#space sword blaster

[sailorsenshigifs]

[beguilingcorpse]

weaponry in the locked tomb is so interesting because when you break it down it's like:

guns exist in-universe but are used by the freedom fighter terrorist organization almost exclusively

swords are (were?) commonplace enough that gideon was able to find and train with a decently well-balanced two-hander on the ninth, despite the fact that the ninth has no military force or even interplanetary traffic. gideon's sword is at least 20 years old, probably older

swords are definitely still in use within the empire, at least by cavaliers, but likely within the cohort as a whole. to my memory there are no mentions of cohort members carrying military-issue guns

even though they're trained in a variety of weapons and techniques, cavaliers (are supposed to) carry exclusively rapiers. gideon prefers her two-hander and cam carries twin shortswords, but these seem to be rare and shocking exceptions to the standard.

rapiers are used by cavaliers explicitly for the purpose of lyctorhood. they're light enough that a scrawny necromancer without swordfighting experience can pick it up and rely on their cav's training without needing to build the muscle to wield the sword effectively

because of the secretive nature of the megatheorem, and lyctorhood as a whole, most people just follow the rapier rule because it's tradition. it is what is done. harrow makes this pretty clear at the beginning of gtn

cavaliers can carry a variety of offhand weapons. it seems like the full spectrum of middle age weaponry is possible - but still, no guns. not even secretly, as with cam's dual blades. some cavs choose to carry material for their necromancers as their offhand - ortus carries a bowl of bones for harrow, and i can only assume "the powder" mentioned as harrow's choice for gideon's offhand towards the beginning of gtn is some kind of bone dust

from a doylist perspective, all of this creates a aesthetic that starts very analog and gothic and gradually grows into a more standard sci-fi space opera through the series. by ntn, we've hit most of the established genre weaponry tropes that we've come to expect from older futuristic space media like star wars and alien. blasters and guns are standard fare, and it makes sense to hold off on introducing them until the scope of the story gets broader and more interplanetary

from a watsonian perspective, it's a little more difficult to draw concrete conclusions without the context that atn will inevitably provide. but if i had to hedge a guess, i'd say that, as with most things, It's All John Gaius's Fault. when he resurrected the galaxy i'd assume that he wanted to keep the aesthetics of medieval imperialism, and given his 21st century liberalism probably didn't want guns to be part of the equation. but they were anyways - we know this because wake carries a big one - and instead of standardizing firearms within his military and for his lyctors, he clings to the aesthetics of swordplay. please correct me if i'm remembering it wrong, but to my knowledge every gun shown in the series is either directly linked to boe or implied to be sourced from them. jod dooms his own lyctors and military by refusing to update their weaponry.

all of this poses a lot of questions about atn: who will carry a gun, and why? where did the gun come from? why DON'T the lyctors just use firearms? and most importantly: will they be fighting zombies with swords???

[sleepisapriviligethatidonthave]

Fir the MegOp request: TFA Megatron reaction that TFA Optimus is a space bridge repair worker

Finally I found your ask! I spent a century combing through my notifications XD

Aaaaanyways, here it is! Hope you like it ^^

Megatron swung his swords at the Prime, missing by a wire’s breath when the Autobot ducked and returned the attack in kind. It was a familiar song and dance for the warlord by now, though usually their fights were not so… private.

As luck would have it, both of them had answered an energy anomaly in the forest near Detroit. It had been a rather pleasant surprise to find the young Prime all by his lonesome right after locating the Allspark fragment in the middle of a small clearing in said woods.

“Not too shabby, Autobot. A few more millennia and you might stand a chance at defeating me!” he mocked as he kicked his opponent to the ground. It was almost too easy sometimes, but the Prime always pulled through one way or another.

“I have a name!” snapped Optimus as he rolled just out of reach of Megatron’s pede which left a small crater right where he had been a moment ago, “I am Optimus Prime, and you ought to remember that!” he growled and slashed with his axe at the pede, only grazing the thick warframe armour. Megatron couldn’t help but laugh at the feeble attempt to injure him.

It was always fun to see his enemies infuriated at the fact that he didn’t know their names. He did, but one thing he had learned early on in his gladiatorial career was that an unconcentrated opponent was a weak one. That practice of his had helped him all throughout the war and even after that. It wasn’t often that he met an opponent that kept their cool so well in the face of such disrespect.

“Ah, yes, the rank of Prime. The standards for it have fall quite a bit, haven’t they?” he chuckled with a smirk and parried the angry swing aimed at his helm, throwing the Autobot into the air. Megatron watched with a hint of surprise as his foe flipped in the air and landed square on his pedes, ready to resume their fight. “Or maybe not.” he muttered to himself and went in for another attack.

Few survived an encounter with him and lived long enough to tell the tale. Even fewer willingly went against him again, which made fighting the young mech such a delight.

The little Prime never ceased to surprise. He was always so resourceful and selfless – two qualities he had long believed to be extinct when it came to Autobots. He fought rather rigidly, yes, but he knew when to change tactics in order to secure an advantage. That, he could respect, he could use. If only the Prime wasn’t so foolishly loyal to his rusted cause.

Optimus dodged blaster fire with ease as he shot a grappling hook at one of Megatron’s swords, attempting to seize it.

Megatron grabbed the chord and pulled, sending Prime once again flying through the open sky, but this time luck was not on his side. He smashed against a tree, with a loud crack before falling to the ground, heaving.

“You Autobots never learn, do you? You can not defeat me, even the best of you.” he knew that praising him was a contradictive move, but he had earned it.

It came as a surprise to hear the Prime snort and try to stifle a chuckle.

“What’s so funny, Autobot?” the reaction puzzled him. He was about to be offlined and yet here he was, laughing like Megatron had told him the funniest joke in the galaxy.

“Oh, it’s nothing, really. It’s just that, if you really think that an academy washout, space bridge technician is ‘one of the best’, then it’s not the Autobots’ standard that has fallen.” snickered Optimus as he looked up at Megatron with a slag eating grin.

The warlord froze in place, his CPU attempting and failing to process the new information.

“What?”

Optimus laughed even harder, wincing when his vents, damaged by the hit he took, expelled a wheezing sound.

Megatron pressed the tip of one of his swords right against the Autobot’s main fuel line, effectively silencing him. “Explain yourself, now.” he growled menacingly.

“What exactly is there to explain? I already told you the truth. I’m not a fully fledged Prime. Officially I’m not even considered a warrior, no one on my team is. We’re space bridge technicians. Our job was to travel around the corners of the galaxy and repair the Autobot space bridge network.”

Megatron looked at the Prime in disbelief, every interaction they had ever had, replaying itself in the warlord’s mind as small, incongruous details about the team of Autobots slotted themselves into place to finally reveal the horrific truth.

They were no warriors, they were civilians who had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. That was why the Elite Guard had done next to nothing to help them. To the great Autobot machine they were fodder, disposable.

Disgust and hatred flashed through Megatron’s field, making Optimus flinch minutely when his own tense one came into contact with his.

This changed everything and nothing at the same time which only infuriated Megatron even more. It was dishonourable to fight against someone who could not face you properly in battle, who was not a warrior. It was Descepticon code, something he himself had put into place to prevent unnecessary carnage in the name of keeping Cybertron populated. Overtime, even the worst of the Descepticons had accepted it as law, even he himself had begun to view it as something on which his honour depended.

And here he was tarnishing it in the worst way imaginable.

“You know, if you ask me, I would much rather fight Cons for the rest of my life than go back to the most boring job in the universe.”

Immediately, Megatron’s helm snapped to the location of the voice only to see the bright yellow Autobot speedster sitting on a tree stump, looking at the bots before him while twirling the forgotten Allspark fragment in his servos.

“Personally, I’d rather be a space bridge technician. Bossbot is right, we aren’t warriors, and I’ll be more than happy to go back to doing what I signed up for.” came the voice of the big green Autobot from the other side of the clearing.

“Quit yer whining, will ya? We still need to save Optimus from Buckethead!” barked the team’s medic as he primed his magnets.

“I do not believe Optimus needs our saving.” chimed in the ninja bot who appeared from behind a tree.

Megatron took in all of the newly gathered Autobots, ignoring the last comment. Before, all he saw was a bunch of low-class warriors with lacking training, but now, he saw them for what they really were. It was so obvious in hindsight, he wanted to kick himself for missing it.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Prowl, I really appreciate it.” Megatron snapped his attention back to his original foe, having thought him incapacitated. Clearly, he had miscalculated again, as a spray of foam hit his faceplates, completely blinding him. He tried moving back, only for his pedes to be restrained in Prime’s grappling hook.

Megatron fell backwards with a grunt. As he tried to regain his sight, he could hear the commotion around him.

“Let’s go before he gets back up and hunts us down!” yelled Optimus. His command was met with no complaints and soon enough Megatron found himself alone on the clearing.

He growled and muttered curses as he cut the chord around his pedes. The mission had been a disaster. Of course, he could give chase to the Autobots and try to retrieve the Allspark fragment, but ultimately decided against it.

Once he finally deemed himself presentable, he gave one last glance to the direction in which the Autobot team retreated, sighed, and began the journey back to the Descepticon hideout. He was in no mood to rush back just to deal with his subordinates, so he opted to walk. That way he had some time to mull over the new information he had obtained and formulate a plan…

And think of a way to break the news to his Descepticons without causing a riot.

[in1-nutshell]

Since there’s Rapidfire and Ophelia, what about Maxima in IDW?

I understood this as Maxima meeting the Lost Light, not the IDW version of Maxima.

(though I wouldn't mind writing her in the future...)

Hope you enjoy!

Maxima on the Lost Light

SFW, Platonic, Slight Angst, Cybertronian reader

MTMTE/TFP

Rodimus had been feeling strange lately.

The matrix seemed to be acting up, something that never happened before.

Drift suggested that the Matrix was trying to tell him something and to contact Optimus or anyone who had held the matrix before to help.

The only problem was that besides him and Optimus, Rodimus didn’t know anyone online who had held the Matrix.

That’s where the science department came in.

Well, mainly Brainstorm.

Brainstorm had created a device that would amplify a type of SOS to any bot who had held or was worthy of holding the Matrix to help.

What he had forgotten to tell the crew was that when he meant any bot, he meant any bot in the multiverse.

Brainstorm, Perceptor, and Rodimus stare at the portal forming. Rodimus: “Is this all normal?” Brainstorm: “Yes… theoretically.” Rodimus: “Excuse me what?” Ratchet and Drift enter the lab. Drift: “Rodimus, Magnus and Megatron are—what in the Allspark is that!” Ratchet turning to Rodimus and Brainstorm: “Who’s idea—" Maxima comes through the portal doing a backflip and doing a superhero pose with blasters out. Drift immediately gets in front of Ratchet with his swords out read to slice and dice. Rodimus: “Woah! Woah! Woah! Love the entrance but maybe we can put all the weapons down.” Maxima: “You first wannabe ninja.” Drift scoffs a bit at the nickname but eventually puts his swords away. Maxima slowly puts away her blasters. Maxima looks at their insignias: “… You’re all Autobots. Where are we? Wait! Are we in space!? Primus, Ratchet is going to skin me! I was just supposed to check if Bee and Smokescreen were okay and now I’m in space rambling on and—Ratchet?!” Maxima walks closer to Ratchet. Drift stands right in front of him not knowing what to make of this situation. Ratchet: “Relax Drift. What I think the better question is to our resident scientist and Co-Captain.”

After a brief explanation from Brainstorm about the multiverse and her reason for being here, Maxima seemed ready to help.

Rodimus gave her a brief explanation on what was happening to the Matrix.

Maxima looked uncomfortable at the mention of the Matrix, but agreed to help in however way she could.

But the sound of her tanks rumbling put a stop to that.

A quick stop to the med bay and Swerve’s was mandated.

Maxima quickly got along with this version of Ratchet, Rodimus and Drift.

Brainstorm would have gone, but he needed to put out some literal fires in his lab.

At the med bay… Ratchet: “Okay kid, I’m just going to scan you and then we’ll figure out if you can consume this universes energon.” Maxima gives him a thumbs up while gently swaying her pedes back and forth. Rodimus: “You mentioned Smokescreen and Bumblebee, they your friends?” Maxima: “Yeah, more like little brothers actually. I’m the oldest of the youngest group on the team.” Drift raises his optic: “The oldest? But you’re—” Maxima: “I’m a bit young but not by much!” First Aid from the main computer: “SWEET PRIMUS THOSE ARE HER LEVELS!” THWACK! Ratchet slaps the upside of his helm before marching right back to Maxima pointing at a data pad. Ratchet: “Care to explain why your running close to no fuel kid?” Maxima a bit annouyed: “First Ratchet, its Maxima. Second, I skip a few—” Ratchet gives her a ‘don’t you dare lie to the doctor’ look. Maxima: “—dozen rations. But that’s what you do when your at war. You guys get it with the war going on.” Silence… Maxima: “… Are we still at war?” Ratchet putting a servo on her shoulder: “Our war is over, we won.” Maxima blinks several times before smiling. Drift: “We take it that yours isn’t.” Maxima’s silence only reaffirms their thoughts. Rodimus: “Well, lets get those energon levels up then! To Swerve’s” Maxima welcoming the distraction immediately gets up and follows the Co-Captain: “Lets go!” Ratchet: “Drift get your Amica under control!” Drift was already out the door, ready to join the two. First Aid: “That’s your Conjunx.” Ratchet: “Sadly…”

Maxima looked in wonder and awe around the ship, not shying away from asking questions.

This thoroughly stroked Rodimus’s ego, especially the look on her face when he mentioned to be the Co-captain of the ship.

He was a bit confused why Maxima was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of bots on board.

Rodimus gently took her servo and helped guide her through the crowd.

Drift went ahead to get their seats at the bar and some energon ready.

Maxima had never seen anything like this before, but she liked it.

It didn’t take long before bots started seeing the new bot holding the Co-captains servo.

Maxima started downing the regular energon in seconds. Rodimus patting her back: “Slow down there. Its going to go down a wrong pipe.” Maxima: “Sorry! Its just been long since…” Drift: “We know, hey Swerve you mind getting us another cube?” Swerve: “Absolutely!” Swerve watches her drink: “Shh! You weren’t kidding about her needing a drink. Heard you came from a whole other universe, what’s the occasion?” Rodimus: “Maxi here is going to help with our little ‘Matrix problem’. Wait, I never did ask, were you a Prime? Or a former one?” Maxima tenses up a bit: “No and no.” Drift: “That must mean that your worthy of it then.” Maxima grimances a bit. She looks around: “I haven’t seen Optimus around, how else am I gonna see that Matrix?” Rodimus: “Oh no, its right here.” Maxima stops sipping and gives him a look of disbielf: “What?” Rodimus: “See, right here!” Rodimus opens his chassis and right there was the Matrix. Maxima was up on her pedes backing away from the light with a scared expression. Her back meets someone’s chassis. Maxima backs away: “I’m sorry—” Megatron just gives her a confused look. Maxima: “Megatron…”

Maxima was shaking not knowing where to go.

She didn’t even realize she had ran out of the bar and hid in one of the empty rooms in the ship.

Everything was just too loud, too bright…

She just squeezed her optics shut and curled up in a little corner in the room.

Primus, it was happening again.

The last time she was this bad was with…

Light pedesteps come closer to her. Maxima just squeezes her optics tighter, her servos curling around her helm. A pair of servos gently take hers. There was a whisper. Then the whisper grew a bit louder. It was encouraging her to open her optics. It was a nice voice. Maxima slowly opens her optics. In front of her was an orange bot with glasses. He gave her a kind smile. Rung: “There we go, take it easy, no one is rushing you dear.” Maxima doesn’t know why, but she trust the smaller mech. Little by little her frame starts to relax. Maxima vents out: “Thank you…” Rung: “Rung. Like later.” Maxima gives him a smile: “Thank you Rung.” Rung nods: “Do you mind telling me why you ran into the room with half of the Lost Light worried for you?” Maxima feels a pang of guilt. Maxima: “All of this… its comes from a long story, you would want to hear it.” Rung takes off his glasses and sits next to her. Rung: “I love long stories.” Maxima gives him a watery smile.

Maxima started spilling everything to Rung.

She half expected him to go, or at least look bored.

But he didn’t, Rung stayed by her side listening to every word.

After a while Maxima felt better and wanted to go out.

She gave Rung a sheepish look and asked him to accompany her.

Rung gently took her servo and the pair went out.

Turns out, privacy isn’t something you can get easily on the ship because more than half of the crew was already outside, eavesdropping.

Maxima, while understandably angry that her private conversation was not so private anymore, was also glad she didn’t have to repeat it.

Rodimus was the first to offer an apology for ‘sicing’ the Matrix on her.

Maxima just hugged him tightly.

Rodimus wasn’t expecting the hug but did hug back.

Which lead to more bots joining the hug…

Maxima looking at Megatron. Megatron: “…You’re Prime’s—” Maxima: “I’m his daughter, yes. And you’re the infamous Megatron who defected, am I correct?” Megatron nods. Maxima looks at the insignia and gives him a sad smile. Maxima: “My Optimus would have been so proud to hear the news.” Megatron gives her a small smile. Maxima turning to Rodimus: “Now, lets see what we can do about that Matrix of yours.”

It takes a while for Maxima and Rodimus to figure out what’s going on with Matrix which prolongs her stay.

Maxima adapted quickly to the crew as she was made a temporary member.

She was not shy to act and tell her adventures on Earth with the kids and her team.

There was a bit of a limit in stories predating the war.

She became close to many of the crew members, but Rodimus held a close spot.

Rodimus, besides sharing their share of experiences with their Prime’s, he had become the older brother figure she never knew she wanted.

Magnus thought that this child of Optimus Prime could rub some good on him.

But sadly, to his and Megatron’s dismay, the pair got along faster than a house fire… a fire that would cost some braincells and lead to shenanigans on the ship.

Rewind, Swerve and Tailgate were walking down the halls when they felt the thunder of stomping pedes. Maxima and Rodimus, in their vehicle forms were speeding through the halls. Maxima and Rodimus: “Heads up!” They both transform midair and flip over the screaming minibots before transforming back and speeding once again. Swerve was trying to calm down himself and a panicky Tailgate meanwhile Rewind was buzzing with excitement. It was times like these he was glad to have a camera bolted to his helm. Rewind: “What do you think they were running from?” Swerve: “Who knows?” Magnus and Megatron with little pink doodles on their faces: “WHERE ARE THEY?!” Rewind, Swerve and Tailgate: “AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!”

Maxima at some point on the Lost Light after introducing them to monster truck rallies.

[wannab-urs]

Trust

Prompt #634 "I trust you not just with my life, but with the lives of others."

Pairing: Din Djarin x gn!reader

Summary: season 2 finale fight scene rewrite

Warnings: uhhh brief threat of death? That's it really. WC: 418

A/N: Due to my crazy ass writer's block, and thanks to the recommendation from @ramblers-lets-get-ramblin, I'm gonna start doing these @creativepromptsforwriting challenges. You pick a number 1-1065 and write for 15 minutes based on the corresponding prompt.

Did I even use the prompt? No not really. Is this drabble creative, interesting, or innovative in any way? Also no. But it's words! Which I've been struggling with. It's unedited also.

Din Djarin Masterlist | Main Masterlist | AO3 | Kofi | Prompt Fills

Mando is one of the most trustworthy men you know. He would never let anyone down if he could help it. You trust him with your life, with Grogu’s life, with the lives of any stranger that needs help.

That’s why it’s incredibly concerning that he isn’t here now. It’s very unlike him to leave you to fend for yourself. 

Moff Gideon has you pinned in the corner of some godsforsaken cell, the kid cradled protectively in one arm while the other keeps a blaster trained steadily on the Moff’s head. The strange weapon he wields twirls from his fingertips as if it weighs nothing. He seems completely unphased by the weapon aimed at him. 

“Hand over the child and no one has to lose any limbs,” he taunts.

“No kriffing shot, Gideon.” 

He won’t swing on you with the child in your arms… you hope. Gideon presses in closer, forcing you further back into the cell. You fire off a shot at his head, hoping it doesn’t ricochet back into you or Grogu. 

Gideon blocks the shot easily with his energy blade, sending the blaster bolt into the ground by your feet. Too close. And Gideon knows it. Knows you won’t risk another shot. He closes the space between you and tries to yank Grogu from your arms, but you twist away from him. 

With your back exposed to him, he can easily run you through with his sword without harming the child. This is it. Where the fuck is Mando? 

You brace for death, but it doesn’t come. Instead, you hear the distinct sound of beskar clashing with that strange sword. You slouch onto the ground, Grogu pressed tightly to your chest, and watch your mandalorian battle the Moff. 

He’s beautiful with that spear in his hands. All swift, fluid motion. The sword hums and growls with every impact, but it doesn’t seem to be able to cut through the spear. 

Mando hooks the spear behind Gideon’s leg and yanks, dropping the man to flat on his back. He presses the tip of the weapon against the Moff’s throat, but doesn’t press in. 

“Drop the saber, Gideon.” 

Gideon retracts the blade back into the hilt, flips it around, and holds it out to Mando. 

“Take it. You defeated me in combat. It’s yours.”

Din stares down at him, seeming to falter a bit. 

“I don’t want it.” 

“It doesn’t matter. It’s yours. Bo Katan will not be the leader of her people after all… Mand’alor” 

“Kriff.” 

@creativepromptfills

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

Full disclosure: if I were in a battle and saw a Mandalorian brandishing a hammer and tongs jetting in my direction...

... I would pull a vanishing act so fast y'all would think I'm a literal space wizard capable of crossing fandoms and disapparating.

Blaster shots and laser swords would be painful enough; I do NOT want to go out via forge hammer to the face.

[spacetimesally]

When you don't have a blaster, Space Cadets, pick up a sword. Even better if it's a prophetic sword. How it works is anyone's guess. Maybe we'll find out on this Spacetime Sally Animated Adventure!!!

[iron-strangers]

tell us moooore about the mudhorn babies!!!

Yes! Yesyesyesyes, ask me more about the babies!💞

The babies are a part of my Dad!Mand'alor!Din x Jedi!Reader series called Expanding Clan Mudhorn

Grogu no longer hangs in Din's bag/carrier, he's now riding with Mirshka in her little backpack.

Grogu is now enrolled in a space kindergarten and the fridge is full of the drawings he brings home from school.

He's also been terrorizing the frog population in the pond behind their home.

Grogu's first word is buir and Din isn't shy to admit that he BAWLED.

The kids can see the old Mand’alor's force ghosts. Aranar is Jaster Mereel's favorite, Mirshka is Tarre Vizsla's.

Aranar once stole the darksaber and he messed up the ignition, cutting half of his hair. He wears helmets everywhere for two weeks.

Just like Din, Aranar is not painting his armor.

Mirshka wants a vod'ika for her life day present (Din is encouraging her).

She wants her vod'ika to be called tra'cyuur.

"No, Din, I don't care if she sulks, we're not naming our baby 'blaster'."

You and Din finally settled on Kote, and Kote is perfect. Kote is a sweet baby who can never do wrong.

Aranar is three years older than Mirshka. Mirshka is two years older than Kote.

The Djarin genes are way too strong and the babies looks exactly like their buir.

Aranar always wins the sword-fight sparring sessions.

Mirshka is very strong in the living force, she even befriended the Mythosaur under the Living Waters of Mandalore.

Kote is the best shooter out of the four kids. Aranar has known no peace since his brother started shooting nerf-gun around the house.

Boba teaches Aranar to swear. Aranar then teaches Mirshka. Rid'ika threatens everyone that she will go dark if Kote started to swear too.

Din is Mirshka's favorite person in the whole galaxy.

Rid'ika is Aranar's.

Kote and Grogu baby talks to each other. No one knows what they're talking about, yet the two babies are giggling like a couple of maniacs.

Fenn'buir would steal the kids away and return them all muddy and smelly, much to your chagrin. At least they always sleep soundly after roughhousing with their ba'buir (grandfather).

One time, Din finally said "fuck this" and gave the darksaber to an eight years old Aranar. The boy led the court for one day (with your guidance, of course) while Din played hooky and took the rest of the kids flying all over Mandalore.

Aranar gave the council a fourty five minutes nap break. With just one day of ruling, Aranar is now known as Mand’alor the Kriffing Best.

Din was then banished to the couch for two days.

Thank you for this anon, this is the most fun I've had since writing this series. I hope you love the kids! 💞

Questions and requests are always open!

[euphreana]

The Shape of Truth - Chapter 6: Papered Over

Masterpost

-

Arms & Hammer had just opened for the day when Ambrosius and Dog-Nimona arrived. Despite not being in armor, the clerk in the foyer complied when Ambrosius said he was there on ‘official business’. She told him the workshop had gotten several orders for replicas of Ballister's sword over the last few months, but she couldn't pinpoint any exact days. It would be up to him to dig through the invoices in the back office to find the order he was looking for.

Ambrosius closed the office door after the clerk left, letting Nimona go back to human form unnoticed. It would be easier to sort through filing cabinets with thumbs, after all.

“Ugh, why are they still using paper for everything?” Nimona whined as she poked through one of the cabinets.

“Paper is cheaper?” Ambrosius offered, pulling out a thick folder from another drawer.

“Paper takes up more space! And you can't ‘search all’ paper!”

Ambrosius couldn't argue with that.

Working with actual paper was a rare experience for him. He’d worked with the mercy forms the day before, but before then it had been years since he’d even touched the stuff. Everything that’d had to do with his training as a knight had been read or written on a screen of some kind. He wondered if he’d be using it more now that he’d graduated.

“Found one!” Nimona announced after several minutes, holding up a sheet of text.

Ambrosius scanned the invoice. It was indeed an order for the right kind of sword, but…

“That's too cheap for something as detailed as the blaster-sword was.” He pointed out.

Nimona huffed and resumed paging through the folder.

“Being a sidekick wasn’t supposed to involve paper.”

“You know you can always leave if you want.”

“I don’t want.”

Ambrosius remembered the question that had been in the back of his head since he’d learned Nimona was real.

“About that… Why are you helping me?”

Nimona shrugged.

“I told you - I want to see who’s behind all this.”

“Why? So you can join them?”

“Why not?”

Ambrosius picked up a new sheaf of papers from the to-search stack on the desk.

“You know you just said that to a knight. I could turn you in for treason.”

“But you won’t!” Nimona said cheerfully, dropping another sheaf of searchable papers on top of the stack. “You want to know who’s behind this just as much as I do.”

Ambrosius wasn’t amused.

“What makes you think I won’t report you afterward?”

“Uh, the fact that The Institute hung your buddy?”

“That doesn’t make them bad. They were… just following the laws.”

“And who made those laws?”

“I don’t see what—”

“And that’s your problem - you trust them too much. You’re like their gold puppet!”

That struck a nerve with Ambrosius. Of course he trusted The Institute. The Institute was Good - he’d come to that conclusion on his own. People who disagreed were just blind to the truth. Nobody was pulling his strings.

“I’m no puppet.” he glared, slamming his sheaf of papers onto the desk, “I can think for myself.”

Nimona turned. Her elbow knocked over the to-search stack.

“That’s what they want you to think. That’s why they’re the ones feeding you your information.”

“The Institute is good!”

“And who told you that?!”

The handle to the office door rattled briefly. In an instant, Ambrosius’s foot shot out and kicked Nimona’s feet out from under her, and she fell out of sight behind the desk just as the door opened.

“Everything okay in here?” The clerk asked, glancing around the small room. “Is someone bothering you?”

Ambrosius put on a fake smile and waved a sheaf of papers.

“All good! Just talking to someone on speakerphone.” He hoped the clerk wouldn’t notice his phone was nowhere to be seen.

“Okay…” The clerk left, closing the door behind her.

Ambrosius gave a sigh of relief. He glanced down at Nimona, expecting to see a furry ball of irritation. Instead, she looked remarkably chill, reading through one of the papers that had fallen on the floor.

“Hey… I think I found it!”

She held the paper out excitedly. Ambrosius’s eyes skimmed over it. Sure enough, the invoice listed a hollow sword capable of disassembly, as well as the extra costs of being a top-tier replica. It had been sold to a ‘MB’, and delivered to an address across town.

Ambrosius stared at the name on the paper. MB - was this the person who was responsible for his grief? Or were they just another pawn in this game?

“We should take this to the justice department.” Ambrosius said quickly, “Tell them what we’ve found. They can take care of it from here.”

Nimona smirked.

“What are you going to tell them? That you got here by breaking into the archives?”

Ambrosius froze. Oh no. Nimona was going to use that to blackmail him from here on out, wasn’t she? He knew sneaking in had been a bad idea - he should have just let The Institute handle everything. They would have figured it out themselves!

Before he could react, Nimona’s foot slammed into his ankles, toppling him to the floor next to her. She gave him a sly grin.

“Looks like you’re stuck with me!”

~ ~ ~

“Well, that’s disappointing.” Nimona stated flatly.

She and Ambrosius stood in front of the husk of a small burned-out building. The sky had just started to drizzle, washing bits of ash off the charred beams and twisted metal piled in heaps in the lot. The fire had been recent - this was the first rain since it had burned.

Ambrosius tugged his hood forward to cover his face more as the rain picked up. Then he noticed someone entering a nearby office.

“Hey, what happened here?” he called and pointed to the remains of the burnt building.

The person barely paused to look at him as he approached.

“Fire. Obviously.”

“Yeah, but- when? What happened?”

“Right before the knighting. Everyone inside died. Tragic.” The person closed the door in his face.

The pink dog next to Ambrosius piped up.

“Hey, maybe take the hood off next time. You look shady.”

Ambrosius ignored the advice and went back to the ruins, stepping over the caution tape strung around it. This was too convenient. Someone had to have been covering their tracks. Usually he’d leave this to the experts, but now he didn’t have that luxury. He’d need to do all the heavy lifting alone. Alone… Before all this, he’d always had Bal or his parents backing him up. Now he was alone…

His hands shook as he sifted through a pile of wet ash. He’d never planned for this. Being alone… He’d found out young that everyone always wanted some favor or the other in return for being his friend - Ballister had been the only person who’d asked nothing in return. And now the man was gone, leaving him alone.

Nimona’s voice broke in.

“What… exactly are you looking for?”

“I don’t know. Something… Anything…” He wasn’t going to give up just yet. Gloreth help him, he was going to get to the bottom of this. “This place was a business - there was a lobby right here. Then there had to have been an office over here. Maybe…” he shoved a blackened beam out of his way, “Maybe there’s a clue somewhere.”

Nimona pawed at a pile of rubble.

“A clue to what? You heard the guy; the perps are dead.”

“There has to be someone else - if Bal didn’t trigger the sword to go off, somebody else must have done it remotely. And if the fire was before the knighting, they had to keep the sword somewhere else till then.”

“Maybe they kept it at someone's house?”

“Would YOU keep an unstable weapon like that in your house?”

“Yeah?”

“Well MOST people wouldn't. They had to have had a hideout or something. Maybe there’s… I don’t know, an address tag or something in here.”

Nimona squinted, thinking.

“Well it's not like we have any other leads.” She joined the search.

There wasn’t much to find - only hardware from the building and some charred electronics hadn’t burned or melted from the heat. Then Nimona found something else - a warped, metal filing cabinet buried in rubble.

Ambrosius dug it free and yanked one of the bent drawers open. Ash. He tried the next drawer. More ash. The bottom drawer had ash too, but there was something else buried underneath it all…

He reached in and pulled out a metal key with a tag hanging from it. The plastic tag had warped and bubbled from heat, but the label on it was still readable.

“Knightly Storage, Unit 531.” he read aloud.

“A clue?”

Ambrosius smiled as he pocketed the key. “It’s worth checking out!”

Chapter 7

[therobotmonster]

NEW ITEMS UP ON THE CULTS3D 3DPRINTABLES STORE

I was busy today with the uploads.

Free Bic & Bac Mini-Figs - from Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea/Les Mondes Engloutis!

Guiding Hand Cyber Keys - Transformers: Cybertron style and 5mm universal versions.

4mm Grip MOTU-Compatible Crystar Sword

Action Master Optimus Prime Guns for Modern TFs

The Tentacle Blaster - A 3mm/5mm weapon for squids, kids, and robots from space.

Grimlock Dinosaur-Mode Decoy/Keshi Figure

Ray the Retrosaur Allosaurus miniature/figurine.

Transformers: Forged to Fight Ancient Tablet Artifact

Blue Star Waruder General - 1970s Diaclone Miniature.

All those and more, here.

[bestgirlmakoto]

space sword blaster 🪐🗡️

[sailorsenshigifs]

[hubristicassholefight]

Swordswoman Showdown Round 3

Sailor Uranus (Sailor Moon) vs Fa Mulan (Disney's Mulan)

(Better here in a "preferred character" sense, not "who would win in a fight")

Propaganda below cut

Sailor Uranus

In addition to all the other ways she's cool as hell, she also wields the Space Sword and uses it for her Space Sword Blaster technique, which is just. mwah. androgynous woman with sword.

Anime/manga sword lesbian let's gooooooo. She wields the space sword as her main weapon. I love her your honor.

Fa Mulan

stole her father's sword to take his place in the imperial army. defeated the invading leader and stole HIS sword too.

Soldier who saved all of china; She’s one of the ogs, man, her movie is a banger

i know she's a problematic fave but i still love her :(

[floatingnebulas]

Rangers Apprentice Space AU

Ok, listen. I thought of a cyberpunk RA outer space AU earlier today. It was only a matter of time before I came up with a space au for RA since space aus tend to consume my thoughts.

Anyway, Araluen is an empire that spans a decent amount of interstellar territory. Not huge, but also not tiny, fairly average overall. All the other countries are other territories in the universe.

And, as always of course, Araluen is divided in a series of 50 sectors that are ruled over by the nobility. Each sector has one of the empire's 50 rangers assigned to it.

Rangers are essentially like they are in the series. The kingdom's special ops force that's really really good at what they do, and very good at sneaking around. They just have a bit more tech. The citizens of Araluen usually don't believe they're human, instead thinking they must be some kind of highly experimental android created by the crown to spy for them. It's the only way to really explain how good they are at fighting, vanishing, spying, hacking, everything. They're too good to be human, so they must be robots!

Of course, they're all humans (there are no aliens in this au). Rangers here use energy blasters instead of bows, and are crack shots no matter if they're using their close range pistols or long range sniper rifles. They also all carry small daggers made of experimental nanotechnology that can change form on a whim, letting them use daggers, saxe knives, and their strikers. Gilan has an even more experimental nanotech sword, and is one of the only people in the universe currently allowed to use it (he's helping test it out). His blade can shift between a few different types of swords so that he can use whatever he wants at that moment. Rangers also have a cloak woven with electronic fibers that allow them to disappear (not turn invisible but essentially an even better version of their mottled cloaks, one that can shift slightly to match how shadows change a little bit). They also all learn how to use technology and become fairly skilled, not the best in the universe but still pretty good, hackers so that if they're infiltrating somewhere they can always grab data. Each Ranger has their own custom ship with extremely fast warp drives and learns how to fly it even better than many competitive racers.

Morgarath used to be a member of the nobility and leader of his own sector, until he staged a rebellion a decade and a half ago. He used cybernetically enhanced forces (probably made up of some of his own people, some hired hands, and some abducted people. they would have a lot of the typical cyber enhancements that you see in cyberpunk media, such as weapons embedded into robot arms, eyes that can project things, enhanced ranges of motion, and increased strength/speed), and tried to fight against the king and his forces. The primary instrument of his defeat was the Ranger Halt, who managed to sneak behind enemy lines and implant a virus that infected the cybernetics the fighters had been implanted with. Morgarath was defeated and ended up being exiled to a planet in a very dangerous sector (haven't decided how it's dangerous yet), and no one is quite sure if he's still alive.

At one point in the war, Halt was cornered and nearly killed by some of Morgarath's soldiers, typically referred to as Wargals due to that being the model name of their implants. He is saved by a common soldier in Oswald's army, who dies defending him. Halt tracks down the man's wife and newborn son and fails to save the mother from death. So, Halt takes the child to the ward in Redmont Castle, the capital of the sector he's stationed in, and hands him over to Arald.

And the rest is history.

(I feel compelled to mention that in my mind, Halt lives on a planet that is pretty much uninhabited save for him, his cottage, his shipyard, and eventually his son apprentice. Also Gilan visits every chance he can and likes pulling stunts in his ship whenever he's with them to piss of Halt and show off to Will like the big bro he is)

(And when I say cyberpunk, I mean cyberpunk. Like, Halt leads Will on a recon mission in a futuristic glowing city with neon lights, they're driving around in spaceships (Halt has a mini copilot chair in his for Will until Will starts taking his own ship places), and Castle Redmont looks incredibly punk while Castle Araluen is very futuristic with a lot of curvy lines and such)

There is a very good chance I'll end up turning this into a oneshot series. Not a full AU because I don't have the time to do that, but some oneshots I could do! Probably.

[grayrazor]

I had a dream that Star Wars went public domain. Jedi became a generic sci-fi term for a psychic sword-wielder, like what happened to "blaster" and "hyperdrive" back in the 1940s. Wookiees became creatures that everybody included in their stories like Halflings from The Hobbit, Orcs from The Lord of the Rings, or the Coeurl from The Voyage of the Space Beagle.

Star Trek almost immediately had Jedi and Wookiees in Starfleet, and Warhammer 40,000 simultaneously had them as units in the Imperial Guard. The Trek Jedi had phaser-sabers and division-colored robes, and the Warhammer ones had power swords and more intricately-detailed robes. Wookiees were exactly the same in every universe.

[findafight]

i also don't like when ppl use the family video interview scene as him being dumb when he was obviously just nervous. personally whenever ppl put me on the spot like that i forget every piece of media i have ever consumed and everything i have ever liked or done. it literally happens every time w/o fail and i don't think that's that unusual lol.

Anon I think this is the perfect time to let y'all know that, come August, I will have a bachelor's degree in Film Studies. Literally the watching movies (and writing hyper specific essays about them) degree. And as soon as someone asks me what my favourite movie is? I immediately forget every single one of the hundreds of movies I've ever watched.

I've written at least tens of thousands of words on film. I literally will have a degree that's about movies and their details and cinematic techniques, and I cannot answer the question of what my favourite movie is. I have all these complicated sorting systems of movies I like and/or recommend, depending on what someone's feeling or their tolerance for foreign and/or silent cinema but forget them as soon as I'm asked, even in low stress environments. Brain go [dial tone noise].

So Steve going "uhhhhh fast times!! That movie where alex p Keaton is maybe trying to bang his mom? Star wars!" Relatable. He's so right. No one can beat me telling a film prof National Treasure is one of my favourite movies, so I'd say he's doing fine.

Also heavily believe Steve calls star wars things incorrectly because he thinks it's funny to rile Dustin up. He absolutely calls blasters phasers, lightsabers laser swords, and Jedi space wizards. Dustin squawks everytime and Steve things it's so funny. This leading him nervously forgetting the name of the movie and resorting to his teasing Dustin schtick. He's also so valid for liking ewoks I love their little song!! They're cute little friendly guys! He might not be watching M or discussing the impact of Soviet montage on western cinema, but he has taste!!