#it’s just not been easy to experience or address these sort of things — though i need to and am trying ♡

[rosylamb]

hey I'm really sorry to hear about your dad and sad to see you go! Your blog is always great to see pop up, but definitely prioritize what you need to do. Be well

🧸. ˚ * ⊹ 🧁 Sweet friend ~ !!

You are truly the kindest for this c:

I feel so genuinely warm and happy inside to see your words right now ♡

Thank you for being so caring !!

But again I’m not leaving! I just don’t spend as much time here :’)

And I am quieter I suppose .. as you can see I am getting to this rather late for which I am truly sorry ♡

Things are harder than I could ever put it into words which is why I don’t (but trust me this does mean much to me)

So I would like to return the kindness now for you! Hm .. how about a hug? I’ve been baking! We can share a cookie or a cake if you like :D

Whatever it is please know that I’m grateful for this, and you’ve really brightened my day! So please stay safe, take care, and have the best day, my friend ~ !!!

🧸 ♡ * ･｡ ⊹ ♡ 🎀

🧁 ⊹˚ . * ♡ XOXO ♡ * . ˚⊹ 🍪

[natalchartnurtures]

PAC: Energy Check~ for wherever you are right now

This was completely unplanned but frankly spirit doesn't give a fuck about my plans. So if this found you, here are some messages you probably need right now-

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pile 1: Ooh.. as I was preparing to start your reading, I saw 11:11 as the Chariot card showed up for you. This. Tells me that you are pretty strongly connected to your divine path right now, which simply means that you're doing something that's keeping you in alignment, sweet pile one! Good job! Keep going down this road because you WILL stumble upon amazing experiences and people! This message is coming through quite strongly. Now, isn't that lovely? Hehe.

Here's the thing, though.. Although you're actually IN alignment with your greatest timeline and life, you seem to be completely UNAWARE of the fact! You might be going through the necessary purging emotionally and/or mentally as a result of this alignment since the "old stuff" has no more room in your new vibration anymore. So, you've probably had to go through some intense endings and/or tower moments in life lately and THIS has left you feeling really, really sad. Maybe even depressed. For some of you, if that's the case, please seek help, sweet soul. It doesn't have to be therapy but even as simple as talking to a trusted loved one, you know? Or even journaling about it could help if you're into it. It seems like you could use a new perspective on the things you're going through right now. I'm sensing that you might be feeling emotionally numb right now too, but that's because you've been doing a lot of emotional processing lately AND IT'S ALL PAYING OFF. I just need you to know that. You just can't see it right now because you're slap dead in the middle of the storm, and I'm looking at it from a bird's eye view, you know?

While you're purging old stuff, I also see you making your way through an old core belief - "I gotta work hard to be deserving of anything because I inherently don't" Or something along those lines. You may have started purging this belief as a result of life showing you that it's simply not something worth keeping alive inside you. Maybe recently, you caught yourself overworking yourself to death only to receive very little in return (in any area of your life - relationships included) and this experience helped you wake up to this unhelpful belief of yours. You're unlearning this belief as we speak. It's not easy though, but I CAN assure you, you're acing it.

If you find yourself worrying too much about anything and everything or simply feeling a general fear, just know that it's a normal reaction to having things uprooted in your life. Life, right now, is asking you to do your best to focus on what's right in front of you because if you do this, the future is guaranteed to sort itself out. I promise.

I love you so much, pile 1. I see all your hard work and am rooting for you SO hard, bro. Love and light.

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Pile 2: Seems like to me that y'all have been STUCK in a particular pattern for a while now, maybe years? For some of you folks reading? Let me spell it out for you what this pattern looks like to me - an imbalance of the mind and heart. Too much mind and too little heart. Maybe none at all.

I can't seem to tap into the root of this imbalance, maybe because it's different for each of you reading, OR maybe it's not relevant to us right now because you can simply begin to address this imbalance as you see it in your day-to-day. But I sense that you're really good at addressing things, so once you're conscious of this pattern going on subtly in the background, running your life, you can really do something about this. This pattern may show up as you struggling with feeling fear, and this is blocking you off to one very important thing fear is here to show us, and that is how to support ourselves. If we are afraid of something we desire and have a healthy relationship with fear, we go for the desire while caretaking our fear. I read a quote the other day, it said "Do that thing you love but if you find that you're scared, then go do it scared." The point I'm trying to make is, fear isn't going to go away on its own, it's you who will simply expand your ability to hold space for it AND your desires equally. When you figure out how to do this, magic will happen in your life. You'll find that your unwillingness to caretake your fear only gave you more things to be afraid of (because, hello, Law Of Attraction *lol*), BUT you'll also find that when you radically start taking responsibility for your fear(s), you'll be able to act from a wiser space and be your full badass self. You'll find that there are so many things you CAN do and so much life you CAN live. Everything you've wanted to start doing in life will start to happen almost seamlessly. It WILL surprise you big time. You're currently making your way through an important part of your healing, and that is to hold yourself in all your glory. To hold all parts of yourself, even the ones that are scared shitless. Once you've integrated this segment of your healing, SO many doors will unlock for you. Sweet soul, you have no clue of JUST HOW MANY. And this… is probably because you manifest with your heart primarily (meaning you feel things deeply and so you unknowingly tap into the frequency of what you want easily) and your fear is keeping you stuck in your head, which means you're only 40% of the full You right now, PRIOR the healing of c. You might even feel it sometimes. You might feel like you're only a shell of a person (been there myself, you're not alone in this!). Listen to that feeling. Your truth lies in there. You're meant to be the 100% you, and I see that you're already halfway there!

I love you so much, pile 2, sending you so much light and love. Hope you find the resources you need to make it through to your new life where you live in more love than fear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pile 3: Man… y'all been fighting for your lives, huh? I see that you may be in the midst of a lot of divinely evoked darkness? Lol, I literally heard that - divinely evoked darkness. Maybe you're going through a dark night of the soul, perhaps? Whatever your're going through though, it seems like you've been hanging on for dear life.

Some good news for you- no matter the circumstances you're in right now (be it good, bad, or terrible), you've been doing all the work necessary to keep your head above water and have been diligently nurturing your own light, positivity, and essence. THAT'S incredible resilience, sweet pile 3, and I'm really proud of you! It's not easy to keep an open heart through bad times, and that's such a grand achievement in my eyes. UGH, BEAUTIFUL.

Your energy SCREAMS transition period vibes. You seem to be neither in your "old" timeline nor in the new one yet. You're sorta hanging in the middle right now. I see the Hanged Man in the third eye as I tell you this. Feels like you're in the void right now, and things just seem… bleh. Boring. Colorless. This is probably because you're already done with the ugly part of the process, "the divine shakeups", the loss, and the purge. Think… the bland but peaceful feeling you feel after having an intense ugly crying session, you know? Yeah, you're energetically there right now. You'll probably be here for a while longer because you've let go of MAJOR stuff, pile 3. Did you let go of people recently, maybe? Or that old bad habit, perhaps? That was the purge, so to speak. And now you're in the aftermath of it all, the uncomfortable but necessary calm.

-Side note: You might've struggled to embody your divine feminine earlier, but the timeline you're entering right now is the exact opposite of that. You might be attracted towards things that will help you nurture your own divine feminine right now. Give into it. Nurture patience, stillness, and compassion for self. It will HOPEFULLY speed up the void period if you consciously take part in it, you know?-

You're quite emotionally intelligent, and it has guided you throughout the whole process, and it also seems like it ain't your first rodeo in the process of proverbial death and rebirth. Good on you because you're doing a real good job keeping your calm through venturing into the unknown. You know what? You remind me of Elsa from Frozen, taking on the unknown like it belongs to her. You are such a queen, omg.

Yep, all that's left to do now is celebrate yourself, pile 3! Try your best to embrace this period, the void, and you'll be on your way to your next happy adventure! Love and light, sweet soul. Thanks for sharing your energy with me today.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[panlight]

Imagine Bella being immune to vampire venom. Edward wasn't able to suck all the venom out and her body ended up used to the small amount of venom left over and she's bitten again and can't change.

GENINUELY one of my favorite AU scenarios.

And I personally think it makes more sense than the biology behind Renesmee's existence, but your mileage may vary.

In my head it works sort of like a vaccine; she's been exposed and now has the antibodies to fight off the effects of venom. She doesn't feel pain when bitten (other than the pain of teeth breaking her skin) and she can't be turned.

It totally upends all her plans and puts a REAL obstacle in place for her and Edward to be together. Before it was just Edward not wanting to turn her which, sure, is a problem but a fairly easy one to get around: she knows a bunch of other vampires, one willing to try to turn her (Alice) and another with a proven track record of successful turnings (Carlisle). It's not impossible.

Her being immune does make it impossible though. I could be here for the tragic impossibility, how there's no way for them to be together forever now.

But I ALSO think that in such a scenario it might be possible to make a cure for vampirism from Bella's blood. I think if you want happy fairy tale ending for your vampire story, the way to do it is 'unhappy vampires become human' not 'unhappy human becomes vampire; other vampires still have same problems that made them unhappy.' Good for Bella she was following her bliss as a vampire in BD, but I never got how Bella being happy made things any better for Rosalie, or Esme, or Carlisle, or Jasper. Emmett and Alice were reasonably happy as vampires already, or Alice at least didn't know anything different. Rosalie and Esme wanted to be mothers, not aunt/grandma. And Renesmee literally grows up so fast they're missing out at most of those baby/toddler/childhood experiences anyway. Plus Breaking Dawn doesn't really address the issue of whether Bella lost her soul or not, or if Renesmee even has one at all. Edward's happy in BD but will it last or will his worry start creeping back in with time? He's got plenty of it.

But if Bella's blood could be used to make a cure and the option to become human is a thing . . . that gets SUPER interesting to me. Who would take it? Is it reversible? Like, could Rosalie and Emmett become human, have a couple of kids, age until their 30s or 40s and then ask Alice and Jasper (who presumably stay vampires) to turn them back? Or is it one way choice and they become immune to venom like Bella is? Part of me thinks Carlisle deep down wants to be human more than Edward and Rosalie even do (he has crafted his whole vampire lifestyle around being as a human as possible--a job, a wife, kids, a house . . . all very weird for a Twilight vampire) but would the knowledge that he could help more humans as an immortal doctor than a mortal one hold him back? Would he and Esme stay vampires to watch over Edward and Rosalie/Emmett if they all became human? Would the Volturi see this power to turn vampires human as a threat, a weapon?

And just the irony of the one person who wanted to be a vampire being the one who can't become one and whose blood has the power to turn the vampires she loves and envies human. Delicious.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

TW: CSA

Hello great sex witch! I experienced sexual abuse for many years, starting when I was really young and lasting well into high school. As I'm unpacking that it feels like so much of my understanding around sex and sexuality came from my abusers (and from the people in my life who blamed me instead of them), and as I'm sorting through all that stuff and filing it away where it's *actually* supposed to go I'm realizing that there's... Not much left. The things I thought were attraction or arousal were actually alarm bells, that sort of thing.

Sex just feels so toxic to me, even though I know it can be a healthy expression of love (or even just fun). I'm okay with being aroace if that's just who I am, but it bothers me to think I'm this way because the opportunity for healthy sexual development was *taken* from me.

How can I explore what healthy sexuality means to me without putting myself in danger? Dating or hooking up with people feels scary and has been... just not so great, and I don't want to put myself out there like that just to check if I'm even into it. Porn feels icky for obvious reasons, but it also kind of feels like those are my only options? Then there's the dysphoria about my parts, so the thought of just "poking around and seeing what feels good" is also... Kind of ick.

Idk, this ask feels so long and silly, but I genuinely don't know where to start and I feel stuck. It's cool if there's no good or easy answer, I just hate feeling like I'm missing something obvious that everyone else just intuitively understands.

I guess TLDR is "how do I explore sexuality in a healthy, safe, trauma sensitive way?"

hi anon,

this is what we call "beyond the scope of what a stranger on the internet can responsibly help you navigate via a tumblr ask." I know that's probably disappointing, and I hate to have to turn you down after you were so vulnerable in sharing your experience and worries, but I think it's really important to be honest and upfront about what my limitations are here.

this sounds like something best addressed with a mental health professional who can get to know you personally and help develop a long-term plan to work through this over time. a sex therapist, specialized in issues of sexuality and intimacy, might be the best fit, but ultimately it's your call how you'd like to proceed.

[cloudmancy]

which is worse: d20 tumblr or d20 twitter?

this is such a funny question. frankly I prefer talking with my existing friends over discord over either of them but here's a breakdown of my experience with them

d20 tumblr

feels like a more isolating experience because of the way tumblr is set up in general as a platform. I follow relatively few people here, so all my interactions are from people engaging with my art (love you mwah) or asking me questions. nearly every time I go into a d20 related tag I regret it

I think frankly I disagree with 90% of the opinions on d20 here but because I don't have to see it I can just post my art and go

feels relatively static like there's not a good way to get everyone talking about a specific transformative fandom thing instead of only what's happening in canon because it's a looser more disconnected community

allows for longer posts and the search system on my own blog is great though. I love directing people to go through my tags or archived art

d20 twitter

incredibly, astonishingly, bad at recognizing jokes for people who are fans of a comedy show

way easier to interact with people which means most of the friends I make are from d20twt...

very easy to get everyone talking about one specific thing (ie fhsonas) because of how interactive Twitter is as a platform and how quickly word spreads

downside of this^ is that every time I express an opinion someone disagrees with they tend to assume that this is a majority opinion rather than like, 3-4 popular gay asian artists speaking their mind? when I complained about fhjy 18 battle on here I got interesting and thoughtful reblogs and everyone kept it respectful meanwhile on twitter people started making vaguetweets about how people who hated the episode were morons. stuff like us joking that oisin's grandma's whole mahjong group got murked getting 200 likes VS people directly shitting on us getting 1.7k likes and people going "wait... people are mad about oisins grandma for REAL?! she was going to kill people !!" getting 2k likes. clearly there is some sort of strange authority people put on your words whether or not you're actually just trying to have fun with your friends

I did talk about this more on twitter but I am not a fan of the CRitterfication of d20twt either. feels like much of the fandom is now watching because they're megafans of the cast rather than for the story which leads to some really big toxic positivity bias and the implication that criticism of the show == direct attack on the crew and therefore on THEM because parasocial attachment. I don't think it helps that for a majority of them d20 is their first big fandom experience aside from like... kpop or tswift because they have not developed a lot of the detachment from canon + not being parasocial + ignoring opinions you don't like if they're not directly addressed at you mechanisms that people who've been around have. sorry I'm not trying to fandom elder or whatever here I'm 21 years old but I think it's incredibly hard for me to interact with people whose entire understanding of canon depend on siobhan thompson's opinions like this

tldr;

d20twt has way less reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. better for making friends. I interact almost entirely with 30-40 of my artist friends. (my) d20tumblr experience is more chill and feels like I'm doing a seminar and people come up to ask me questions afterward. more isolating but easier to do my own thing. I do recognize and am fond of a lot of you but I've made one (1) entire friend who I can talk to off platform and not just see on the dash/my notes and that's just the nature of how tumblr works as a platform (it's terrible for conversations)

[remotepixel]

Hi, how would yandere avengers react if their platonic teen obsession threatens to disclose their yandere tendencies or has actually done so to the media?

Hii, thank you for requesting!!

Tw: yandere themes + kidnapping mentions

-I’m assuming this is somewhat far into the obsession, enough where it’s obvious to you that something is very wrong, but not to the ‘they’ve gone completely off the rails and everyone can tell’ point.

-Getting the evidence would already be pretty hard. Sure, you have the obvious fact they’re always hanging around you, but, they’re superheroes, people are naturally going to support their side unless you have enough proof (or, sometimes, no matter what).

-Any clear red flag (e.g. trackers) would be specially manufactured by a world-renowned genius, so a casual police search likely wouldn’t find anything, and it’d be pretty nerve-wracking to try and record a conversation with a superspy.

-However, if you do collect enough, it still wouldn’t be easy to get rid of them.

-If you threaten them, the amount of guilt-tripping would be mental. Some of them are more self-aware than others, but all of them share the same sentiment that, at the end of the day, they’re (or, think they are) helping you. They know some of their behaviour crosses normal lines, but look how much your life has improved since they’ve been around, isn’t it a good thing someone cares about you?

-All of them would be hurt by your threat, and likely back off at least for a while if you strike some sort of deal (e.g. you leave me alone, I won’t tell). But they’ll be back, or still lurking around in parts of your life.

-I think members like Natasha and Bruce, who are more self-aware yet never speak out against the more delusional ones (since they’re still working together at the end of the day), would back off the most. They don’t want you hating them even more, and, currently, your relationship is on a thin line - it’s better to back off and subtly guide you back to them then force it.

-None of them fully take your threat seriously, even if it hurts their feelings. They know they have the upper hand here: government links, popularity, influence - you’re completely out of your depths even if you think, or act, otherwise.

-If you’re still very consistent on disclosing everything to the media despite their efforts to chill, you’re likely getting kidnapped. Drastic, obviously, but it’s the only way to guarantee you’re both in their grasp and others aren’t concerned.

-If you already disclosed it however, the methods you used to go through with it play a big role in the outcome.

-As I mentioned, there’s probably trackers in your phone, both for location and general monitoring, e.g. a keylogger. The second you post your blog, or send your email to the news, it’s getting deleted and completely wiped if possible. In this case, it’s probably going to follow the same route as before, but with extra emotional pain because you didn’t even “try talking” to them.

-If you focus more on meeting up with reporters in real-life, maybe getting them to collect their own evidence in the background, there’s a higher chance of success. However, that does require having insiders in a hopefully-popular newspaper company, something a teen probably wouldn’t have.

-Assuming the avengers haven’t noticed the news coming out about them, for at least enough time that citizens are able to read and share this, panic would ensue the second they realise.

-They would experience a range of emotions, most mentioned above but some would also hold a bit of rage (not necessarily at you, your actions more so). They have one, very obvious thing they need to do now though: address the ‘rumours’.

-Deleting the reports would raise more suspicions, and they can’t just admit everything the news is saying is technically true, so they decide to try and twist this into their favour. They’ll (mainly Tony as he’s probably dealt with this sort of thing before) make up some sort of story that puts you into the wrong - like you’re lying for attention or were trying to purposely ruin their reputation for petty revenge.

-If they’re feeling really nice they may try and chalk it up as a misunderstanding, but I think it depends who has a role in writing the response. For example, Steve would think it’s slightly too far, while Tony would just think of it as a necessary outcome - he also just doesn’t like listening to Steve’s advice so.

-You become a pretty big talk in the media, but, when people start believing the avenger’s side, it’s mostly snide comments or dragging your name through the mud. The avengers would probably feel bad for the amount of slander you’re getting, assuming they didn’t before, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they deleted a few, just plain evil comments. But you forced their hand, if you haven’t had ‘lied’ in the first place, this would have never happened.

-In a way, this may just bring you closer to them. With what feels like the whole world against you, the only people who really seem to care anymore are the avengers. They might even offer you a deal - you admit you were lying to the media, apologize, and they’ll publicly support you. Sure, it won’t get everyone off your back, and you’re be scared to even go outside in case reporters are there, but it means you have the most powerful team in your corner again, and isn’t that what you need?

[sullustangin]

Spoiler Free SWTOR 7.5 comments

As it says on the tin.

Honestly, I am really liking the consistent content that Broadsword is putting out. Big patches are 4-6 months apart, little ones are pretty regular. Each patch -- whether it's a big 7.x or it's a 7.5.x -- has something that tries to address a player request/complaint. Since Broadsword took over, the amount of content might be more modest in terms of scale, but it seems like more care has been applied to it. Based upon the player survey and other quality of life improvements -- and even some hasty u-turns--, they are taking player feedback into account. I feel better about the game in Broadsword's hands than I did with Bioware.

Technically, I did not experience major problems with the patch. As reported in the patch notes, there is one cinematic where a key character's mouth does not move. That doesn't break the game, though you may want to wait to record the scene if you're into that. There's another point where you have to hit the right spot on the floor for your jetpack to disappear so you can pass through the next door, but that's an easy fix. Gearwise, I'm seeing reports of being at least in 332 greens, but as usual, player skill may vary.

Patch 7.5 starts the conclusion of the two storylines that have taken the mainstage of 7.0: the Holocron of Nul storyline and the Heta Kol storyline, which started back in 6.2 (pandemic patch). I feel like some of the "huh?" in the plot was baked in from where Bioware started it, so Broadsword is trying its best to finish the story they were given. Is it a busfire? Yes. Is it their fault? No, but they have to finish it.That said, this patch actually makes the player make choices, and you AGONIZE over them. It's not just personnel choices but also diplomatic ones. I haven't felt that way in a considerable amount of time. Yes, you do make choices in 7.0, but it's one person living or dying, be a jerk or don't be a jerk. Lower stakes. The stakes are higher here in 7.5 -- or at least it feels that way. That's an important part of game writing: even if the choice does not matter, there needs to be the illusion that it does -- a certain level of immersion. You do have cascading consequences of choices as well. I'm looking forward to playing this patch on my LS toon to do different choices, more so than I did previously. "Let's not be a jerk this time" is less than compelling than "Can I do it differently, this time?"

Overall, there is progress in the storyline -- this doesn't feel like a "busy work" patch or "here's a new daily area to keep you occupied". (To be clear, I loved the Port Nowhere and Ord Mantell content in 7.4 -- it was a giant love letter to smugglers -- but at the same time, it was a bit of filler, to be honest). The quests you need to do are necessary to gain the trust of a naturally fearful faction of sentients (no spoilers) -- it makes sense they aren't your besties for life right off the jump. You will yell at the screen at the end of the whole thing, because it does make sense and yet it's the worst option for your character, personally, and it's out of your hands. (And it is not out of character for the person who makes that decision...)

No new date night content -- maybe in 7.5.1. There is some romance content for those of us that romanced Lana and Theron.

If you are big into Mandos and have been impatiently waiting for Lane to give you a buzz, this is your time and your hour. If you enjoy training hunter pets in other games, your time has arrived.

There is also a new Spring Festival event on Dantooine. In truth, I find it sort of derivative of the Tillers' reputation you could earn in World of Warcraft during Mists of Pandaria. It isn't exactly the same (we don't have a cooking profession), but the general ideas apply, right down to the dailies involving having a beer and going fishing, as well as scouring the world for seeds. There's also animal rescue built in here as well, so it's a bit of everything for any hero who wants to retire or at least slow down.

But of course, something sinister is on the farm, and so I anticipate Scooby Doo Mystery Hour shall continue as the event carries on.

~~

Given that Broadsword "maintains" games such as Dark Age of Camelot, there has been the fear that they'll move SWTOR into retirement, but I don't think that will happen, as it's still a live intellectual property (Star Wars), they're making gobs of money off it due to Cartel Market, and there's still a player base. (And let's be real, Favereau and Filoni play it, and they do matter to Disney and EA.) I don't know when 8.0 will come out, so we may have another round of storylines in 7.0 -- sort of like how we had an extended 5.0 (Iokath and Traitor Arc) after Bioware was stripped down in 2017. That said, Onslaught was quite good after the KotXX shenanigans and dev changes had settled. I still hold the view that Bioware is a sinking ship, and EA moved the Goose that Lays the Golden Egg to Broadsword for safekeeping. I think we might get an 8.0 in 2025 or 2026, but how that will look or work -- no idea.

[prokopetz]

I would like to access your ttrpg knowledge. Do you know of a system where the players can freely swap between a collection of characters? I'm looking to run a Monty Python and the holy grail one-shot, so I want the players to be able to move between whichever knights are relevant at the time (and make gameplay continue smoothly as they die off). This can either be from each player having a set squad, or by having a "shared inventory" that each player pulls from as needed. Bonus points if it's easy enough for inebriated players to get a hold of.

There have been a number of published games that use the variant of troupe play that you're describing (i.e., a fixed pool of player characters, but no particular player character is associated with any particular player); the now out-of-print Marvel Heroic Roleplaying springs to mind, in which play consists of a series of set-piece scenes with pre-defined rosters of heroes, and each player chooses which hero to play on a scene-by-scene basis; e.g., you might start out playing as Spider-Man, then when a hero you like better enters play, you switch to playing as them instead, while Spider-Man is either taken up by another player, or else becomes an NPC.

However, I feel like for your particular purpose, that would be barking up the wrong tree. Certainly, for ongoing troupe play, this sort of formal spotlight management is practically mandatory. For a one-shot game, though, it's a lot of game-mechanical overhead for very little benefit, because the spotlighting issues that it's designed to address simply won't have time to develop. Plus, it's not a great idea to introduce novel scene-framing practices to slightly drunk players – that's the sort of thing you really want to be learning stone sober!

My recommendation for a drunk-friendly troupe play oneshot is to go with something light, ideally with descriptive traits so you don't need to know the mechanics to understand what the character you've just been handed is good at, bring a dozen or so pre-generated knights, and let the (ideally sober) GM manage the spotlight on an ad hoc basis. To that end, have you considered S John Ross's Risus? Character sheets basically read like TV Tropes articles, and it's well-suited to Arthurian parody in the Welsh tradition (i.e., the kind where each knight has weird and faintly impractical supernatural powers), which feels like a good way of meshing that Monty Python and the Holy Grail spirit with more conventional tabletop expectations.

(I can also speak from experience when I say that it's feasible to play while completely hammered.)

[nemo-draco]

Bendy: Secrets of the Machine Thoughts

Putting them under a spoiler cut for readability

So far, there is a lot of intrigue regarding GENT and their role, as well as the potential return of the Nightmare Run characters.

GENT's involvement so far as been more on the sidelines in the games. It's implied they have similar issues with the supernatural, and they are running experiments with the ink the Machine produces, the books also backing this up with the reappearance of Archie Carter. However, with the new character. Riley Wells, introduced, it creates a more interesting layer to this, in that it is implied that she was recruited by GENT shortly following her dismissal from JDS. Now, if she is a villain or a victim is up for debate. It could be that they hired her as a test subject similar to Archie Carter and her metamorphosis was just far more severe as a result of the traumatic experience in her childhood, or perhaps she provided the specs that ended up producing a real-life version of "Bloodwheel", the more monster-y version of Gaskette that even gets a whole song in Riley's flashback.

Riley's story is also interesting in that it provides a canon explanation for why the Nightmare Run toons are more monstrous, though it really only does so for Gaskette. She's never shown drawing any of the other bosses, just him. Which makes me wonder if maybe she was part of the character design for only him, and the others are all going to get their own stories later on in the game. I really do hope they go this route, mostly because it would be a nice callback to the no longer available Nightmare Run, and you could have some real fun with the bosses 'backstories', depending on how involved you want to be.

Can think of a few things immediately off the bat: Chester being another example of a childhood fear turned into a debilitating trauma, except involving someone who has thalassophobia strong enough to rival H.P. Lovecraft. Kind of paves the way for a lot of spooky imagery involving the ocean, ocean life, and ink.

Dewey at first seemed a little comical to think about in this context, after all, a fear of librarians seems extreme, though thinking more on it my thought is that he's the product of a different type of emotional stuckage. Instead of a fearful person, perhaps Dewey was created by a very angry person, someone who had a lot of trouble controlling their temper and would frequently blow up at seemingly minor issues. After all, Dewey's main character trait seems to be his temper, as we remember from his character card that he has a disproportionate reaction to Bendy knocking over some books. Granted, between the fact that the exact quantity of books is never mentioned, and a cartoon being a cartoon, it makes me wonder if Bendy might not have knocked over a few books, but more likely a few stacks or even whole shelves worth. I mean, what's funnier, a few books coming down or the library getting a spontaneous remodeling job thanks to a careless patron?

...It's probably not so fun for the librarian, but you get my point. So, potentially, we have someone who has a temper problem creating this character as a way to offset their issues. It might just be less helpful and creating a bit of a feedback loop, where they're constantly ruminating over their problems rather than addressing and moving on from them.

Canoodle was another one that eluded me a bit, though there are two potential driving forces that could have fueled his creation. On one front, junkyards aren't exactly friendly places sometimes, and it would be easy for some sort of accident to happen that could produce some sort of negative association, though there is also the fact that a sentient can being in a junkyard creates this almost weird mental image. You'd think that'd be a dangerous place for him, and this is somewhat proven true if you beat him in Nightmare Run, as he's promptly crushed and disposed of. So, perhaps a preoccupation with death, or a person who is constantly cheating bad or dangerous circumstances? It's something, and it could definitely be interesting played out if that's the direction they're planning on going with this.

There are also plenty of other fun moments and little easter eggs for fans, so either way, we do get something fun. I would honestly be over the moon if they did something for all of the Nightmare Run toons though. Gaskette is a good nod, and Riley's backstory intrigues me given the circumstances, and especially the apparent involvement with GENT. Kinda makes me wonder if they're, in a sense, keeping tabs on people who were associated with JDS, people who maybe would have some stronger ties to the art being produced there and potentially have a bigger reaction when the ink is used on them.

It's something to think about, for sure. If anything, I'll enjoy using these puzzle pieces in my own work.

[zoeykallus]

Hi Zoey!! Hope you're doing well!! You deserve all the love!!

This is my 2nd request ever, and you handled my 1st request beautifully, so i thought that perhaps i would request again?

Recently, i was randomly hard-blocked on Tumblr by a (now former) mutual.. and also got randomly cut off by some friends irl too ...

To this day i have not the faintest idea what i did wrong and don't even have the capacity to ask any of them.. it makes me incredibly sad/disheartened to loose them, especially since i don't know/understand if/what i did anything wrong..

As far as i've been aware i never violated anyone's guidelines/boundaries.. it makes me physically and mentally ill to think that i could have somehow done something so terrible accidentally/unknowingly and gotten cut off for it.. 😥💔

Despite getting some support and lovin' about it, I've been crying about it so much and don't know how to deal with it still 😓💔

What are your thoughts on how the TBB, (and possibly Wolffe, Rex, and/or Cody if it isn't too much), would react/deal with/comfort (preferably fem!) Reader on randomly loosing friends and getting very sad over it?

I'm sorry for all the angst here!! Also, i know you already wrote something kind of similar (had to do with TBB helping the reader lose a toxic friend), so if this is too much, repetitive, or uncomfortable for you, i totally understand not doing the request!!

Take care and thank you so much for all that you do!! Your love and support and kindness knows no bounds!! 🫶🏼💕🩷

Aloha, hun!

I'm really sorry to read that. It's hard to lose friends, especially when you don't really know why or what's going on. The only way to find out would be asking them about it. But you mentioned you don't feel up to ask them yourself. Maybe you have someone, a friend, who'd be willing to do that for you? Sometimes you can't change peoples minds, and you don't have to. Real friends don't just leave you behind without telling you what bothered them. Real friends communicate and try to fix things and don't just leave or ignore. Hold on to the real ones and let the ones who want to go just go. I know it feels devastating, but you don't need people like this in your life. If they just show you the cold shoulder without voicing what's the deal, they are not willing to really make an effort for this friendship, so why should you run after them? Invest your energy in your real friends.

And friends who need some time to themselves for personal reasons usually at least tell you that they need to retreat for a while, at least in my experience (I do that sometimes when I need to charge up my mental batteries). Cutting someone off without at least addressing them once about the reason is Kindergarten or headless teenager behavior at best. People who really care/cared, don't just vanish out of your life quietly.

That's probably not making you feel much better, but what I'm trying to say is, that you should focus on yourself a bit more and those who deserve your friendship. Don't cry over undeserving idiots. Easier said than done, I know. It'll take time, like everything emotionally heavy does, but you'll feel better at some point when you manage to sort out your priorities. And Drama queens who cut you off on purpose, to make you run after them, are even worse. Those are energy vampires, don't play that game with them, you will always be at the exhausted, losing end.

But, I'm still here, not exactly a close friend, but a mutual I guess. I hear you and even though I can't do much for you right now, I can send you a hug and write something for you 🤗

I picked this request out of my list to do before the others, because I felt this was a little more... urgent, at the moment.

The Bad Batch/Wolffe/Rex x F!Reader HCs - True Friends

Warnings: Angst/Hurt/Comfort

___________________

Losing friends is never easy. You struggle with being left behind by some of them. How do the clones react?

___________________

Hunter

He is organizing and sorting a few things for the next mission when he talks to you and asks what is bothering you. Your revelation makes him wonder.

"And they didn't say anything? Didn't say why?

You shake your head sadly.

Hunter puts down the datapad on which he's just checked an inventory list and turns to face you fully.

"Then they're not friends either"

You frown and look at him questioningly.

Gently but firmly, he says, "Friends don't just turn their backs on you without comment. Someone who doesn't even expend enough energy to tell you what might be bothering them didn't really care much about this friendship or you in the first place."

You wrap your arms around your body, really not feeling much better now.

Hunter comes closer and takes off a glove and gently strokes your cheek.

"I know that's probably not what you wanted to hear. What I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't have to chase after these people. Focus on your real friends, the ones you can always count on. Me, for example," he says with a smile, "Or my brothers. We would never abandon you".

"It just bugs me that I don't know what's going on," you say dejectedly, leaning your head against his chest.

Hunter puts an arm around your shoulders and continues to stroke your cheek with one hand.

"I know, that would keep me busy too. But all I can tell you is focus on other things, other, real friends, important things in your life. If you want I can ask them if you tell me who it is, but I can guarantee you, no matter how it turns out, friends like that will always let you down, again and again"

You sigh wistfully.

"You are a great person, a great friend and partner, don't worry, there will always be someone who appreciates that, one way or another"

Echo

He looks at you worriedly, a depressed expression on his face. Echo can't quite understand why anyone would act this way toward you.

"Maybe they just need some time to themselves?" he asks cautiously.

"All three of them?" you say doubtfully.

Echo sits down next to you in the grass in the shade where the found you and moves a little closer.

He says thoughtfully, "Real friends talk to each other, they say what's going on and don't just take off. Maybe they weren't as good friends as you thought."

"Maybe," you say quietly.

Echo puts an arm around you, and you automatically lean against him, seeking warmth and comfort from his body.

"You're never all alone, Mesh'la. I'm here, my brothers are here, and Omega adores you. You have a family here with us that you can always count on, at all times."

You smile. The loss of your friends hurts, especially that you don't know why. But the thought and feeling of having Echo by your side gives you a sense of security, the impression that everything is actually okay.

"I love you, Echo, what would I do without you?"

Echo gently hugs you and says, "Don't worry about that, you won't get rid of me that easily".

Wrecker

He looks at you in confusion.

"Why would they do that? Friends don't do that"

With a helpless sigh, you look up at your gentle giant.

"Maybe I've upset them?"

Wrecker frowns critically, takes your hand and pulls you with him to the open ramp where he sits down on it and pulls you onto his lap.

Gently putting both arms around you, he says, "Even if that were true, which I kind of can't imagine, then you bring up something like that. Problems that you ignore or eat into yourself only become bigger and bigger problems. If they're really upset about you, then they need to tell you, have a conversation. To just ignore you or shut you out is pretty childish."

You lean against him, resting your head on his shoulder.

"It just feels so weird, so heavy and devastating".

Wrecker strokes your back and pulls his arms, gently, a little tighter around you.

"Don't be sad Cyar'ika, you still have us after all, and that won't change. I love you"

"You are so sweet, Wrecker" you say softly with a small smile.

He chuckles, "I know, I'm great, aren't I?"

"Indeed," you say with a soft laugh, "I love you too."

Tech

He listened to you carefully. When you finish your sentence, Tech puts the datapad aside and looks at you thoughtfully.

"Why would a friend turn his back on you without justification?"

You shrug your shoulders helplessly.

"That's just what's bothering me. Did I upset them, perhaps?"

"Come here, my love," Tech taps the seat next to him invitingly for you to join him before he says, "Well, I think that's unlikely, but it's still possible. However, it still wouldn't justify a lack of explanation about the situation."

You look at him for help.

"What would you do, Tech?"

He blinks, then says, "You know me, I wouldn't dwell on it for long. Even if I had negative feelings about it, I would go on my way and do what needs to be done."

"But what if it was Hunter and Wrecker?"

Tech sighs, "Well, we had something similar with Crosshair, however he gave us some sort of explanation. I don't know, honestly, I don't think there could be a fault line between us that isn't addressed. Especially Hunter would be looking for a dialogue to clear things up, and Wrecker probably would too."

He looks at you, trying to read your face.

After a pause, he says, "Well, in my estimation, these friends aren't worth your concern or friendship. If they don't feel the need to communicate with you about any problems that may exist, then they are obviously not willing to put any particular effort into this relationship. So my conclusion would be, if you are not worth their effort, then you should do the same the other way around and save your energy for more important things and people that are worth yours. Time for new priorities. If it helps you, I could work out a plan with you to help you redirect your energies and reorganize. It may be a good therapeutic distraction."

You smile at him.

"My beloved genius, I would greatly appreciate your help, yes."

Crosshair

He frowns.

"Well, I guess they're idiots," he says dryly, "You know I don't like most of your friends anyway."

Crosshair doesn't like to share your attention, that's the main reason. He tolerates your friends for your sake, but he'd much rather have you to himself. However, he would never go so far as to try to separate you from your friends.

When he sees the sad look on your face, he says, "If they just cut all the lines without telling you why, then they weren't friends either. You don't turn your back on a friend for no reason, and even if there is a reason, at least you talk about it, and then you decide whether to go your separate ways."

"Is that so?" asks Echo dryly from the background.

"Quiet back there," Crosshair grumbles, "You knew why we parted ways, I never made a secret of why I left."

"True."

Crosshair looks at you again and says, "People who really care about you don't turn their backs on you without comment, no matter how much your opinions may differ. What happens after a clarifying conversation is another story"

"Sometimes an ugly one," Echo mutters.

Crosshair snorts, "Would you please stay out of this".

You look from one to the other, finally looking up at Crosshair and asking, "What do you think I should do?"

"Keep going. Don't run after them, focus on yourself and the people who are really there for you," he lifts your chin slightly with his long fingers, "Like me for example."

Wolffe

He puts down the box he just took off his speeder, takes off his helmet and tucks it under his arm. He looks at you with a furrowed brow.

"Well, I guess they're not really friends, then."

"What do you mean?"

Wolffe looks at you urgently, "Someone who really cares doesn't turn their back on you without comment. Simple as that."

You wrap your arms around your body.

"I guess they don't care about me then."

Wolffe sighs, lifting your chin with his fingers and seeking eye contact.

"I care about you, a lot. I'm certainly not the only one"

You look up at him, swallowing and blinking back tears.

"It's just so scary. It feels like at some point everyone could suddenly be gone and then I'm alone"

Wolffe puts his helmet on the speeder, then puts both hands on your shoulder left and right.

"Cyare, you're not alone, you won't be alone. It may feel scary and defeating now, but you'll get over it. You will see and learn in time who your real friends are, what really matters and what your priorities should be"

"You won't abandon me, right?"

Wolffe gently kisses your forehead and says, "Never."

Rex

Rex looks at you in surprise. He expected everything possible, but not really.

"Do I know these friends?"

"No not really"

He shrugs and says, "Well, I don't really know what to tell you. In my experience, friendships are never one sided, at least they shouldn't be. You invest quite a lot of energy in these contacts and suddenly nothing comes back? Mesh'la, it sounds like you were used and… well, don't need you anymore. That doesn't have much to do with friendship, though."

Startled, you sit down on a bench nearby. Rex follows you. He looks at you meekly and says, "Sorry, you probably didn't want to hear that."

You sigh softly and say, "Maybe. But maybe I needed to hear it."

Rex shrugs and says quietly, "Maybe I'm wrong too, Mesh'la, but you should focus on yourself for now and be careful in case they contact you again. You can't let them hurt you."

He sits down next to you and says with a gentle smile, "In any case, you have me, I won't let you down."

His hand clasps yours with gentle pressure.

When you look up at his face, he gives you an encouraging look with that mischievous, yet soft and warm smile of his.

"I got you, Mesh'la, always"

Ko-Fi (If you feel like giving me some coffee)

@rintheemolion

@andyoufollowyourheart @clone-whore-99

@brynhildrmimi @kaliel2310

@misogirl828 @tech-deck

@meshla-madalene

@chxpsi

@thebahdbitch

@nahoney22 @ladykatakuri

@darkangel4121

@ttzamara

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@padawancat97

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[ye4gerism]

THE PARADIS MIRROR MAGAZINE ISSUE #2

the new episode of the bachelorette just gets crazier (HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS???) ! let’s hear from some of the contestants!

EXCLUSIVES WITH THE BOYS (questions submitted by the viewers!)

“where do u see urself in 5 years?”

ARMIN ARLERT: i’m a magazine editor, so i’m hoping that one day i can have some sort of leadership role. only if my boss thinks it’s my time in five years!

EREN YEAGER: i’m hoping i can be a senior partner at my law firm within 5 years! it won’t be easy and it’s probably impossible but what an achievement that would be!

“what do they think of taylor swift/what's their favorite taylor swift song? (it tells you a lot about a man💀)”

ONYANKOPON: taylor swift? i’m not too fond of her. i hope that doesn’t get me kicked off the show.

JEAN KIRSTEIN: i’m not a big swiftie…i’m not a swiftie but her song ‘cardigan’ makes me think of my first high school love. obviously i’ve grown from that relationship but that break up was so hard and those lyrics match us so well. coming back and ending things. so, fuck you, taylor swift.

“how do you feel about marriage and kids?”

REINER BRAUN: i’m already raising a niece. luckily, i got to skip the baby stage but raising kids is already hard as is. i don’t mind having more though. it’s a learning experience. as for marriage…when you know, you know. maybe i will meet my wife on the bachelorette.

CONNIE SPRINGER: marriage has to happen. it’s been apart of my parents’ plan before i was born! all jokes aside, i’d like to get married, which is why i’m on the show! i have 2 siblings who are much younger than me, so i feel like a dad already. kids are cute, so i wouldn’t mind having some!

“Is Eren a hoe ?”

EREN YEAGER: i feel like i’m being targeted????

A LITTLE BIRDIE TOLD ME…: dirt on the cast

“Zeke has a monkey plushy he sleeps with at night”

If I were hit with human rights violation accusations, I’d hug onto my plushy too! Let’s let’s hope the accusations are just a joke. I don’t think they allow plushies in prison!

“Eren is uninterested”

I think have to disagree with this one. I don’t know why but I feel it in my soul that Eren wants y/n real bad.

“Jean has an STD and a bunch of bumps on his d*ck”

HELLO??? The last bachelorette dropped her pants once on the show. Let’s hope y/n is safe about it and that this isn’t true. Would hate to watch that go down. 😬

“eren and armin hooked up last night.”

Would this count as cheating? I mean, be who you are but remember what you’re on the show for.

“I think Zeke is trying to get y/n to pick eren”

After last week’s episode, it’s starting to look like it. And Eren got the best date too! No weird parenting game, no lack of care during a date. Mf went to DISNEY!!! Favoritism much??🤔

only two episodes in and the bach is taking quite a turn! until next time!

hey again! i’ll take a few more votes and responses before closing the poll and posting the chapter. i will try and get on my zoom again!😭 all my school stuff is starting up again and i’m much more dedicated to that.

i do want to address the poll! in regards to the questions, i’m looking for these answers:

not these:

the majority of the bachelorette is reader based. you write the stories! just wanted to address it bc i think we all got a little confused 😭

anyways, here’s the poll! if you already answered the written answer questions, feel free to skip (just let me know in the poll!). until next time :3

taglist: @katestrophes @taylarxse @invisible-mori @tanakaslastbraincell @mrsharuchiyo @parkerluvsu @conniesbbymama @444ctrl @gabbadabbad00 @cvberidiot @maliagurl @greeniegreengreen @teanica @illgrrl @asymetricstar @llovesero @haitainiwhore3 @durag_tanaka @crazychaoticizzy

[milesonthenet]

Earthspark has the potential to do great things.

Welcome to the House of Milesverse, and today we will be reviewing Transformers: Earthspark. Releasing in 2023, Earthspark is a 3D-animated Transformers cartoon. Like many series before it, it takes place in its own continuity. Interestingly, it is also not that far removed from the first series.

First, i have to apologize for putting it off for a while. I was set to do this earlier, but another topic just grabbed me at that moment. It felt more interesting to pull my thoughts together for that one. I hope you guys are still able to bear with me through this, though.

And without further ado? We jump in.

What is Earthspark about?

Earthspark is a unique Transformers series, in a way. Earthspark addresses the creation of the first 'earth-born' transformers. These are called Terrans, and they are the first of their generation. They are quite the anomaly, even gaining a different power source, as well.

Earthspark's story is also remarkable for adapting a post-war setting. Unlike prior series, it is not just an "Autobots versus Decepticons" story. Optimus Prime won, and now he's working alongside Megatron. Most of the 'conflict' in the series stems from escaped decepticon criminals, or other monsters of the week.

Or you know, Doctor Mandroid, the aptly named cartoonish villain. This second-rate Doctor Arkeville is the series' main antagonist. He represents the hatred against Transformers taken to the xenophobic extreme. After all, he's the type of guy to replace his arm with a cybertronian arm. I still do not know how he manages to lift that thing.

The series is also similar to the Generation 1 universe. The flashbacks do a lot to showcase the similarities, right down to animation styles. It is easy to see it as some sort of offshoot sequel, but I do not imagine there's much to actually focus on beyond being an homage.

Meet the Terrans:

As mentioned above, The Terrans are the evolution of Transformers. They are a new generation that's only just recently been born on Earth. They also act as the main viewpoint characters in the series. They are the fresh eyes from which we, as the audience, see the Transformers' stories unfold in a post-war setting.

The Terrans are the product of two children: Robby and Mo Malto. They act as usual human characters who tag along with the Transformers. Their contact with the Emberstone created the five main Terrans.

It's important to note that the Terrans are very 'human-like' in a sense most cybertronians are not. Their experiences make them more akin to awkward, giant robot children. This is important with how they play off with Robby & Mo. The two children act like their 'older siblings' in a way, which helps them learn about the world.

There are at least five Terrans we see in the series. All five of them have their own distinct personalities. The Maltobots is a recurring name that they have, and frankly? It is adorable.

The five Terrans are:

The competitive spy drone, Twitch.

The carefree motorcycle-and-sidecar, Thrash.

The extremely online SWAT truck, Hashtag.

The serene and calm owl, Nightshade.

The big-hearted stygimoloch, Jawbreaker.

Of the five? I believe Thrash is the one who needs the most development. Jawbreaker, Nightshade, and Hashtag have had major focus episodes based around them. Twitch also had this earlier on, including an episode with Wheeljack, her 'father'(he invented the drone she uses as her alt-mode). Thrash is rife with potential for storylines, and I hope season 2 takes a crack at it.

The Evolution of Megatron:

This series is, for a lot of people, the first time that they get to see a "good guy" Megatron.

Megatron is iconic for being an 80s menace with his various kooky powers. He's Optimus Prime's rival, a consistent thread between the two that is prevalent in every incarnation. Megatron's entire history has, for the most part, been him being played as the bad guy.

IDW is one of the most prominent examples of Megatron making a path to redemption. He's still committed numerous acts of hatred and destruction. He's ruined lives for the sake of conquest. Yet, that version of Megatron is content to face his path, and still believes he doesn't deserve true redemption.

Earthspark Megatron is, like IDW, a villain who's chosen to reform. He believes in a peaceful future for Cybertron, in spite of what many others think of his past tendencies. Megatron believes in the terrans as the future of what Cybertron can be. Megatron cares for his troops and detests the treatment and abuse that rogue decepticons are given.

Earthspark's Megatron is off to being a wonderful character already. The way he interacts with the humans, and Terrans, is a refreshing sight for fans only familiar with the cartoons. I am excited to see where his path goes. I would hope that the franchise does not decide to twist him into being a villain.

How Earthspark tackles human hatred:

One of the biggest pulls from Earthspark's history is its focus on war. It's hardly the first piece of media that has adopted the "War is obviously bad" stance. Other series have shown the damage and destruction that war has caused. With Earthspark, I just think it's taken an interesting approach to it. The way the world is set up, it's just brimming with potential.

Earthspark starts off with an interesting status quo for the Autobots. They are working together with the secret organization G.H.O.S.T. to protect the world from rogue decepticons. G.H.O.S.T. was on the frontlines helping stop decepticons during the great war on Earth. They formed an alliance with the Autobots, and saw much of the havoc that followed from the war.

On the surface, G.H.O.S.T. seems fine, but their ethics are morally dubious. They incarcerate decepticon prisoners with devices that lock them into their alternate modes. They basically control the autobots and how they act in public. G.H.O.S.T. are not the conventional "good guys" you would expect.

This leads us to Karen Croft, a high-ranking agent, and a real piece of work. Yes, her name is Karen, get it out of your system. Karen Croft is a driving presence in the war against cybertronians. She's the one who teamed up with Doctor Mandroid to accomplish her goals. All Karen wants is payback for the destruction wrought by the war. And how is she going to get that? Through conquering Cybertron, obviously!

Croft's genuine hatred of the cybertronians is played out over the course of her appearances. Her willingness to use her brother, and G.H.O.S.T. to get what she wants is frightening. Croft proves the angle that humans can be the real monster when they let their hatred blind them.

Speaking of Mandroid? He's no saint in the park either, he's just as bad. Mandroid, originally known as Doctor Meridian, lost his arm in the conflict years ago. Since then, he's become a delusional monster who seeks to destroy the cybertronians on Earth. Mandroid envisions himself as a defender of humankind.

Mandroid is a monster, and over the season, he becomes more monstrous. At first, he simply stole the arms off of cybertronians to make himself stronger. This causes him to require energon for sustenance. By the season finale, he's become an advanced, alien war machine. Mandroid goes even further when he kills Croft, by disintegrating her alive.

Mandroid and Croft stand out as being such visceral depictions of hatred. Their willingness to abuse and experiment on Cybertronians - even Decepticons, is cruel. Yet, I find that quality makes them fascinating for what they represent. They are what happens when humanity brings out their worst qualities. They are greedy, selfish, hateful, and full of spite.

The Transformers are often to blame for all the things that the war caused. The Home two-parter does a good job at displaying this. In the first half, Robbie Malto, one of the main protagonists, visits his old friend Stevie.

Stevie's first encounter with Twitch and Hashtag is meant to come off as insensitive and hurtful. The group comes across a graffiti piece that reads "TRANSFORMERS GO HOME". Stevie tries to play it off, indicating that the graffiti probably meant 'Decepticons'. The last straw for Robbie is when Stevie says that his father told him the Transformers "invaded" the planet.

Stevie is innocent, and he genuinely sees nothing with anything he's saying. However, it's easy to see how that mindset can influence people. In the end, Stevie grows, and he changes the graffiti to read "TRANSFORMERS ARE HOME".

It's likely that a lot of humans out there have disdain for the Transformers. I like the way that this story is structured. I feel like more focus on this could have been interesting to look at. What other stories could they have spun out of this plotline?

And why Transformers are people too:

That's enough focus on all the negatives. Now how about we focus on the positives?

As I said before, I think the 'maltobots' as a nickname is hilarious. It also is doubly fitting for the Terran cast. They are just as much a part of the family. This is heartwarming, even for Alex and Dot Malto, the parents. They adopted a bunch of sentient earthborn alien robots into their family.

The series really hammers in how close the Terrans are to the Maltobots. They are literally connected to Robbie and Mo, even emotionally. Because of this, the Maltobots can feel the humans' own reactions.

What i also love is the dynamic that the Terrans have wih the Cybertronians. Optimus Prime doesn't look at them and think that they are not real 'people'. He treats them just the same as any other cybertronian. He accepts them as they are, even in spite of them being untrained.

Megatron sees them as the future of their species and embraces their hybrid nature. They are lucky to be born in this current era, where they would not suffer from the effects of Cybertron's long-drawn war.

The series makes its effort to show how not all Cybertronians are 'bad' guys. This is even true of the Decepticon characters. Some of them are especially sympathetic in this iteration.

Tarantulas is a name usually related to laughing mad spiderbots who also might eat people. Earthspark reinvents him into being a reclusive spider bot with no interest in evil. Or eating people. All Tarantulas wants is to just be left alone so he can start a new life. Tarantulas may have been a decepticon, but he does not carry the usual lust for war that's commonly associated with them.

Tarantulas makes good friends with Nightshade, and the two are able to bond over science. They helped Tarantulas create his holographic projector. Tarantulas in addition, helped expand Nightshade's mind on what their alt-mode could be.

Starscream is a name everyone knows, as he's one of the most popular characters. He's typically portrayed as a treacherous force working to undo Megatron's reign. Any abuse that he suffered through those incarnations was warranted, due to his incompetence.

Earthspark's rendition of Starscream is notably tragic. Compared to his other incarnations, Starscream's abuse is played straight. Megatron's actions traumatized Starscream, and he's still deeply scarred. Starscream is able to find a sympathetic ear in Hashtag, who believes his stories. This act endeared Hashtag to him, and the two of them bonded.

Breakdown is a Stunticon, and the Stunticons are all generally crazy. Breakdown's usually the paranoid one, whose always superstitious of others. In spite of his scaredy cat nature, Breakdown is not a threat to be trifled with.

Earthspark's Breakdown humanizes him and gives him a relationship with Bumblebee. The two of them are old friends from before the war began. Now that the war is over with, they spend their time racing together.

Breakdown chose to sacrifice himself to save Bumblebee from being detected by G.H.O.S.T. This was during a race that Breakdown wagered with Bumblebee. If Bee won, he would lay low and hide. However, if Breakdown won, he would get Bee's energon suppressors. Ultimately, he lost, but he managed to help Bumblebee escape from their trackers.

These there are stand-out examples of Decepticons who aren't just "villainous". They might have joined the wrong side, but they always step up for their friends. I'm hoping that we see any of the three in the next season. It just seems natural to want another appearance.

Conclusion: Earthspark is one heck of a road, but one worth paving.

Earthspark's ideas are certainly worth exploring. However, I feel like there's more depth that can be explored through the series. I want to see them really engage with the cybertronian hate in later episodes. I want to see the Terrans get more acquainted with Earth's interesting customs. I want to see so much happen with this series and watch it blossom int osomething amazing.

I am hoping that Earthspark finds a way to tie Cybertron into it's storyline. It just feels like a natural path to take with the series. I am just curious on how the residents of Cybertron would react to the growing life on Earth. You could even make a divide between the Cybertronians and the Terrans.

Earthspark is filled with so much potential for a Transformers series. I hope that it's not squandered over the course of it's series. Things are just starting to heat up, after all. We have another season or two to deal with. Even more, there were some funny allusions to the iconic Quintessons in the last few episodes...

What's next?

That was my review of Transformers: Earthspark! I hope you enjoy it. I will try to keep up the pace with these Tumblr posts. I'm trying not to get lazy on ya'll with my next few.

I'm going to finally start dealing with Moon Girl season 2 (Hallelujah!), do a top 10 on the X-Men's 'silliest' mutations, and maaaaybe dip into some of my favorite Moon Knight moments? Look forward to some more Unseen Stars as well!

And while we're at it?

HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY, TRANSFORMERS!

Seriously, turning 40 years old for a franchise is a really big achievement for them. We have been watching these Robots in Disguise for the last 40 years. I'm glad to have been a fan of the franchise. I'm even more excited for what the future will hold.

[paris-in-space]

I need to get the thoughts I’m having about Doctor who out because if they just stay circulating my head I don’t know if I’ll be able to get to sleep it’s been 2 hours and I’m tired but my brain is refusing to shut down.

So, Dot and Bubble spoilers beware. Also these thoughts will be in the order I think of putting them down not in the chronology of the episode.

Weird place to start but one thing I got caught up on was the style of makeup that the majority of finetime characters had, like it was heavy and unflattering but in a way that seemed like maybe they were trying to go for a more natural look. And I’m sure there is something to be taken from this about the way people present themselves online but I’m too tired to do proper analysis it just struck me early on that I didn’t like the makeup. (It did feel fitting though)

I literally went “OH SHES BEING RACIST” out loud at the end. I do admit that although I did notice the weird vibes in Lindy’s responses to the doctor I didn’t pick up the exact meaning until that last scene, but then so many things clicked into place and made sense once I understood that fully. Like when she responded badly to the doctor appearing on the screen a second time I took it as irritation at his persistence, didn’t even think for a second that she didn’t realise it was the same guy.

Lindy deserves to get eaten by a slug.

Ricky September you deserve so much better.

(Not going to lie I didn’t think he was as attractive as everyone was making him out to be no offence to the actor I think it was a case of the weird makeup strikes again)

The lack of human connection is another thing that really stood out. This is the second episode this series to feature the concept of people never being hugged, albeit in different contexts. Just everyone being so focused in on themselves that basic human connection isn’t present in their society is such a sad thought, no wonder it turns out people like Lindy with no value for the lives of others and understanding of cultural differences if she has no meaningful relationships in her life at all. Just. Hug your friends guys (as long as they’re comfortable with it I know some people struggle with being touched)

The Doctor failing is such a rare thing, like of course there are tons of occasions where the Doctor can’t save everyone but they always try and almost always save at least someone. But these people cannot be saved, and it’s not the slugs that they can’t be saved from, it’s themselves. I think the lack of explanation into the detail of what actually was going on ties into this, because this time the Doctor doesn’t get to do a little “Here’s what’s been going down I saved you look how clever I am!” Because even the Doctor, the most caring wonderful being in the universe can’t save people who refuse to change and accept his help just because he’s different. The unfinished downer feeling feels totally intentional. Like, these people suck, the Doctor doesn’t get to experience a conclusive win, so neither do we as the audience.

The fact that this episode took place in the future too, they really said, just because time passes and things look like they’ve developed, societal issues have not disappeared and are still prevalent (I am white just so you know that’s the perspective I’m coming from) I think it’s a much more powerful way to address racism by putting it in a future setting than in the past. It’s very easy with historical settings to look at a piece of media and be like okay so the racism is awful but that is how it was, it’s uncomfortable but we can sort of look around it because everyone was doing it back then. But you put it in the future and you can’t look around it anymore because it should not be happening, should no longer be culturally acceptable. I’m struggling to put into words exactly what I mean, but it’s the difference between oh times were different back then it sucks but that’s how it was and times are not that different there’s still a massive issue to address here we can’t just sweep it under the rug of the past if we actually want things to be fair for everybody. It definitely made me think a lot more than a similar situation in a historical setting probably would have (not that that wouldn’t make me think but this has more impact)

On a more lighthearted note, the Dot flying around reminded me of the baubles from Runaway Bride. This is Doctor Who you cannot escape the floating balls.

Ruby doing the hair tuck seeing Ricky… she’s so real for that.

Overall I really love the concept of everyone so caught up in their own little world that they fail to see the horrors right before them. And it all comes back to the importance of human connection and understanding.

This has got to be the most thought provoking episode in a long time, and I’m sure there’s more thoughts I’ve had that I’ve forgotten to mention here.

[danses-with-dogmeat]

Day 12 -- Caesar

The (nsfw) details for Kinktober 2023, Day 12 are just below the cut!

Minors, please don’t interact.

Somnophilia with Caesar x F!Six

Caesar is... super creepy and bad overall. Just had to put that out there. He's a bad guy, a very shitty person, and this is him still being shitty and bad.

That being said... he is pretty interesting to write for? Just the way that a person's mind, when they are practically deified, can become so egotistical as to think that the universe literally revolves around them and their experiences was just... wild to explore.

Anywho, I hope y'all like it?

This is another one though, DEFINITELY read the included for a whole SLEW of TWs.

Here is the link to my  Kinktober 2023 Event List so you can stay up-to-date, or re-visit these works as you please.

Included: (nonconsensual) Somnophilia, medical play, noncon/rape, aphrodisiacs, slavery, legion bullshit, entitlement & ego, restraints, (really) possessive sex, unhealthy relationships, obsession, allusions to erectile dysfunction, painful sex, breeding kink, purity kink, delusional and misogynistic Caesar, creampie, (author approves of absolutely none of this at all).

Words: 4k

--

“She looks so innocent this way, so… vulnerable. But I suppose that’s what sleep is, isn’t it? Vulnerability… You know,” Caesar ran his fingers over the sleeping courier’s arm, keeping his gaze locked to her peaceful expression, even as his head turned to better address Siri, where she stood across from him in the extended room of his tent. “Most social species understand this very idea. They post sentries for the pack while the others sleep, while they are exposed, unable to resist any fate which may befall them whilst they’re unconscious… A shame the courier didn’t have the option, nor the social resources, to take such measures. Hmm... When will she wake?” 

He spoke still without looking at the slave. Siri need not be paid any mind, as she was merely the administrator, the examiner, and now her job was finished. Now, he and Six could be alone. 

Finally. 

“Soon.” She answered him quickly. “The herbal mixture should pass through her system in the next half hour, or so. Shouldn’t be longer than that, surely. Though, it’s not always easy to tell when–”

“Enough. That answer was adequate, I don’t need to hear your rambling. Is mine ready yet?”

She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted before she could utter so much as a word. 

“A simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ will suffice. I don’t need every ingredient involved, or your life’s story.” 

“Yes.” Siri’s voice was monotone. Unemotive, but unbothered. 

It wasn’t like this sort of interaction was uncommon. 

And Caesar… while he appreciated her function in his society, he’d never taken a particular liking to her. One thing was certain now, though. She didn't envy Courier Six. 

“Good. You’re permitted to leave.” 

She nodded to him, almost more akin to a bow, and moved to take her leave, before his cold voice stopped her once more. 

“Oh, and Siri? Tell the others I’m not to be disturbed.” 

One more affirming nod, and the tent flaps opened to allow her through. As they fluttered to a close, Caesar tore himself from Six’s table and went to take the herbal mixture Siri had left him into his hand. He swirled it around curiously in the mortar she’d prepared, before downing the bitter potion with a grimace. 

The taste may have been rather grotesque, but the effect of the mixture was near immediate. Or perhaps it was merely placebo, but it mattered not. If it worked, who was he to care?

Caesar sighed aloud as he felt his body physically warm, his spine tingling as an anticipatory feeling settled deep in his gut. It was almost as though he could feel the way his pupils dilated, the way his blood ran hotter and faster through his veins. 

The absence of pain was a boon as well, particularly in his head. He’d often considered utilizing this mixture’s effects on his worst headache days for that reason, but there were… adverse symptoms to consider. 

Symptoms which he now planned on taking full advantage of. 

“You have managed to do the near impossible, my pet.” He spoke now to the unconscious Six, strapped down on the medical cot she’d been examined upon. His voice was low, strained with a growing intensity of feeling, of the sensations roiling within him. Caesar was relieved no one was here to witness the way he was, so quickly, becoming undone. 

“You…” Caesar paused to pant out a few heavy breaths, trying to keep from becoming completely overwhelmed at the licentious feelings spiraling through him, the promiscuous thoughts that barricaded his usually composed and aplomb mind. “You have surprised me. Quite the feat, I know.” 

He approached her now, prowling like a possessed animal until he could brace his stiff hands on the side of the cot, and then run his fingers over her bare side. 

Naked women in the Legion were about as common as clothed ones in any other society, but even still, to look upon the courier so wholly… The delicacy of it had his mouth watering, had his tongue wanting for a taste of what was now his. 

Scars small and large littered her otherwise delicate skin, her muscles were toned from surviving in this harsh land, like many of the slaves they kept on such a rigorous schedule of serving. But even still… there was something alluring about her… unremarkable visage. Perhaps it was that she was a dead woman walking, as surreal to gaze upon as a ghost, but no less beautiful than a dancing spirit, however haunting one might be. She was the one, the point zero one percentile, that could evidently survive anything the wasteland threw her way. It was admirable; her tenacity, her cunning, the way she’d tried to betray him… her innocence too, was something he found tasteful. 

Of course he’d been tracking her every move, having Vulpes or another Frumentarius listen in on her conversations. If he was ever going to trust her, he needed to know where her loyalties lay. 

Caesar would never trust her though. Trust is a fickle thing that would just as soon stab you in the back as promise to be in your life forevermore. 

No, but if he could control her… Then he could explore this curiosity of his, he could understand her, inside and out. She could be his. 

All he needed was this. Siri to put her under, to do an examination, ensure she had no wasteland diseases she could give him, no seed of a previous partner already festering inside her, where only he belonged. 

But the girl had come up clean. So clean, in fact, the minx had him wondering if she was pure… Oh, to be this creature’s first… To take something from this extraordinary person that can never be returned to her, and make it– make her– his own. 

You’d have to be a fool not to see that Six was created for him, brought to him like fate delivers years upon the living; inevitably, forcefully, demanding your attention. Their meeting was as certain as the sunrise, as notable as the stars, and he’d known, from that moment, when he saw the twin scars upon her forehead, when he felt his pain pulse cripplingly in that very same spot within himself that he saw marked upon her… Caesar knew that their futures were tied with one another with so many bounds of rope. 

“Now…” He continued speaking to her in hushed tones, his voice rough from the climbing arousal spreading through his body. “Now I will make you mine.” 

His hands had been exploring her all the while Caesar was in his thoughts, dragging his shaking fingers over her smooth torso, her lower stomach, up to her shapely throat, her full breasts. Those, he paid particular attention to, noting the way he felt his cock begin to swell, with more than just what the herbs provided him. 

A rare talent indeed.

He’d thought maybe it would be worth seeing if she could keep him hard all on her own, if she could get him all the way through his climax… But the herbs became more attractive when he remembered how long they lasted. 

If only her own medication lasted longer. I like her this way. Pliant, yielding. Unable to interrupt me or refuse me at every turn. 

There was a certain appeal to her resistance of him, the fire in her, and she chose to showcase it with her words and wit more so than with physicality, which was refreshing, but he wanted to at least be able to get her ready for him without such a fuss. 

Six was tied down, so he didn’t fear too much unwillingness from her in that sense, but she was strong-willed, and would fight the arousal Caesar was bound to bring her, and if she truly was innocent, well…

He’d rather not have her in pain. As much as that sort of discipline worked wonders on their slaves, Six was his, not the Legion’s. He would not have her completely broken before she’s able to properly serve. 

In time, who knows? She may come to have affection for him. Caesar knows that the possibility is there from the feelings he often finds festering within himself on those sleepless nights he thinks of her; the conversations they’ve had buzzing about his aching head, her expressions, the annoyed ones and the inquisitive ones, her anger and her mirth. 

Caesar looked forward to the myriad of looks he would be privy to tonight. 

Without further preamble, the Legion leader set his sights between her slightly spread legs. The bonds were holding her knees wide enough apart for him to slot his hips between them, but there would be time enough for that soon…

First, he set a finger upon her, starting at her entrance and smoothing the pad of it between her lower lips until he felt the point of her clit. She was still slick from the jelly Siri had used to examine her, but he could do better. 

Raising that same hand to his nose, Caesar took a deep inhale and felt his limbs shake with anticipation as her musky, sweet scent curled around him until he could all but taste it. He was almost tempted to drink from the source, as it were, but that was for a night when she’d earned it, for when he was feeling more patient, and his erection wasn’t practically ripping a hole in his tunic. 

No, he decided. Just his hands, for now. 

Before he carried on, Caesar adjusted the bed that way he’d seen Siri do it, dropping it to be perfectly level with his hips. 

It was orgasmic already, the way his head didn’t ache, the way the most discomfort he could feel was emanating from his swollen cock, and that too, would soon be rectified. 

Caesar’s hand returned to her then, two fingers stroking around her folds, spreading the moisture that was already there down to her entrance and back up to brush over her sensitive little nub. Sparingly, he rubbed there with his thumb as well, until he felt it begin to swell under his touch and saw the way her hips twitched unconsciously upwards in her sleep. Usually, Caesar would never opt to give a woman pleasure this way. She was meant to derive it from ‘the bliss of servitude,’ but he knew it was bullshit. It was meant to demean them, and give his men an excuse not to be too distracted by the slaves here. They were meant to be used, not fallen in love with, not doted over, not pleased. 

Six was his, though, and while he would discipline her the way he might a slave at first, he also planned on rewarding her when she was deserving of it. 

Six’s breathing picked up in her sleep, and Caesar looked on with intensity at the way her brows furrowed over her closed eyes, the way her breasts jostled with every breath, the way her muscles tensed beneath his attentions. He licked his lips at the sight of it, at the feeling of her own unique wetness beginning to gather over his prodding fingers. 

No more waiting. Caesar told himself, and pulled his hand away, scowling at the way her movements ceased, her breath slowed again. 

She’ll be awake any minute. 

Caesar stepped back to pull apart his tunic, moving the folds so he could reveal his erection to his unconscious companion. He hissed as the moist tip met the cool air of the Mojave night, and felt goosebumps erupt over his arms and the back of his neck at the sensitizing feeling. Trembling slightly, the leader stepped forward, his hand shaking as it guided the broad head of his cock to her little entrance. Six’s lower lips were dark with arousal that he dreamed mirrored his own, as he noted the dark color encasing his member, the way his own pre-arousal leaked from the weeping slit. 

“Tu eris bonum mihi, meus deliciae, won’t you? My Six…” 

It wasn’t often he became sentimental, least of all with women, but this… Caesar wished he could document it somehow. It felt pivotal, significantes, Homeric… fateful. 

There were no proper words to describe the overwhelming feeling of one’s fate being fulfilled, of two destinies intertwining for the first time, when it was bound to have been planned out from the very dawn of the ages of man, and of the earth itself. 

Perhaps he could request a painting from one of his more talented artists to commemorate an event such as this…

She was warm against him as he rubbed the tip of his length along her folds, not wishing to stall, but not wanting to rush through this process either. It would only happen once, after all. Especially if this was the moment in which he was stripping her purity away, in favor of endowing her with the honor of his occupancy en perpetuum.

With that thought fresh and desirable in his mind, Caesar slotted the head of his cock against her opening, pushing forward an inconsequential smidge, to the feeling of only a little resistance on her part. 

A good sign. 

A sigh escaped him as he gripped his cock more firmly with his hand, the other resting on her hip, his fingers sinking and dimpling the skin there. 

She will accept me. 

His eyes stayed trained between her legs as he began to unreservedly press inside. The movement only grows in its unyielding nature, as he feels her entrance stretch around him, as her walls expand to take his very shape. Like the artists of old, Caesar took her body like a slab of marble, etching his name into her, shaping and molding her to the image he perceived, to the one he desired. Her face was a work of art in and of itself, as Six’s eyes finally fluttered open, the color of them startlingly vivid as her gaze met with his. It was hazy with her fatigue, but her brows were drawn together in what he could only determine as discomfort. 

It was all he could hope for. 

Six waking up just as he settled completely within her. She was utterly full of him, and her breath hitched as the image she was met with made sense in her fatigued mind, as it melded with the sensations of her body. 

She was likely to be sore already, what with Siri’s thorough examination, but after his anticipated attentions, Six would be lucky if she could stand in the morning. 

With that smug thought, Caesar wrapped both hands around the swell of her hips, and hauled himself out until only the tip of his cock remained. Six’s eyes widened and glistened at her waterline as she felt the drag of him leaving her, and then, he slammed back in. It was with distinct effort that Caesar kept himself from repeating that euphoric action immediately and with even greater vigor. 

Just once is enough. For now.

No breaking her. His cross mind reminded him. We have time. 

“W-wha.. The hell?”

Six’s voice was weak, slurred a bit from her groggy awakening, but Caesar paid her no mind, only kept his eyes trailing hungrily over her form as he pulled back and delivered another dizzying thrust into her. Though this time, he did force himself to hold back, to move more slowly, despite the herb-enhanced sensations urging him on, on, on.

“F-fuck, what the hell? What are you doing?”

The pain of his last invasion seemed to spike her into reality faster than was usual with the medication she’d been given. Caesar couldn’t complain though. Not now that he was firmly within her, not now that his plans were in full motion.

“Taking what is mine by right. Lex nostra est. You are a woman in the Legion, what did you expect?” He spoke to her almost passively as he continued focusing on the physical, the bliss sparking through his doped up body as his pace steadily increased. 

Truly, Caesar was being quite polite in terms of the Legion. He’d warmed her up, he was taking his time, he didn’t punish her for the way she spoke to him, so out of turn.

Others in her position likely would have been on their way to a cross by now.

Due to the circumstances though, Caesar would allow his Six a few select liberties. For now.

“Yours by– goddamn it, I never should’ve– Ah, fuck, get off of me!”

A panic seemed to set in, and she shouted rather dramatically as she strained against the ties that held her firmly to the cot. 

“I’m serious, you asshole, get off of me now!”

Caesar paused in his thrusting, feeling the distinct pulse of his cock within her spasming walls as he panted heavily from above her struggling form.

“You command me?” He scoffed, “I don’t think so. Not here. Are you so blind as to not see it?” 

Six's confused expression and distracted squirming were enough of an answer for him. 

“The way that you belong with me?” He punctuated it with a violent surge of his hips against her, and Six's gaze locked to him with a gasp, as she fully ceased her struggles. Pure horror shone through her expression, disbelief and fear and disgust rampant in those vivid eyes, and Caesar had to keep from slapping her. 

Am I really alone in my belief? It cannot be so…

Instead, he hiked his hips out of her until only his tip remained, and drove forward painfully until his hips smacked audibly against the skin of her ass. A yelp of pain left her throat unwillingly as he repeated the action, testing the strength of the cot’s bonds with every fervent, furious movement. 

“You. Are. Mine.” Each word left him with a forceful buck of his hips, his teeth gritting together painfully as he felt his anger boil up inside him.

So be it. If breaking the ungrateful whore will get her attention, if it will force sense into her unreasoned mind and inject understanding into her stubbornness, then that is the sacrifice I will make.  

The herbs he’d been given were known to do this as well, to increase all sensations, in addition to libido, to make one have less reservations, to feel emotions more vividly than usual. 

Perhaps he should have saved a sip of the mixture for her. Maybe then her potential affections for him could've been forced to the surface.

“I’m not yours.” Six spat, crudely interrupting his thoughts as his gaze honed in on her: the way her fists clenched in pain against the metal sides of the cot, her gritted teeth, the tears running down over her temples, the veins bulging in her neck. 

What a sight… If only she could understand.

“Are you a fool, Six?” Another painful thrust had the woman wincing away from him with tears in her eyes. “You truly believed you would be treated differently here? After you saw the other slaves, after Siri warned you what you might become if you stayed?” 

“I d-don’t know… You talked to me, I thought…” She was starting to look confused now, some sort of female hysteria setting in and causing her to go numb, he was certain. It happened with many slaves during their breaking. 

So soon though… maybe she’s not the spitfire I thought she was.

“I trusted you.” Six said with a snarl and a realization, and Caesar half-grinned at the savagery that rose within her in just that short moment. 

Ahh, I thought too soon. Good.

“Get fucking off me! Can you just– I want to talk, we can discuss–”

“No, Six. I’m not leaving until you understand. Meus es.” He pushed forward then with finality, sinking into her more slowly as he let his body lay upon hers, his hands sliding up from her hips, grazing over her belly, up to both breasts, then to cage in her face from either side. 

“You are mine.” 

His grip tightened until he could feel her jaw tensing, feel the bones beneath the swell of her cheeks. 

“Nothing you say or do from here onwards can change that. You have been mine, since I first heard your story.” He was still panting from his exertion, but his voice was less feverish now. The certainty of his resolve was plain within it. “A life as indestructible as yours, a mind so impenetrable, to mix with my brilliance, my power… We’ll be insurmountable.” 

Six’s mouth hung open, maybe in shock, maybe in awe, and maybe those were just too similar to bother distinguishing between. Nonetheless, Caesar took advantage, and plunged his lips against hers, capturing her opened mouth with his tongue, conquering and swiftly pulling away before she had a chance to bite. 

She would yield to him, in time. Already, his muse was doing beautifully. A fine mix of resistance and submission that had his cock swelling and his thoughts running wild with the possibilities. 

He was growing close, and so, Caesar pulled away again, until he was fully out of her. The action– his absence– he hoped would make Six realize how she craved the feeling of him filling her. She would associate this gaping nothingness, the want that came with it, with her desire for him to remedy it, to make her feel whole once more. 

Six needed him. 

She had to see it that way, had to see that they would be unstoppable as a force, that the Legion was meant to thrive, with them leading the way. The future of this great faction lies within the realm of both of their responsibilities. She needed him to lead her and the faction both, needed him in order to become a mother, as he knew all women craved, and… He needed her as well. For the future of his faction, Caesar needed her to bear his heir before the pain in his mind took him for good. 

She needed his intellect, he needed her wit. He craved the way she amused him, and she surely needed an audience. 

They completed each other in every way possible, and that fact was evident, as Caesar reinserted himself and surged forward until he felt the very last resistance within her. Six cried out and her body tensed deliciously around him. 

Instead of pulling away for another thrust, Caesar merely ground his hips against her, keeping himself buried as far as he could go and laying waste to the last barricade within her. She bucked her hips in discomfort beneath him, lost for words as she whined out incomprehensible expletives and writhed against the feeling of him within her. 

Sweat beaded on Caesar’s forehead, lightning shot in bursts down his spine, and his hands gripped her hips until they were sure to leave marks there, but finally, he felt his bliss reach a peak, he felt himself tense up, felt his length swell further within her, and then he was bursting against that final, defensive rampart deep inside. Vise-like walls gripped him until he felt wrung of all his blistering, white seed as her body reacted favorably to his final claiming of her. 

It took Caesar a moment before he could see or hear anything but bright, splotchy colors surrounding him with his explosive release, but when the fog began to clear from his head, when the last rope of spend leaked out from his eager slit, he heard the way Six moaned out his name. 

Perhaps it was to curse him, to ask him one last time to get off of her, or maybe he had her. Maybe she’d come to realize all he said was true. Maybe now she knew she was his. 

It didn’t matter too much to Caesar, regardless. If Six was cursing him or declaring her dedication to him, he would know her true colors in the coming months. For now, though, for tonight, it didn’t matter what she said or felt. She would grow used to this, in time. 

Perhaps even by the end of the night. Caesar thought, and felt his blood begin to boil up again.

[mandos-mind-trick]

The Thing About Soulmates...

Okay, so I've been wanting to make a post like this for a while, I just haven't gotten around to doing it until now. I considered kind of dropping bits and pieces of stuff like this into the fics themselves, but then I decided I really wanted to make them all about the clones and that this kind of stuff might take away from that a little bit. I also wanted to leave things a little bit intentionally vague because I feel like it sort of adds to the more common understanding of soulmates in the galaxy and how little is really understood, at least from the common being's perspective.

So I'm making a sort of master post explaining a little bit deeper in detail about soulmates and clones and the Republic and how they all kind of work. That, and I know not everyone is going to want to read the entire series so sprinkling bits in every fic wouldn't really work if someone prefers not to read one, they might miss it. So here's what's gonna be a really long post about how soulmates work in my AU.

So, I've touched a bit in the fics about this thing called Fate. Most of the readers call the thing that designates soulmates and their links "Fate." It's a sort of invisible force that is sort of omniscient and a bit omnipotent. In the Wollfe Soulmate AU, the idea of Fate gets addressed a little deeper, simply because the reader's culture heavily believes in Fate being this all knowing, guiding force and things will just happen because they're fated to. There's also probably some species and cultures that even view Fate as being a sort of deity almost.

In reality, though, "Fate" and the Force are the same thing. The Jedi understand that it's the Force that's creating these connections and driving people to each other. Every being in the galaxy is made up of midi-chlorians, but some have more than others which is what allows them to be sensitive to the Force, blah blah blah we all know that much.

It's a bit simplified to say that it's the midi-chlorians making the bonds between people. They do play a role, at least in forming the physical side of the bonds. Marks, dreams, all the ways soulmate links can present themselves, the midi-chlorians have a hand in, and the physical feelings one experiences when touching their soulmate is brought on by the midi-chlorians reacting and interacting with each other.

But it's ultimately the Force that's behind the matching, the influencing of actions that lead soulmates to each other. How exactly the links work, how they're able to influence such strong emotions and feelings is still relatively vague because that's just something that can't really be put in words. It just is.

Allowing the soulmate bond ultimately makes the two stronger. Two Force-wielders who are mated together, if they allow the bond to form, would be able to utilize the Force better and ultimately be stronger in the Force by allowing the Force to flow through their bond.

That's partially why the Jedi enforce rejection.

I like to think many many many thousands of years ago, the Jedi did allow soulmate bonds, as it did allow for them to be stronger in the Force, but it came with the downside of weakness with one's emotions. Since soulmates invoke such strong emotions, trying to remain balanced in the Force can become harder. That's why so many fell to the Dark Side and there were so many Sith. The Jedi had to decide that, while rejecting your soulmate made you weaker in the Force, and also caused some pretty agonizing physical symptoms, it kept the temptation of the Dark Side at bay.

So the Jedi, for thousands and thousands of years, had to reject their soulmates once they inevitably met. This practice continued into the time of the Clone Wars, though, as we'll see shortly, not all Jedi necessarily agreed.

The decision on the Kaminoans part to make the clones reject their soulmates was easy, since they were tasked with creating perfect, loyal soldiers. It was unknown early on whether the clones would even have their own soulmate links, seeing as they are clones, but it became very prevalent early on that they do, in fact, all have unique, individual soulmate links. That stems from the Jedi being able to tell all of the clones individually in the Force, proving that though they may be genetically the same, they're still all individuals.

The Republic was quick to agree to the same rule that clones should not be allowed to form bonds with their soulmates, and the Jedi were expected to uphold that rule if they discovered a clone had in fact found their soulmate. They needed numbers in their army, and having clones desert for their soulmate was not a good look, nor was it beneficial to the army trying to win these big, impossible battles.

While the Kaminoans were strict in enforcing the rule that all clones must reject their soulmates upon meeting, the Jedi were not. Though Jedi can sense the connection between two beings since it is based in the Force, many of them simply refused to, or were so busy they didn't have the time to. After all, it would be exhausting walking through thousands of clones, trying to sense a soulmate bond in just one.

And, most of the Jedi, unlike the Republic, viewed the clones as being individuals. Stripping yet another piece of their humanity away felt cruel. Not to mention, most clones didn't have the time to go through the process of rejection. Though the initial pain of the link being broken would fade eventually, the lingering pain and emotions was something that could last a lifetime. How can one be an effective soldier when they're still mourning the loss of half of their soul?

This led to many of the Jedi Generals choosing to ignore if they happened to feel a bond formed in a clone. Some upheld the rule, some even enjoyed enforcing it (*cough cough* Krell) but most just chose not to pay that much attention to the private lives of the troopers.

Obi-Wan is proof of that, in the Cody fic, he's the one who figures out reader is Cody's soulmate. Though he chose to uphold the Jedi Code and reject his soulmate (*ahem* Satine) since it would be far too complex for both of them to even try to keep it, he never forgot his feelings or what could have been. So of course, he's going to look the other way, despite being the one to figure out Cody had just met his soulmate.

Anakin also does not care to uphold the rule. He literally is secretly married to his soulmate so like...he's not gonna force his men to uphold something he didn't. I actually had a part written for the Rex fic where Anakin discovers them and of course reader freaks out but Anakin's just like "I trust Rex to keep my secret, so I'll keep his," but I decided to omit it cause that's kind of easy to figure out if Anakin ever did find out, he'd obviously keep their secret. Same with the others in his Battalion.

Aayla and Bly are literally married so that speaks for itself.

This is going to come up briefly in the Wolffe fic (which at the time of this being written has not been posted yet) but Plo Koon definitely has a "don't ask, don't tell" policy about his boys. He obviously cares deeply about the clones under his command and he's definitely not going to enforce that rule and force them through that, when really they don't need to. Obviously the war's gonna end eventually, and the clones deserve something to look forward to after. Even if he does figure it out, he's not gonna report anything. Let his boys be happy.

I chose to omit a lot of this simply because I wanted to focus on the clones and how just the general public in the galaxy understands soulmates. Obviously the Force is mostly unknown or mysterious to the general public so they're not going to have the understanding the Jedi do. I did want to kind of give a deeper dive into it for those interested and kind of explain that the clones and most of their Generals don't uphold the rule about rejection when it comes to them.

The original fic that actually started this whole series (that is also unfinished at the time of writing and posting this) takes a deeper look into soulmates and how they work from the Jedi's perspective. It touches more on how Force-sensitivity affects soulmates and vice versa, how soulmate links affect the Force and Force-sensitivity. It goes a lot more in depth into things like this versus just the more surface understanding the clones and most of the galaxy has about soulmates. I do plan on finishing it and posting it once I get the clone series done. I intended to post it first, but then it grew into more than just a simple one-shot and I got clone brainrot so I'm doing things a little backwards.

Anyway, I thought I'd post this just cause it would be fun and some people might be interested in getting a deeper look into things and how they work beyond just the explanations in the fics.

So I hope you enjoyed this nerd brain dump as much as I loved writing it.

[chirpsythismorning]

Rick Conroy's Recent Rentals:

Romancing the Stone (1/2/3)

As a refresher, this is a shot from 4x02: Vecna's Curse. Robin, Max, Dustin and Steve are using the Family Video's database to look through the most recent rentals of all the Ricks in town as hints for which one Reefer Rick is, so that they can find his address to track down Eddie.

Unfortunately for them, the selection here for this specific Rick didn't give off 'reefer' vibes and so they moved onto the next one. Luckily for us, the Duffers are nerds and this could be important.

While there are several Rick's they skim through, this one in particular had me intrigued. And so I will be analyzing these films, as well as whether or not they could have been inspiration for s4 or whether they may even be predicting events still yet to happen in s5.

3. Romancing the Stone (1984)

The plot of Romancing the Stone revolves around an American Romance/Adventure novelist, Joan Wilder, who has to travel to Colombia to save her sister. While there, she gets stranded in the jungle, though 'luckily' she runs into an American exotic bird smuggler, Jack T. Colton, who has a lot of experience in said jungle and whose basically her only hope in finding and saving her sister.

What makes this movie probably the most interesting out of the three, is that it's directed by Rob Zemeckis. If you don't know, Zemeckis also directed Back to the Future (1985).

In fact, if you look close, you'll see an interesting parallel that makes my explanation for this analysis a whole lot easier to transition into.

Basically, Zemeckis revealed later in life that the success from his film Romancing the Stone was what allowed him to make Back to the Future in the first place.

And so this just makes this iconic Marty McFly outfit kind of hilarious when you realize it's actually paying homage to another character.

Which means that this....

Could also mean this...

Not only do the costumes check out in terms of us being able to potentially associate Will with this character Jack, but the actual context of the story also makes it hard not to.

Jack is framed as someone who has way more knowledge and experience within this jungle in comparison to the protagonist, Joan, whose only ever explored adventures in her writing, not in reality.

Remind you of anyone?

Basically, I think that the reference to this film could be hinting at Mike and Will in the upside down together.

We know there have been a lot of hints leading up to that potentially in s5, though right now we don't know what it will for sure look like (whose going first? Mike or Will?), it's very likely to happen in some shape or form.

I do think that this film could act as a simple reference just like Sixteen Candles, with the meaning linked to ST being easy to spot and point out, Ie. Jack/Joan represent Will/Mike.

The main thing in this film that I think is an undeniable parallel, is this mention of a treasure map that Joan is planning to use as ransom to get back her sister. This map is labeled in big block letters with 'El Corazon' AKA the heart.

I obviously don't think we're going to be dealing with any lost treasure in ST like we see in this film, just like I don't think all the Lord of the Rings homage means we're going to see Will destroy a ring.

We're talking about both basic and complex parallels here, happening with hundreds of films/series at once, at different levels, and how the Duffers manage to make all of that fit organically to create a unique story on its own.

We all know how the heart plays a big role in s4 and what is likely to follow in s5 (the painting!!!). I do think this homage could be quite simple, but it could also be deeper because, again I am not satisfied with simple, as some of you probably know by now.

I also want to try to come to a close with this little 3 part series, which is easy to do because in regards to Will's character, it does feel like a sort of arc that could definitely play out going into the final season:

Sixteen Candles --> birthdagate

Teen Wolf --> memorygate/twelvegate

Romancing the Stone --> apocalypse-byler

My working theory rn is that Will is going to be in danger right at the start of s5, which we already saw foreshadowed at the very end of s4. There is this unspoken understanding that Will's connection to Vecna could mean bad things to come for Will, maybe even that destroying Vecna once in for all could also affect (kill) Will.

It's likely there is going to be discussion about the option of using Will's connection to find Vecna, and everyone sort of predictably being against it, bc of that unspoken understanding this could end very badly for him. But it's also possible that Will would be willing to do what he has to, even if it means putting himself in danger, especially if it means saving everyone. And simultaneously it would make sense for him to leave out all the details about his connection to Vecna as it starts to get worse, all while conflict between him and El and Mike is coming to a head, where Vecna is showing him things that are bringing him to a really low point, ie. everyone forgot your birthday, your friends/family don't love you, yada yada.

Then I think something is going to happen that is going to cause Will to be separated from everyone again... However, I don't think this going to last for more than one-two episodes. And it's likely we would see what he's up to in that time. This would make it parallel to s1 to an extent, but not to the extreme that we never see Will during that time or that he's separated for the course of the entire season. Just enough that it feels like deja vu basically.

And yes I do think it's possible Will has time powers. Though I don't want to make any crazy claims... I'm going to.

Basically, I think that Vecna would greatly benefit from making Will feel like it was better that he was never found in the first place (I feel like my life started that day we found you in the woods). And so what he's doing by bringing Will to this low point of hopelessness, is whats going to lead Will to essentially reverse him being found after going missing... That could benefit Vecna greatly presumably. Could it possibly even have the capacity to act as a reset for him of sorts? Maybe. And also, couldn't Vecna play this up to Will as him being able to save everyone and let them be happy, without him, bc he's at a point where he's made himself believe that he deserves it (FUCKING CRYING JUST THINKING ABOUT IT)

And so time passes (A TIME JUMP). Maybe it takes us to the 5 year anniversary since Will's disappearance (1+ years of our Will stuck in the upside down)... But something isn't right, something is missing. Something's wrong. And I think that we would see the characters figuring it out fairly quickly after the time jump is presented to us (anniversary affect). I think Mike in particular could figure it out first even (along with Joyce and Jonathan, hence the s5 foreshadowing intended with this promo), making him a quick target of Vecna, also contributing to him joining Will in the upside down fairly early on, post time-jump (also post Mike's boyliker realization, but Will won't know that...).

This is just a theory! But it does have a lot of interesting things surrounding it that make it at least plausible to me.

First of all, it reminds me so much of s2 and the whole Zombie boy arc with Will. He was in the upside down for a week and got dubbed that nickname. And yet now it makes me wonder if that could have been hinting at something more prominent still to come related to Will and his arc (we know he has this tendency to predict things with his art...).

This also ties into the whole controversy surrounding Will using a gun in s5. There's been this talk forever, how it doesn't make sense for Will to ever use a gun bc that's not like his character at all, as he's been shown to be quite scared and so it doesn't make sense for him to suddenly be comfortable with using a gun in a high stress situation.

However, what makes this sort of ironic to me is the literal narrative principle, Chekgov's gun, which states that every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed. Alternatively-explained, suppose a writer features a gun in a story; if the writer features it, there must be a reason for it, such as it being fired sometime later in the plot.

Remind you of anyone?

This means that starting the story from the very beginning with Will knowing how to use a gun and trying to protect himself with it, but failing to do so, followed by four seasons of him being scared frozen in situations of confrontation... Means that the gun is bound to go off!

Will using a gun in s5 in this scenario would also be supported by Will going through quite a transformation after being in upside down circumstances for 1+ years...

Quite frankly, I don't think it make sense for Will to be this character that is known for freezing and being powerless the entire series, all the way up until the very end. It makes a lot more sense that this final time around, after seeing that for 4 straight seasons, we are going to see a big change in him, which tends to happen to people that go through traumatic experiences and yet still manage to adapt and survive.

Will after 1+ years in the upside down probably knows how to shoot a gun and probably is more sure of himself and less skitish than s1-4 Will.

Also, this provides a lot of character development that Noah gets to have the affordance of exploring as an actor. Like, let's give Noah some wiggle room here to show off what he's capable of for Will's character, which is so much! We know Noah jokes about wanting Will to suffer immensely because it's fun for him to play and act out, but more than anything it's also challenging in a good way. And this would really test the limits of Noah's abilities, which is why I do think it would be a wise choice narratively to make his characters evolution well rounded for the overall story.

Will going from what we expect him to always be like, to being something thats much the same in the important ways (he's still Will obviously), while also being different (see what i did there) as a result of him facing all of his fears in order to survive.

And it also makes the official battle in the end, of him finally facing Vecna off, alongside El and the party, that much more satisfying and believable as an outcome. Because by that point he will be ready, just like they'll all be ready after having finally come together despite everything.

This theory also reminds me a lot of Verse 3 in Time After Time, which is the only verse left out of the scene in 2x09 at the snowball....

There has been speculation these lyrics could be foreshadowing what's to come, and so it is interesing to think about this, with all these other theories related to Will's upcoming arc:

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It's giving Sixteen Candles meets Teen Wolf meets Romancing the Stone (also Mike running out of time crumbs! go off I guess!!)

Also, I just like to think that this reference specifically to Romancing the Stone confirms not only apocalypse-byler, AND Will Byers with a gun but also ponytail-Mike in s5???..

Oh and maybe even the highly anticipated Murray & byler confrontation, bc why not...

AGAIN this is just a theory. Don't come at me! Make your own crack theories it's fun and we can all go crazy together!

Honestly I hope I'm wrong bc I would love to be surprised (I can't wait to be surprised regardless).

And yet that wont stop me from trying to figure it out with what they're willing to give us in the mean time!

Until next time (ST5 inspo board, here we come)!