#meg answers things

[meggie-stardust]

Run Howling Through the Carnage, please 👀👀

Ooh thank you!

This is actually a sequel to Know How A Man Becomes A Beast. Both titles are lines from the Mountain Goats song Werewolf Gimmick, and were just begging to be used for Steter fics.

The idea with the sequel is that Stiles has to figure out how to cope with being something else, and finding a pack with Peter. If I recall it was also going to be minor Stisaac or some minor Peter/Stiles/Isaac... but I never got that far.

“I assume you’ve talked to Scott,” Peter had said instead of answering any of John’s questions. “Then he must have told you that Stiles had been missing for at least three days before I found him, and that no one in Scott’s so-called pack had done anything about it?” Peter finished, a growl at the edge of his voice.  John leveled him with a hard stare. “He may have left that part out,” he said through gritted teeth.  “I won’t prevent you from seeing him,” Peter said softly, “he’s your son, and you will probably help him find his humanity again. But I have to warn you that he’s not the same anymore. And he’s still recovering… It might take time.” “Is he…” John started, then paused struggling for words. “Did it come back?” He eventually asked. “The Nogitsune? No,” Peter confirmed. “But they used the lingering residue, for lack of a better word, to do this. The most I can tell you is that he’s a weresomething, probably fox…” Peter trailed off. “Do you want to see him? It will be easier to explain after you see him.” John squared his shoulders and nodded. 

[dragqueenstarscream]

I think that one of the most interesting characters in Transformers Prime is Soundwave (though I could talk forever about most of the characters because they're all so fascinating!). Not just because he's a badass, but I find his actions/motives a bit contradictory. I understand that from an IRL show writing perspective, they were making the show interesting, but from an in universe perspective there are quite a few events that are extremely perplexing to me. Mostly because if we are to assume that Soundwave does indeed have cameras everywhere aboard the Nemesis that are constantly recording, and he does see/hear everything, it makes some situations kind of weird. And I was wondering what your thoughts/in universe explanations/headcanons for this kind of stuff is?

When Starscream and Knock Out are discussing their plans to convince Soundwave that Megatron should be taken off life support. They are in the Nemesis, in the Med Bay with comatose Megatron, and surely Soundwave can see and hear them, so why discuss this here, out loud? Why are the two surprised when they later cannot convince Soundwave to go along with their plans? I can't think of an in universe explanation for this one other than they forgot Soundwave is the eyes and ears of the Decepticons somehow??? Which seems...unlikely.

When Smokescreen escapes the Med Bay and steals the Phase Shifter from Knock Out. Megatron can definitely win a fight against Smokescreen, but with the addition of the Phase Shifter, you would think that Soundwave would warn Megatron about Smokescreen's approach and possession of said artifact. But Megatron is obviously not warned. In universe I guess the explanation would be that Soundwave thought Megatron would somehow be able to handle Smokescreen before he used the Phase Shifter and so didn't warn him?

Starscream sneaking onto the Nemesis and talking to "Orion Pax". In universe I chalk this one up to Soundwave being jealous/distrusting of "Orion Pax" tbh. He wants "Orion Pax" off the ship so he just allows Starscream to sneak into "Orion's" chamber and talk with him.

Soundwave tries to attack Miko even though she's in the Apex Armor. In universe I guess he was trying to immobilize her rather than kill her since the Apex Armor is impenetrable and he would definitely know that by now?

When Starscream finds that picture of Ratchet doing the Bigfoot Walk pose, but it gets deleted. Like, Soundwave definitely could have footage of that picture before it was deleted by Raf, but he's a troll so in universe Soundwave was definitely just fucking with Starscream lol.

Bonus: My guy didn't even try to stop Starscream from retreating when the Space Bridge was going to blow up in the first few episodes. Obviously Soundwave could've prevented the retreat from happening because he can highjack the Nemesis' controls, but he chose not to do so. It's kind of sad because in universe I'd imagine he was thinking that Megatron was not so stupid as to remain near an imminently exploding space bridge.

oh tfp soundwave is super interesting! a lot of what makes him so interesting is just trying to figure out what the hell is going on upstairs, both because he doesn't talk and because the only one he confides in is megatron. it's likely that a lot of what he does will only ever truly make sense to him, but let's see if we can figure things out.

1.) the funny answer i've come up with is that knock out and starscream thought that they'd get some privacy in the medbay because of hipaa violations, but they didn't take into account that soundwave does not care in the slightest.

in all seriousness, though, i think that they just thought that the medbay was the one place where they could have some sort of privacy. but, again, soundwave doesn't work like that.

2.) my best guess? soundwave didn't make it to megatron in time to warn him. or maybe he really did have that faith in megatron that he'd be able to handle himself against smokescreen with the phase shifter. either way.

3.) checks out. soundwave doesn't like orion pax potentially risking his spot as megatron's favorite, and he also doesn't like starscream's plotting. them accidentally getting rid of themselves makes less work for him.

4.) oh soundwave was definitely trying to make starscream look like an idiot. soundwave knows starscream has been plotting against megatron. he'll take whatever chance he can get to humble him.

5.) ohhhh tfp megatron can be STUPID, but that's beside the point. you probably are right, though, i imagine soundwave had more faith in his master than he realistically should've.

[mamawasatesttube]

Need an au where Lois found out Tana was dating a teenager and went into feral overprotective mama bear mode

YOU AND ME BOTH MAN. @loisinherlane and i once spitballed one au in this vein where lois, who already has jon (a baby, like 4 or 5 years old, doesn't understand why his dad isn't coming home) looks at kon and can't let him walk away. this is a kid with her dead beloved's face. she's already a mom. she can't do it.

so she absolutely eats tana alive (kon doesn't see why she's so mad, but he's like okie dokie i still think that was overkill but sure?) (kon is wrapped around baby jon's lil pinky fingers. where that baby goes, he goes.) and takes kon in.

the comedy of this au is when clark comes back, and lois is so frazzled and overwhelmed she just collapses into his arms and cries and she's exhausted and she honestly just. she forgets he doesn't already know what's going on. she forgets she hasn't told him. so poor clark walks into the kitchen, sees this teenager who clearly looks like him staring at him with a spoonful of cheerios halfway to his mouth, and thinks, oh my god. i've somehow lost all my memories of our firstborn.

[lazuliquetzal]

I keep on telling people you're the only one who knows how to plot. Can you teach all of us how to plot, please? I love you.

I AM SUMMONED? PLOT BRAIN SUMMONED?

I love plotting. It's my favorite part of the writing process. Plot is "things that happen" and the best part of writing is imagining things that happen. I'm going to assume that whoever may be reading this knows how to imagine The Happenings, so I'm gonna be talking more about structure, but in like, a kinda abstract sense.

A good plot is a little bit more than a string of events. Plot is like music: there's variation in rhythm and sound and melody, but ultimately there's cohesion, because it's all one song. You can have a bunch of wild things happening, but no matter how strange, there should be something that links them all together, because you're telling one story.

Plot structures are patterns in stories. I'm pretty sure most of them were developed as analysis tools (as in, story already exists > look! it follows this pattern) rather than as writing tools, but people use them as writing tools because it's a neat little way to organize the chaos that is "shit happens." Stories follow patterns for the same reasons music follows patterns: we enjoy the certainty of hitting certain beats. But we also like being surprised. A good pop song doesn't sound like a random collection of sounds, but it also doesn't sound like the middle slider of other songs.

There is this shared concept in both music and writing: the idea of tension and release. Basically, you're playing with reader expectation: there's an imbalance in the experience (tension), and we want to see that imbalance resolved (release). All the common plot structures deal with this basic pattern:

You set an expectation

There are complications to the expectation

You meet the expectation

And this rhythm is happening on multiple levels in writing. Scenes follow this structure (we're gonna get past that door, we're gonna find the murder weapon, we're gonna collaborate and come up with a plan) and all those scenes feed into the overarching expectation (we're gonna solve this murder!). I usually think of chapters as their own mini-story, part of the larger whole. And I think of scenes as their own mini-story, part of the larger chapter. I have engineer brain. I see the gears spinning in the clock. That's why all my chapters have at least One Important Thing happening, because that's that particular chapter's Step #3.

And One Last Important Thing:

In music, a delayed resolution is almost always more interesting than the standard resolution. In writing, that means you wanna drag out Step #2 for as long as you can. That's where the bulk of the story is happening, that's how you build tension, that's how you get people to turn the page.

So when you write a fake dating fic, those bitches better not get together until the very end. I came here for fake dating, not for real dating, damn it. If you resolve that expectation early on, you better replace it with a different expectation that's just as engaging.

But also don't drag it out for too long. Sorry. The hard part of writing is learning the difference between too short and too long. Writing is unfortunately a nuanced skill which is why my advice is like "do this but not too much teehee." But tension and resolution is just rhythm, you can build a sense for it if you engage with enough stories.

[moonmeg]

When cleaning the women's changing room at the gym: *silence. no one needs anything.*

The moment I get permission to enter the men's changing room: DING DONG PLS COME TO THE ENTRANCE COUNTER!! RIGHT NOW!! IMPORTANT!! DON'T IGNORE ME!!

(We employees carry a phone with us when we leave the counter so that if someone needs something they can ring and we can go back to the counter)

[essektheylyss]

literally laughed out loud at Matt's face when he admitted that Lester was trying to hide something, truly the scrungliest detective in Newfaire

[palms-upturned]

PSA

Hello friends, I’m sorry for being mostly offline for a little while, I’ve been struggling a bit. Please rest assured that I’m going to try to get everything running again ASAP, but here’s a short version of what’s going on.

At the moment, I’m unemployed due to my disability and trying to get a lot of things sorted out in the bursts of time when I feel well enough. I am fairly certain that my pain and fatigue is being caused by sciatic endometriosis that was made worse by a covid infection, but it’s going to take me a while to get diagnosed and (hopefully) treated. In the meantime, my pain flareups are unfortunately getting worse and more frequent. What this means is that unfortunately I have stretches of time where I have a hard time talking to people or even thinking straight. Some of the medicines I take for my pain also make me drowsy which makes things even harder on top of it all.

I’m going to continue promoting fundraisers, but I feel very bad that these periods of time are becoming longer and more frequent because every day of fundraising is critically important. So what I’d like to ask is whether any of my friends/mutuals here would be interested in helping me run @vetted-gaza-funds so that even when I’m not well, at least that blog can stay up to date. There are currently over 100 fundraisers posted there, and as more get added, the more time it takes me to update the master list, update urls for users who were forced to remake their blogs, and work through the inbox for new campaigns. Trying to push through on days when I don’t feel well has already resulted in some really stupid mistakes like accidentally deleting the original master list post, and I really don’t want to do something like that again.

One friend of mine has already volunteered to help, which I’m very thankful for, but if I could find maybe five more people, then that would mean one mod for every day of the week, which would hopefully mean that it wouldn’t be too large a commitment for anyone. The more the merrier, basically.

So to break things down, here’s what I would be doing:

Creating a discord server for the blog mods

Looking through the inbox each day for new campaigns to add

Cross referencing those campaigns on master lists/spreadsheets to see which ones are already verified and can be shared

Adding the campaign links, usernames, and other relevant information to a cryptpad document for people to plug into a post/add to the master list

Here’s what I would need help doing:

Making the actual posts on the blog (there is a template in the drafts that I use to make them)

Updating the fund amounts/progress in the master list, ideally every day

If comfortable, briefly answering direct messages to let people know when their campaigns have been added to the blog

Also, so far the blog has just been full of fundraisers for people who have contacted me directly, but if anyone helping with the blog has verified fundraisers that they themselves would like to add, of course that would be great as well!

If you’re interested in helping me out, please dm me or reply to this post! (I’d prefer not to talk via asks because when I answer asks privately I don’t have any record of our conversation and I can be forgetful 😅)

Thank you all 🙏 today I’m unfortunately still not feeling well so I may be slow to respond but I will try to answer messages and get everything set up asap!

[artiststarme]

For the 3rd part of The Party Forgets Steve's Birthday, how does Eddie one up himself with the words on the cake? Have you thought about what other sayings he might use every year?

Also, great job on the fic! I loved how this series started with Steve being all sad then went to Eddie saving the day and being mad at the kids to the kids feeling really guilty. It felt like I was on a rollercoaster! Thank you, keep up the great work please!

First of all, thank you. I'm glad that you liked it.

Second of all, yes I have! Eddie always uses the same drippy red frosting that turns the cake into a blood spattered, albeit delicious, crime scene and he always uses the same rainbow sprinkles to add a little bit of razzle-dazzle.

The first cake said "BIRTH STEVE" because Eddie ran out of room on the small cake to decorate. Steve was a little appalled at the time but found humor in it afterwards.

The second cake said "BIRTH STEVE, Another Year Gone". The entire Party was shocked into silence but Steve loved it. He gave him the biggest hug and bragged about it to anyone who would listen.

Next year, Eddie writes "Goodbye to Steve's Youth" and things just devolve from there. For the next thirty five years or so (and counting), Eddie makes it his mission to be as creepy and heartfelt as he can.

"Dying to tell you Happy Birthday, Stevie!"

"RIP Age 30, Goodbye Friend"

"Life Vould Suck Vithout You!" (Also had an illegible cartoon vampire)

"Death is closer than ever"

"'If you write my age on that, I'll kill you.' -Steve"

"Congrats! You lived another year!"

Some years he also just doodles random pictures that he has to explain to everyone. Like the time he tried to make a tombstone but it was really just a lump of black frosting that stained everyone's teeth for days.

The year they get married, he also decorates a cake with the outline of a body and writes "It's always the husband...". Steve didn't know if it was a threat or an insinuation.

[istherewifiinhell]

#[...]perfect to think about sopping wet g1 megs chillin in lava

scientist are still debating if joelle can just perfectly predict things that happen in tf or if i just love finding tf scenes for every concept

[ID: G1 Transformers screencaps (s3). 1. Scourge, standing on a rocky planet, pulling Galvatron, who is submerged in a pool of lava, up by the hands. 2. Galvatron rising from it, as the lava drips down his frame. END]

[meggie-stardust]

🎵

Oh thank you! When I shuffle everything it's always odd.

Art House Director .. Broken Social Scene

Intro/Sweet Jane .. Lou Reed

You Make My Dreams .. Hall & Oates

Tell 'Em .. Sleigh Bells

Rise Above .. Black Flag

[brctherscnce]

Do you ever feel responsible for how Megatron turned out?

There was silence.

For a long time, there was just silence. Optimus couldn't bring his gaze to the bot in question, but he moved to sit himself down and press a hand to his helm.

" ... Very. " He murmured.

" I symbolized what he despised when Sentinel appointed me as Prime. At least with the Knights of Iacon, I was not exactly a part of the usual system that... showed no mercy to the lower castes. We both worked in the mines together-- we both fought together, and we both had even worked to become Knights together before the arrival of Bonemaster. "

" ... we were like brothers once-- or perhaps something far more than battle-brothers. "

Optimus paused a little, then felt his form tense, and optics narrow. There was no bitterness, though there was just a sense of pain and regret.

" ... Once. "

[frodo-with-glasses]

I've seen your lovely LOTR readthrough art, and I'm curious - do you draw in a sketchbook, or in the actual novel?? (If you do it in the novel, to be honest that's actually really cool since it adds a personal touch to the books!)

Oh my goodness, thank you so much! I draw in a sketchbook, haha; there’s not enough room in the margins of my copy of LotR to make any proper drawings, and even if there were, I wouldn’t dare draw in the book anyway. My art is gonna have to be waaaay better before I even think about doing that 🤣

With that being said, though, I did personalize my book a little bit, once…

[scribe-of-hael]

Y'know,I don't think TFA Oppi actually that scared of ES megatron because he defeated his megs twice-

NGL imagine the conversation about TFA megs just randomly appears and TFA Oppi be like "Yeah it's not easy to defeat a guy almost thrice your size while have to relying on borrowed hammer and makeshift jetpack-"

Like,he's so small but also so fierce he managed to defeat a warlord he never met before earth shenanigans twice-

And he don't even need a gun-

Not to mention it probably took less than two years to defeat him in TFA timeline

Shame on other decepticons-

This tiny copy of Prime can kick ass better than them probably

Not really scared, just unsure! When all you've ever known is a person being 1 way and get yeeted into a different place where their acutally nice. Its a little bit of weariness just by association. Granted both the times he defeated megs he nearly got killed and lost a team mate, so he's just like "its hard to imagine you any other way. But I see that's not the case." Very much apologizes for his hesitation!

Megatron would be impressed Optimus would be too. Like when Prome explains how big his cons are its like "YOURE INCREDIBLE ,,, WTF?"

I can just see tfa Finials flatten in bit ofa blush and explaining its not just him but alos his team. Megatron would just shake his helm with smile.

"Yeah he sure is you alright, no doubt about it, "

Give TFA confidence and reassurance that he is doing a good job. Not that he ever needed it , but to hear it is very nice. Since in tfa the Functionalists are still in charge (looking at you tfa magnus) To hear that he is more than is alt mode and fiction somthing that these two had to go though, means alot to TFA.

I think ES mega and Optimus would love to elanr things from TFA , amaizng opportunity. I just love the idea of telling his he is doing good. After loosing prowl when trying to beat megs its alot of weight I'd imagine. He won but at what cost ?

Therapy session with the elders.

But TFA Optimus is awesome and I think any Optimus would be impressed.

"HOW BIG ARE THEY?! AND YOU BEAT MEGATRON THAT WAY?! YOURE AMAZING"

Wiggly finials all around xD

[marz-mania]

"The longer we can keep building, the longer we can keep creating, the longer we can tolerate being incomplete."

- Chuck Palahniuk, Choke

[no1ryomafan]

With more older anime I watch that’s specifically about androids the more I noticed all the influence mega man pulled from it despite it not being a anime nor the robot timeline ever getting a proper anime but I think what gets me more then “the basis of mega man is like astro boy, casshern and POSSIBLY kikaider all in a blender with mega man x making the second two inspos more apparent” is realizing how many villain characters inspired proto man.

You have the obvious one, char from Gundam, you have rock holmes from Astro boy who’s not a confirmed one but seems to track given classic takes a lot of Astro boy influence and then you have Saburo from Android kikaider, the most likely inspo for proto in EVERY category- and then you remember how while these characters are evil for a complex reason, proto man really shines to be different as he changed his ways. He’s still a rival to his “brother” in a sense but bass takes more of the role of the evil mega man, while proto just watches from afar and comes in to help when he thinks he’s needed.

I’m going to rotate this red robot fuck for awhile again FUCK

[artiststarme]

With the sneaky like a ninja post, I think it would be even funnier if knowing the ending that Hop knew every time Steve snuck out of the house that he called Eddie up to let him know Steve is coming. And that if he didn't show up in a specific amount of time, Eddie had to call Hop back and they would go looking. So when Steve was bragging to Eddie about being like a ninja he knew that Hop knew just wanted to let Steve believe. While Steve felt suffocated, they were just looking out for his well being.

Such a cute story. LOVE LOVE LOVED it.

Yes, yes, yes! I love this idea and thanks for the ask!

~*~*~*~

Hopper waited until he heard the window latch closed before he got out of bed with a sigh. This kid was going to be the death of him. He ambled to the phone on the hallway wall and called the number that he knew he would be getting unsettlingly familiar with while Steve was staying there. As soon as he heard the line pick up, he started giving orders. “Look Munson, you’re a young man and I know what young men think about. You better keep it PG-13 or I will find you and I’ll make it wish you were convicted by the cops for those murders, you hear me? Steve is headed over there right now and I need you to call me in 30 minutes or I’m going to think that bastard gave himself another concussion. Got it?”

“What-” Eddie asked over the phone with a crack in his voice. 

“I said, ‘got it’?”

“Yessir, Chief. I got it, loud and clear. No getting handsy tonight and I will return him unscathed,” Eddie stammered.

“And call me back in 29 minutes.”

“Yes, and-and do that… I’m going to hang up now if that’s okay-”

Hopper hung up the phone with a sigh of exasperation. As promised, Eddie gave him a subtle call 28 minutes later with promises to drop Steve off in the morning and Hopper went to bed. He had to be up bright and early to ruin a brat’s day for getting Steve hurt in the first place. 

~*~*~*~

The next morning, Hopper woke up bright and early to go wreck some havoc. He knew it wasn’t a great thing to be so excited over tormenting children but this one had it coming. He gave a smug-looking Steve a fatherly pat on the shoulder, grabbed some coffee, and headed to the Wheeler’s.

“What were you thinking?! If Steve says no to giving you brats a ride, you don’t insult his character or push him into doing it! What were you thinking, Wheeler?” He yelled at him.

Mike just glared up at him in defiance. “I was thinking that my friends and I needed a ride and I got one!”

“At the expense of Steve! Now you won’t be getting any rides from anyone because you pissed us all off! How does that feel? Are you happy now, Wheeler?” Hopper mocked him. 

It was true, the adults and the older teens were on strike from giving the kids any rides until Mike apologized to Steve for contributing to him crashing his car and getting another concussion. His stubbornness hadn’t allowed him to yet but he was on thin ice. 

“Are you happy, Hopper? You’re ridiculing a teenager. Congratulations, you’re pathetic,” Mike sneered at him. 

Oh, that was the final line to cross. “Oh, you think I’m pathetic? See how pathetic you are without your girlfriend and best friend. You’re banned! You won’t be seeing El or Will until you apologize to Steve. And me too! I’ve been dealing with your ungrateful ass for years, I deserve a goddamn award.”

Mike opened his mouth, no doubt to complain about the hypocrisy and unfairness of it all. Hopper just lit up a cigarette and walked to his cruiser. “Deal with it, Wheeler.”

Then he took off in a puff of smoke and laughed all the while. It was about damn time that Mike Wheeler was shocked speechless. 

~*~*~*~

Any time he heard the bedroom window opening, the back door creaking, or even the one memorable time the kitchen window above the sink opening, Hopper pulled himself out of bed to call one Eddie Munson. 

He would give the kid a head’s up that Steve had left and asked him to give him a call after thirty minutes to ensure that he reached the trailer safely. In return, Hopper didn’t mention Steve’s smug expressions or his murmurings to Jonathan at the breakfast table that he ‘was exactly like a ninja, see’.

And when he told Steve that he knew about the many times he snuck out, he did Munson a solid and didn’t mention that he called him every single time. Lord only knew the shitstorm that would arise if he figured that out.

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