of adoption on TFP Optimus's part.

I don't really feel like deep diving into all the characters individually since I have a plan for an au based on this general idea, so I will try to keep things fairly concise.

In regards to both Primes meeting, it would likely be very respectful. TFP Optimus would respect the hell out of TFA Optimus for holding his own and doing so much at such a young age. And TFA would similarly be in awe of TFP Optimus for his skill, power, authority, and the fact that he is practically a demi-god by nearly any standard. TFP would do his best to train and guide his younger counterpart and silently begin gathering up adoption papers the moment he finds out about TFA Optimus's past. What's one more sparkling anyways? TFP Optimus already has half a dozen of both Cybertronian and human origin. Oh and then would you look at that! All the other TFA bots are suffering from something and need a dad! Where did those additional adoption papers come from? Who knows!

The Ratchets meeting would be less than exemplary. They would still respect each other, but their meeting would quickly turn into a match to determine which of them is better than the other. They would compare circumstances, throw their respective pasts and achievements at the other like live grenades. And they would also debate heavily on their differing medical knowledge, leading them to get into an actual brawl over T-cogs until they realized that differing biology is the only thing causing their argument. There would also be a degree of anger as TFP gets on TFA's case about their government (not that TFA Ratchet disagrees that Cybertron's government is awful, he just doesn't like listening to a much more maintained version of himself saying it).

The Bumblebees would have an... interesting meeting. Their differences would be a bit much to make them respect the other in the way that the Optimus's do. But they would get along well enough and develop a friendship nearly right off the bat in response to TFA's excitableness and TFP's competitiveness. The roads would be completely covered in tire markings by the time their meeting comes to an end. TFP doesn't like leaving a challenged unmet and TFA is in his own words "the fastest thing on wheels".

The Bulkheads would get along fine. TFA would be happy to simply sit and discuss the woes of having to look after a human child with TFP would would strongly agree. A good chunk of their meeting would revolve around sharing their respective hobbies, experiences, and their differing ways of handling children. TFP would find TFA's artistic abilities amazing since he has always considered himself unable to perform such artistic pursuits due to his size.

The Ultra Magnus's would hate each other immediately simply because of vibes. TFP would hate his counterpart for being such an aft to everyone and running the most corrupt government he has seen since before the war. And TFA would hate TFP because "What the pits are you doing running a team of mongrels and serving under a mere Prime?". The miscommunication would be increadible as neither would be fully willing or capable of explaining things to the other. In the end their meetings would turn into the most passive aggressive debate known to Cybertronian kind.

The two Decepticon factions would hate each other on principle. The TFA Decepticons would be disgusted at the lack of any and all honor and TFP would hate the idea of competition and weakness among their counterparts. It just wouldn't end well.

As for the bots whose counterparts would be too far away or nonexistent? They would have a grand old time causing chaos and watching both their worlds turn upside down due to the meeting of their universes.