#its about the DEVOTION its about the LOYALTY

[radioactiverats]

thoughts on seekers locking landing gears and spiraling in the sky as a gesture of trust, similar to how eagles do that courtship spiral :3c or even just twirling in the air together a little too close. yes its probably really dangerous, but nothing beats being in total sync in the air

OH >:3c Absolutely in love with this. THE RITUALS ARE INTRICATE. I'm gnawing on this from various angles. Firstly thinking about this being a seeker-specific aspect of Conjunx Ritus (mutual Act of Devotion??) and it would honestly be so beautiful :,)

My mind jumped to this,, (angst warn)

---

In early stages of the war, when the exhilaration of following Megatron had worn off and bots were starting to realise their sparks weren't worth his doomed-to-fail commands (not enough experience yet..). When he was mostly relying on fear to keep his troops in order before he'd gained their full loyalty, there had been an Incident. You remember it like it was yesterday, because Starscream had looked ashen when he came back that night, and you'd never, ever seen that expression on his faceplate before.

You sit up, shuffling over to make room on the berth as Starscream plunks himself heavily down. After a few cycles of increasingly uneasy silence, he finally manages to speak.

"Two seekers have offlined."

His iron grip on the edge of the berth tell you the circumstances of their deaths were not straightforward.

"What do you know of Conjunx Ritus?"

You actually take a nanoklik to think about it, which Starscream appreciates given the solemnity of the situation.

"I know there's four acts?" You finally say, suddenly embarrassed about your naivety. To be fair, you'd never really had a chance to consider the possibility. Thankfully, Starscream just nods briefly.

"Correct. The fourth and final stage is called an Act of Devotion. Back on Vos, we seekers had a different way of performing it."

Starscream takes a klik to collect himself. You can't help but wonder if he has a Conjunx. If he does, he's certainly never talked about them.

"It's called a Death Spiral," Starscream finally says, voice horse. "Two seekers soar to the very fringes of the atmosphere and there, before the eyes of the universe itself, lock their servos and their landing gears before free falling back to planetside."

Beside him, you're enthralled to learn about this aspect of your own culture that you'd never had a chance to become familiar with. At the same time, you're picking up on a strange emotion that clogs his vocaliser and the faraway look in his optics, so you remain quiet as he resets his vocaliser.

"At the very last second," Starscream continues softly, "the two seekers pull up immediately before making contact with the ground."

It sounds incredibly dangerous, but you're enraptured by the idea. You know this because Starscream has made you practice something similar in the past, and there were a few times you genuinely thought you wouldn't make it through training in one piece even with landing gears. It undoubtedly took a lot of skill to harness the winds without the aid of thrusters, and even more courage and trust. You supposed that was where the love came in.

"It's... exquisite." Starscream offlines his optics, shakes his helm before turning to look at you, a ragged sort of pain spiking jaggedly through his EM field.

"I can imagine," You murmur quietly. It sounded like he was telling a story, back then. One from experience.

"Earlier today, two seekers engaged in a Death Spiral. But they didn't pull up." Starscream ex-vents raggedly, tilting his helm up to stare at the ceiling. "It was a pact."

For a klik you just sit there, frozen in silent horror. When he speaks again, it's through gritted denta. "Megatron has now enforced a ban against Conjunx Ritus between seekers."

You had a few guesses as to why. Seekers' valuable frame types to the Decepticon cause meant that Megatron couldn't afford to lose them. However, as increasing numbers of troops grew discontent with his leadership, Megatron as usual had decided to silence them through cruelty. It seemed that today's incident had been the last straw.

---

Outside the context of courtship rituals though, I see twirling together as a show of trust that anyone can do, from sires/carriers/sparklings to amica endura, cos flying and the skies are so deeply entwined with the seeker identity. Imagine just flying with your bro and the exhilaration of doing a complicated spin together, so close you can feel the heat of each other's engines on your plates before zooming apart again, the sound of your laughter carried on the winds. Must be so good to be in sync like that fr.

That being said, I think Starscream's determined to make sure cadet never feels alone in the skies, which is meant to be your home. Maybe in better times, I can see him joining cadet for training - the moves are a breeze for him, but it warms his spark to see you so happy while in the air. Not sure they get the luxury of the Autobots' "wanna go for a drive?", especially since his interactions with you must be under the guise of training - so Megatron won't see you as a target. Still, one must imagine Starscream happy.

Thank you for the lovely ask!!!!!!! Another yap... but in the process I have learned so much about eagles... I will put some sofas in my inbox so asks are received comfortably

[spooksier]

this too is yuri

[theonewhowails]

rotating this fucked up cat in my head like a rotisserie chicken

[morthern]

What if we kissed on top of the shadow siege gas canisters? (and we were komandir and right hand man - unbending, unbreaking fire of your cause..)

(the warzone monologue got to me ok.)

[beaulesbian]

maybe it's how luffy's love for zoro is more subtle in the animanga (even if it's everpresent), and people usually more point out zoro's devotion to luffy than how luffy cares for him., that the live action show really went and made luffy say to zoro: I need you. It's so simple, I need you. to instantly get across just how important zoro is to luffy

[arsenicflame]

Izzy Hands can have a little "thinking hes incapable of feeling love" as a treat (for me. the treat is for me)

[orangexmachina]

I want what they have

[daily-hanamura]

[des-no9]

Finally did a proper set of these for my girl and her boys <3

Breaker of Chains is her official title within the githyanki, first spoken by Kith'rak Voss. Dread Eye is what she was known as in her past under Nezarr. And Adilshar is for Voss' tongue only.

[horrorknife]

adam is the only person who will match hoffman’s freak on ipa. he’s accustomed to drinking awful piss-tier booze and so he genuinely enjoys ipa. hoffman introduces him to it shortly after they meet thinking he’ll go EEEEWWW and he ends up actually being like whoa this is good actually? it has a really interesting flavor :-) and hoffman is sitting there like Oh My God I Can’t Not Keep You Forever

[meow-bucket]

when ppl are like "theres no heterosexual explanation for this" im like... have yall ever had friends?? even if its for ships that i really like im like... i would do that for my best friend, i have friends that i cuddle with and hold hands with and that i would 100% take a bullet for. bc i love them. and not everyone has to be THAT ride or die for their friends but i think its a little sad how little we tend to prioritize friendship and instead search for everything to be romantic

[imabiscuitinthousandworlds]

the endless curse of being utterly uninterested in romance in fandom spaces

[ugh-my-back]

Tagged by @drunkchasind to take this and share the result:

The Devil + The Emperor

there's only one religion for the two of you, and that religion is the other. you two are very nearly unhealthily obsessed with one another, and that's just how you like it. when they touch you, they can feel the blood pumping under the surface of your skin. your hearts beat for one another. when the day comes that one stops, the other will soon after. until then, you both will live out your lives in perfect, gothy paradise. deck: the tarot of vampyres

tagging @86maylin, @barbecutie, @breezypunk, @miss--river, @vaniri, @dustymagpie, @bunniehornz. Only if you wanna! >:)

[rarepairnation]

finished bloodkeep rewatch. as always rotating leiland and markus in my mind. thinking about you don't have to deserve love it is freely given. thinking about love as fealty and the freedom of choice. to decide who it is you will swear yourself to. to decide who it is your heart might belong to. love as devotion but not like it used to be, not a weak little helpless thing, not a futile terrible ache, not chasing something you will never be granted. not as a thing you should be granted at all, not as a favour or a boon or a thing to be won, not as part of a transaction or a manipulation. not something that you have to be worthy of but something that you are given, out of free choice. something that you can give, out of your will and your heart. its about learning how to love its always being a little bit weird and intense and always giving 100% of yourself and learning that you're not going to be punished for it. that you're going to get what you want and the man who you might be falling in love with is someone who can love you back. who will, if you give him the chance. leiland guy of all time.

ALSO thinking about being a pirate mercenary for hire and wanting nothing else (after gold, maybe) than to go home but you can't, you can't, because they didn't even fucking look for you. you were lost at sea and they didn't even look for you, or at least they didn't find you, which when you think about it is basically the same thing. it's about finally meeting someone who has the closest to shared life experience as you've ever come, someone who tells you i know a thing or two about being forgotten royalty, and he's a little intense and a little pathetic and possibly a little too fixated on torturing people for all eternity but hey, who are you to judge. it's about spending the craziest day of your life watching him, watching him come into himself, giving him your kill just so he feels a little bit better about himself, and you don't want to save him, not necessarily. you're evil, you're not really in the business of saving people. you kind of want to fix him and you kind of want to just show him that goddamnit, look at what you could be if you just let people love you. markus also guy of all time.

[hexados-on-a-string]

spectragus dont get enough credit for being a sun and moon ship but like. destructive sun and moon ship. sun and moon ship but they're the forces of nature the sun and moon actually are. the sun is harsh and relentless and unpredictable in its evil but also it's kindness, the moon is sharp and cold and cruel, a harsh light that doesn't allow you peace, but can also guide you, a light in the darkness. even on nights with a new moon, with no light in the sky, the moon is always reflecting the sun, and it'll be that way until they come to their end.

[fictionallyinparadise]

I think. Having my f/os call me their weapon or their attack dog would fix so many problems in me.