#there was a even cleaner version of the trained but we saved it with a white background like an idiot

[chibivesicle]

Trigun Stampede - Episode 4 - Stampede’s direction is clear; this is an action packed sci fi series on a desert planet.

Any resemblance to an anime or manga with an old fashioned Western setting is not the the creative direction for this.  Or as I’ve been thinking - Trigun Stampede is a sci fi series with the thin veneer of a western.  The veneer is shown at the beginning of our episode 4 with western sounding music and three random dudes grilling worm meat over a fire discussing how fresh meat is the best, though one guy wants to be all trendy and try a plant based meat product.  I think this is the writing team trying to be clever but it seems to fall flat.  The more I watch this, more of a bone I have to pick with the writers; it keeps coming off as passable but it could be much better.  This also goes into the story boarding, but we’ll get into that a little later on.

I’m also wondering how worms have muscles, but maybe we can go with alien worm biology hand waving explanation.

While enjoying their red worm meat, they spot a single individual walking alone in the desert carrying a cross, stating he’s well dressed for his own funeral and even has his own tombstone.

This is our introduction to Nicholas D. Wolfwood, the previously characterized wandering priest/clergyman who also works as a hired gun [anime] or religiously associated and trained assassin [manga].

The intro scene ends with a hot and sweaty looking Wolfwood.  I will say, they worked hard to get a nice reflection in his sunglasses and he does sport a little of his trademark stubble, but he does look a lot cleaner.

After the OP, the action returns to Meryl and Roberto listening to the news as Vash sleeps in the back of their land rover like vehicle.  Vash has been blamed for the destruction of Jeneora Rock and apparently hasn’t eaten since yesterday as Roberto offers his uneaten sandwich to Meryl.

Roberto gets to comment that only god knows why Vash is acting like Vash since young and inexperienced Meryl is expecting him both to eat more yet, struggle with sleeping due to his feelings of guilt that they are both aware of.

It really seems that Roberto is our info dump, make sure you understand our intent with our limited actions of what we decide to animate for our characters. Since the fact that Vash hasn’t eaten shows that he’s lost his motivation to live/ is feeling super depressed etc etc. has to be told to us by Roberto only with Meryl looking sadly at him.

Meryl then manages to almost drive right into Wolfwood and with Roberto’s help, she only nails him with the satellite trailer instead of hitting him head on.  This scene is very slapstick and seems oddly out of place since Stampede has been taking itself very seriously the entire time unlike the original anime or manga.

Meryl rushes to the nearest gas er - recharge station to save the strange man she just almost killed.  We see at least a nod to the original design of the plants with the light bulb station sign and a covered arch for parked vehicles.

As the group rushes in, they find the station owners shot and killed, likely looking like a station robbery.  There is a noise that allows Vash to find a child hiding in a locker who looks shocked, unable to speak.  At the same time, the injured man, seems to be quickly recovering able to add color commentary.

He takes the lead on some sort of ceremony for the remembrance of the dead, having taken a bottle of water from the station, sipping it before tossing some on the graves and attempting to do a poor ceremony.

It starts out passable but then quickly fails catching Meryl’s attention calling his possible job into question.  She asks him if he is a priest using the term 牧師 bokushi.  Interestingly, the original anime’s translation chose to use priest while the more literal translation is pastor/clergyman/reverend/minister.  Though the bus driver does call him a preacher at one point.

In this version he clearly states he’s not a priest but an undertaker.

Stampede uses the term 葬儀屋, sougi-ya, which translates to funeral home or can also describe an undertaker = funeral director.  Therefore, this is the second shift in a main character’s job in this version and will change aspects of his character by default, just like how it has changed Meryl’s in these first four episodes.

This is a good time to pause and compare Wolfwood’s introduction in Trigun and Trigun Maximum.  It will help frame how the rest of this episode plays out.

In the anime, Wolfwood doesn’t appear until episode 9, Murder Machine after Vash’s battle against Brilliant Dynamite Neon on the sandsteamer.  A glint of light catches Vash’s eye and they find a man collapsed and leaning against a cross in the desert.

After the bus driver pokes him commenting he’s a well put together dead man, he pops up and stutters that he’s been saved!  Showing that he’s got a sort of silly side.

After leaning that it was neither Milly or Meryl who saved him and introducing himself as a priest, he thanks Vash after he’d drank all of his water.  Vash is not pleased with this strange priest having consumed all of his water and this leads to the infamous giant introduction of Vash’s made up name which is blown by Milly blurting out he’s Vash the Stampede.  Once Wolfwood’s shock calms down he offers his hand to Vash and introduces himself as Wolfwood, at his service.

Of course he also can’t help but mention that if he killed Vash he’d get the $$60 billion reward and Vash would prefer he not point this out in public.

The entire introduction of Wolfwood is playful, you get the feeling that he’s a sort of prankster and has a good sense of humor though it has a dark and sarcastic undertone.

The manga is quite similar as Wolfwood introduces himself almost immediately as well.  Again, Wolfwood is shocked that this weird guy is the infamous criminal and is prevented from blurting it out to the entire bus.  I love how blunt Wolfwood is with his comment that ‘everyone’s damn dumb’.

And he again introduces himself to Vash, also offering his services as well.

Either way, both of these introductions show how playful of a character Wolfwood can be at times and how he’s portrayed as a friendly guy and very approachable - which makes sense if you are a religious official (or traveling under the guise of one).  Plus, the anime and manga both highlight that he was stranded in the desert due to his motorcycle breaking down forcing him to walk instead.  This forced him to carry his cross which is both literal and metaphorical for his character arc.

In Stampede, Vash feels a bit awkward as Meryl and the unnamed undertaker argue while the putative orphaned child looks shell shocked.  He walks over to the child and pops a lollipop in his mouth before offering another one to the kid.  This allows for him to have a small inspirational monologue to the child.

He states outright that he’s an orphan and that - No matter how heavy the cross that you carry, you still deserve to eat.  That you still deserve to laugh.

This sounds a bit like Wolfwood, a way of trying to connect with someone else.  After the kid silently looks thoughtful, he returns to give his bill to Vash for $$20,000 which causes Meryl to have another meltdown about his rip off of services.  Which with that abrupt change again makes me groan about the the awkward pacing and oddly placed slapstick style humor with his bill.

Roberto calls him out on not only his criminally high cost bill for services, but also notes that for being hit by a car he’s looking pretty good.  His reply is that he’s tough.  And that it’s his saving grace.

And with that suspicious look from Roberto, we hear a weird high pitched whine and the ground begins to rumble as the entire group is eaten by a giant sandworm, charging station and all!  The next time we get a close up on Wolfwood he’s got a crumpled cigarette instead of the pink lollipop.  This is a point were the story boarding continuity seems a bit off.  We went from him having a sucker, to likely losing it as they slid down into the worm but then the link to the cigarette is missing.  When did he pull it out?  Why now?  If they wanted to give the effect of him being level headed and cool, we would have seen him pull a cigarette out of his jacket pocket, place it in his mouth before casually lighting it.  That’s how you establish a cool smoker look.  Instead, he’s got a almost burnt down cigarette which does not look cool and collected.  He just looks annoyed.

After their fall into the depths of the belly of the giant worm where the silent child continues to act odd.  We see everyone sliding into the worm which is fine and we get to have Roberto info dump more about how worms are sort of collective organisms that have electrons to communicate with each other.

The little baby worm glows indicating that it associates with giant mama worm, hence all the little baby worms can hang out inside it unharmed.  Silent child is excited by the glowing worm and dashes off! 

Vash of course wants to save the child and with time being of the essence the nameless undertaker tells them to split up and called Vash とんがり tongari which is needle-noggin’ in the anime translation and spiky in the manga.  I always thought the anime choice of needle-noggin’ was a clutch translation decision, really getting at the teasing intent of the nickname.  With spiky hair and the fact that Vash is oblivious to things from time to time.  It is pretty early for the tongari nickname to be dropped - that’s a sort of post 2 year time skip nickname.

He proceeds to assign nicknames to everyone else as well, Meryl is little missy and Roberto is uncle downer.  Vash is surprised by the nickname - though I am too Vash! As he’s not as spiky with his more ruffled hair.  Meryl is upset and just wants a man to call her by her name and Roberto doesn’t even argue with his.  Meryl you are 100% valid, no one on the planet wants to respect you.

Though in the original he does always have nicknames for others but more of calling the insurance little sisters and variants of that instead which sort of works . . . but he isn’t particularly rude about it in the originals.

We finally see that Roberto is indeed armed with a small pistol that he loads before the split up.  Keeping with Meryl’s book smarts slowly becoming more street smarts, she’s the one who points out this entire plan is a terrible idea and they should have stuck together for safety.

She’s absolutely right and finds the missing child but clearly is attacked by something.  Eventually, the three men all end up meeting at the same location.  Is it there they started?  Or did they exit the four worm tunnels?  It looks a little unclear with the vague background but I’m reading that they returned to the start where Wolfwood is chain smoking away.  Likely, he never even went into the tunnel with all the cigarette butts around his feet.

Vash indicates that they can save both of them while the undertaker mocks him for his self-sacrifice and need to rescue them, calling him odd.  He then grabs one of the glowing baby worms and bites into it, eating it almost whole spitting out only a small part of it.  WTF is this supposed to mean? It just seems odd - I know the set up is that worms are a good source of protein, but did he need to eat one raw?  What does this do for his character establishment?  Will eat anyone to survive?

Due to him eating the worm, it causes Roberto to both tell Vash that this undertaker might be one of the people who can control worms to kill others. Roberto approaches him with his small derringer wanting to know what is the deal with the giant cross. He knows it isn’t what it appears and wants an answer from the suspicious man with them.

Of course the undertaker deflects this comment stating if he’d want to kill him, he wouldn’t be trapped there with them.  The conversation also allows for Roberto to info dump that there are people who can control worms but his theory is off since it seems that the suspicious undertaker is trapped with them.

This doesn’t allow Roberto to relax and he is clear that the statement ‘could kill with smile’ but of course Vash denies this based on his eyes.  We only get a vague line of ‘You really mess with me.’ which would have been a line intended for Milly in the anime; in this case for Vash and Vash uses this as his rationale that he won’t hurt them. Vash’s own behavior messes with the mystery man - he won’t hurt them!!  There seems to be some sort of emotional ‘something’ to go along with the statement of Vash ‘really messing with him’ but it doesn’t linger for long because Roberto is now missing.

The duo proceed to wander around lost and Vash maintains hope while his downer companion tries everything to get him to give up, they were already eaten and digested, they are lost, they should save themselves.  They proceed to be sneezed out of the worm (these sandworms apparently have animal based biology with nostrils) which has another slapstick moment of them being flung back out into the desert.  Vash tells Wolfwood to run who argues that they should both run, but both get re-eaten.  Since Vash doesn’t run and neither does Wolfwood.

They find the child who runs to Vash and hugs them as he reassures them it will be okay.  But he’s called out for being careless and let someone out of his sight all the time.  Of course Vash replies that he hasn’t been shot by the morbid man.  Yeah, that’s a great rationale there Vash for trusting a man who still hasn’t told you his name!

The kid then runs away and Vash figures out that they are the one controlling the worms with a high pitched sound leading us to the reveal of our next Gung-ho Gun.  The inside of the worm then becomes digestive/active with saliva/liquid and Vash just yells for Meryl and Roberto to be given back.  Dude!  You have a gun.  We know you are a pacifist but you can still use your gun!  Where is your brain?  Is it on vacation?  Did you leave it in Jeneora Rock?  In Vash’s moment of whatever, he begins to get sucked into the stomach of the worm and just stands there. 

It takes Wolfwood doing the big reveal of his large Punisher in what I’d say is an overly long, drawn out sequence to reveal it - is a giant gun!  Wow.  Even if you’d never seen Trigun before, you could guess it is some sort of giant weapon.   Was that really necessary Studio Orange?  No, but you think it looks cool.  You gotta animate it in all the angles.

He’s able to shoot around Vash’s feet allowing him to move and then blows a hole in the side of the worm.  Our worm whisperer escapes out the side of the worm and wishes them good luck on surviving.

Now, I’ve already made it clear that I liked the slow style storytelling of the original anime and even in the manga - Wolfwood will not show what his Punisher can do - until Trigun Maximum after the 2 year time skip.  Even though he’s revealed to be a Gung-ho Gun early on, he doesn’t show what his Punisher is capable of - just uses it as a blunt object.  We also learn that Wolfwood’s actions are those of a trapped man and not his choice, but something he can’t get out of.  The Punisher is how he’s recognized as ‘Chapel’ by Legato though Wolfwood never verbally confirms this at the Jeneora Rock Church. But with Stampede, we don’t need any of that delay - we are going to show you how badass his Punisher is now, which can apparently create a laser beam cannon that literally slices the entire worm open and blood? haemolynth? explodes out into the desert.  Wolfwood clearly has leveled up in his weapons.

We jump to a scene of the three random dudes along a campfire with them eating some of the fresh worm meat.  Wolfwood teases Meryl trying to get her to eat the worm meat while Roberto points out that a man with a giant cross machine gun is pretty damn suspicious and Vash is like ‘he’s fine, he hasn’t hurt us, he helped us.’ 

When Vash approaches, Meryl and Wolfwood are still arguing with each other about the worm meat.

Finally, around the campfire, Vash sits down and eats some worm meat, quoting Wolfwood that he still has a right to survive and eat.  Wow, deep - and Meryl is excited that sad boi is eating - he’s not going to be depressed all the time!  This is also finally when Nicholas D. Wolfwood introduces himself to Vash the Stampede and they shake hands.  It took the entire episode for him to introduce himself!

Wolfwood then invites himself into their crew telling them that they should get going - to where exactly sir undertaker?  He continues to tease Meryl and get do get a good side profile and finally one of his cheesy smiles.

Then they all go to sleep, with Vash on top of the car to show Wolfwood chain smoking on the roof of the charging station.  It then reveals that he was working with Zazie the Beast who tells him that killing his ‘friends’ is his skill and that he couldn’t care less about human lives. 

He only glances slightly oddly for a moment before replying he does the job that he has to do.  So, even though we have a fast reveal of Wolfwood as a Gung-ho Gun like in the manga, we don’t get his additional monologue that none of this is by choice.

The last scene returns to the place where Knives is collecting the plants and the Doctor is mentioning how Vash is the most human individual, which is why he can’t reach his full gate potential and this is why he’s not able to do whatever Knives wants him to.

Grey the Ninelines is still in the background along with the small blonde girl - not Zazie.  Is the small girl also a plant?  Tessla? Are they on Knives’ ark ship?

Thus the episode ends with a sort of plot from Knives to push Vash into an extreme corner.

Main points and themes from this episode

1.) Story boarding and flow are still weak.  It is still difficult to follow things at this point.  Actions and transitions aren’t quite fluid and transitions are choppy.  I already highlighted how Wolfwood goes from a lollipop, to falling and then having a cigarette already in his mouth but we never see it happen.  There are too many blink and you miss it moments and orientation is perhaps supposed to be frantic.  Based on the current pacing if we are to get more of the Gung-ho Guns including Livio, are we looking at a 12-13 episode complete series?  Maybe - it would explain the action non-stop pacing.

Along with this point is the writing continuing to be average at best.  This is a sci fi story where all the characters are checking particular boxes.  I was almost expecting Wolfwood to ask Vash ‘Whose side are you on?’ but we didn’t get that, just him being a morbid, rude, jerk.  I think the male character default in Stampede is unless you are Vash, you are a jerk. Roberto is now slightly less of jerk, so Wolfwood is the new jerk.

Does the CGI look pretty?  Yes, yes, it does.  As my meta nerd friend Merdopseudo put it:

In fact, "Trigun Stampede", more than an adaptation of a manga in anime, it is a demo to promote Studio Orange and its 3D.

And thus spoke the Merdo!  Is this a snazzy series with generic character to get as many eyeballs as possible?  Looks like it.  Is it really sourcing the original material - eh, not the characterization, nor the original themes.  We like to invent all sorts of terms and we’ve decided that this is an example of ‘mainstreamification’ taking a series that was modestly successful in Japan and more of a cult hit outside due to its quirky nature.  Meryl is now your cute little waifu instead of being an experience insurance adjuster with her junior partner Milly.

This then leads into our characters . . .

2.) Current status of the main cast, now fully assembled per the promotional poster!

i.) Vash - Was pretty lame in this episode, his sad boi trend continues as he is so depressed from Knives most recent actions he won’t eat a sandwich and tries to sleep in the back of the car.  He is considerate of Zazie when he thinks she’s a victim of a robbery while Meryl and Wolfwood argue, but puts a lot of faith and trust in a man who is suspicious as all hell based on what he sees in his eyes - through his sunglasses?  Which just like Vash, Wolfwood wears his glasses all the time.

Additionally, Vash is rather useless the entire episode, again chooses to plead with Zazie to release his friends, get sucked into the stomach of the worm, unable to move and all this stuff happens and he never even thinks to draw his gun?  Look, he may be a technical pacifist, but Vash knows if he shoots the worm with a bullet or two release his feet, the worm is not gonna die.  Yet, he never uses his gun at all.

Are we to interpret this as Vash being ‘frozen’ and unable to act?  Is this why he needs Wolfwood to do all the work for him?  Where is his creative brain coming up with solutions?  Why is he so helpless?  Does this mean that Wolfwood inspired him to regain his confidence that he lost in episode 3 when he quotes Wolfwood’s words to Zazie?  By eating?

Crisis averted - Vash has decided to live by Wolfwood’s deep words (which I’ll get to in a bit). ii.) Meryl - or Can I just get some respect on this planet? Meryl continues to struggle in a male dominated group and has bickered with Roberto, then Vash and now, Wolfwood throughout the episode.  She still has to be assisted/rescued etc but at least realized that Wolfwood’s plan was reckless and dangerous - but told no one but herself crawling through the wormtube.  She’s intelligent but lacks agency and authority.

She also gets a lot of scenes bickering with Wolfwood and he gets a bit friendly with her trying to force feed her the worm steak? flank?  She doesn’t look thrilled and they continue to argue until Vash sits down and eats and she is happy that Vash isn’t refusing to eat.

Without Milly Thompson as a potential romantic interest like in the original anime, are we to see Meryl x Wolfwood as a possibility?  It would explain why they keep getting into each other’s faces.

If this is the case, I’m not so keen on it, though Wolfwood in this episode is rather rude and morbid making him not very friendly or attractive.  Please don’t go this direction Studio Orange if you are thinking about it.

iii.) Roberto -  Our old man info dump.  Yep, now with a derringer to match the promotional poster.  You need to know more information about this planet and organizations - he’s got it.  You need to know how to read a scene or interpret something?  He’ll tell you. 

I’m sorry Roberto but you are not Milly and we shouldn’t hold that against you.  But really, you don’t add much to the plot.  At least you didn’t take a single drink all episode, but still haven’t fixed your shirt these past few days.

He doesn’t trust anyone, or organization but he’s just chillin’.  Why?  What’s your deal man?  Or are you just there to have four people in the main cast?

iv.) Wolfwood - Studio Orange what have you done to my man?  I gotta be dramatic when it comes to Wolfwood.  This is a case where a very nuanced character has been simplified to a rude guy who has no friends and will do his ‘job’.

I don’t even want to dwell too much on his now generic Tokyo hipster design, they shrank his nose and made him have a fair skin tone.  Also, why does he also have an untucked dress shirt? 

I have more of an issue with who and what he does based on this episode.  First, is the change in his occupation when he is traveling around meeting others.  In Stampede, Meryl asks him if he’s a priest and he says he’s an undertaker.  This is a change from the anime and manga where he originally said boukushi = priest/clergyman but always translated as priest in both; while he’s now, a sougiya or undertaker/funeral director.  Hahaha, so funny Studio Orange, a hired gun is an undertaker because he makes people dead.  lols. The change from priest makes a huge shift in how he acts.  In this episode alone, Wolfwood gives Vash shit for being ‘self-sacrificing’ and mocks him about it while they are in the worm trying to rescue others.

Stampede Wolfwood is not a nice person nor willing to help others because it is the right thing to do.

In contrast both the manga and anime have Wolfwood introduce himself as a priest and later we see him trying to strike a deal with the bus driver as he’s short the full bus fare.  He states if he gives up any more money, he’ll starve and the man allows for him to ride for $$80 instead of $$100 (which to be fair, he picked him up midway).  This then gives Vash a reason to ask him how he makes money as a priest and why he needs money to help support orphans associated with his church.  All of this makes sense, most people who take religious vows/occupations are not flush with cash and Wolfwood is no exception.  But what happens next is how Wolfwood demonstrates self-sacrifice towards others.

In the manga young children beg him for assistance and he of course gives all he can dividing it between himself and the children equally, even though he’s an adult.  We know he’s not lying, we just saw him haggling with the bus driver.

In the anime, we have a similar scene where he offers two of his three meal blocks to hungry children as well.

Their mother thanks him and the children understand the importance of their gifts even stating they will not waste a crumb. They respect his sacrifice for them.  These two scenes show us that Wolfwood very much cares for humanity and innocents who need help from adults.  Does he also understand that there is evil in the world? Yes, but it doesn’t make him isolate himself from others and helps in anyway he can. 

Afterwards, he walks back to see Vash beaming with a soft genuine smile, which prompts him to state that he was worried that Vash couldn’t smile - you know really smile - not fake cover the empty pain sort of smile.  These scenes alone make sense why Wolfwood makes sense to be traveling as a priest/hired gun as in the anime or a religious assassin in the manga.  In both cases, we know that despite his failings, he has the underpinnings of religious beliefs and actions.  His faith guides his morals and drives the conflict inside himself which eats at him even though he eventually finds peace and acceptance in both versions.

In the anime episode 9-11 allows for ample Wolfwood character development with the rest of the group as he reveals his precision shooting skills to Vash despite lying in Murder Machine - but Vash also states that Wolfwood’s prayer worked and God saved them.  Episode 10 Quick Draw has him twisting Vash’s arm into a contest to help out a woman and her son but also gets into the mix, revealing that he’s got multiple guns in addition to his fine marksmanship.  Lastly, 11 Escape from Pain has him getting into a philosophical argument with Julius, Milly, and Vash before departing the group.  The scene where pulls out his pistol and holds it to his temple to test Julius and Moore.

Murder Machine was an episode where an unarmed Wolfwood jumped into action with Vash to save a single child!  This is a man who understands self-sacrifice.  We also get his entire uncool dodging of laser beams here:

If we turn back to episode 4 of Stampede - Hungry we can’t even take his interaction with Zazie seriously nor compare it to what he offered previously unknown children.  He eats a lollipop for himself and offers the other to Zazie because she might be hungry?  We know he gave Vash and Meryl a crazy invoice but nothing says he’s on a budget, nor is giving up a single piece of candy self-sacrificing.  Did you get the point Studio Orange?  No, because you decided that he’s not that type of character anymore. 

Who is this character in Stampede? Not one I recognize from the anime or manga that’s for certain. He’s rude, has his gun Punisher which is now vastly more powerful than previously and is not friendly at all!  We know he’s got a job to do for Knives but he’s not really selling himself as a great traveling companion or friend for Vash.

I think that Wolfwood is such a popular character due to his humanity that he displayed in the original series; how he has an internal conflict struggling to navigate life on a shit planet either as a gun for hire in the anime or trained assassin in the manga.  He drinks, gambles, smokes and is willing to kill others if they will hurt innocents.  Yet, he strives to do his best as indicated by his inner thoughts while playing chess against the random guy in episode 11.  He realized it was dumb to bet his entire fare on this chess game and thinks about head butting the man and making a run for it - only to correct himself by reminding him to think of his profession as a priest.

He is also a jackpot character for fans - he’s a priest and a gunman who has principles yet also sins - what’s not to love about that set up?  As Merdo put it, even as an atheist, you can’t help but love a character like him.  Why Studio Orange passed on this aspect of his character and the leverage of such a trope baffles both of us.

Come on, you missed this golden line when the bus driver and two other guys toss his ‘luggage’ down to him.  The bus driver remarks that the damn thing is heavy and to what Wolfwood replies:

Which is the best clever joke that it is full of mercy, if you ever met it, you will have a swift and merciful death.

Or lastly, his words of blessing when he departs from the group which is totally in line with him being religiously affiliated.

3.) Themes for this week.  I really don’t have anything obvious.  Eat to live?  Life sucks sometimes but if you don’t eat you die?  Not very motivational all in all.  With Wolfwood no longer a priest (or under the guise of being one), the line of a heavy cross to bear rings hollow.  BTW, Knives is still really evil. 

[sparkleencleaningservice]

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[sideblogforcrimpy-plus]

Okay so I read this tumblr prompt list and then I was gripped with the need to write this fic. (It’s also on Ao3)

Title: It’s the Water Words: 2,238 Rated: General. No canon-typical violence. Summary: Waking up to a continual dripping noise early in the morning wasn’t Spencer’s idea of a good day off. Especially given the rarity of a guaranteed day off and the fact that the dripping wasn’t from any of his taps; Morgan had come around and fixed something about washers in them the last time he visited.

No, this dripping was because of the apartment above him, and it had been happening long enough that walking through on what was a nice, plush rug was now like stepping on a thick carpet of moss after some heavy rain.

Briefly, Spencer considered a life of actual crime starting with the upstairs neighbour, then he’d consider annoyances on a case by case basis after that.

I.e. Spencer's apartment floods and before he actually can consider murder he leaves and meets Luke instead, fluff and a bit of pining ensues.

After spending what felt like hours picking up the books with water damage alongside anything else that found its way to the lower status of ‘floor’ in his home, Spencer decided enough was enough. He’d let everything dry the way it was set out, but he had to get out of the house.

The thought of going to the library didn’t help; he had the books he wanted right here, and seeing different versions of them just because his were all wet now wouldn’t help his mood. So for the first time in a long time, he left the house without a set direction.

He found himself at the park and ended up sitting down. There weren’t chess tables at this park, which would have served as a nice distraction. Instead, he tried to push thoughts of his neighbour apologising profusely out of his head as he laid beneath the shade of a tree.

He’d been there for about forty-six minutes before he heard his name being called, and his heart fluttered when he lifted his head and opened his eyes to see Luke strolling towards him. Roxy was on a lead beside him, well-trained and not pulling just as Spencer would expect.

“First time seeing you here, you okay?” His smile softened a little bit as he seemed to notice Spencer wasn’t in as good a mood. “You look a little down.”

“Yeah, my apartment flooded and I just, I had to get out.”

“So you decided to come to the park?”

“I didn’t actually know where I wanted to go, but I ended up here.” Luke held his gaze for a moment before moving to sit behind him, making Roxy sit on his other side away from Spencer. Spencer smiled when he noticed what Luke had done, and put his head back down with an arm behind his head as a pillow.

They’d been talking for a while before Luke mentioned being hungry. He almost looked offended when Spencer said he hadn’t eaten anything yet, and only said ‘wait there’ before leaving for a few minutes.

He came back with two crepes in hand, and water bottles tucked under his arm. Spencer perked up at the sight of the sugary food, and Luke shook his head upon seeing it.

“I knew you’d like these. It’s not a breakfast I’d recommend, or even normally get for someone else, but I’ve made an exception for you.”

“Do you buy breakfast for people often?”

“For people I’ve dated, sure.” Spencer hid his smile behind the crepe Luke gave him, the thought of this being an impromptu date causing his stomach to flip. While Spencer thought about it, Luke watched him, his ever-present smile growing.

“Have you ever made breakfast for someone?”

“No, generally I want the people I’m eating food with to be able to make it through the meal.” At Spencer’s raised brow, he shrugged. “I’m not much good in a kitchen.”

“That makes two of us.”

“What excuse do you use to hide the fact you can’t cook from your partners?”

“I haven’t had much need for an excuse, but also you can tell by looking at my kitchen. And my impressive takeout menu collection.”

Luke laughed, shaking his head. “Oh? I feel like you’re a creature of habit, I’m surprised you’d have a large collection.”

Spencer’s nose wrinkled. “Well, I had to find the good ones first. Now I guess I do just pick from a select few. Regardless, I look like I’m more spontaneous than I am, I think it works in my favour.”

“You don’t need to be spontaneous to lure people in. We have enough spontaneity in our line of work, I’d say.”

“So I just need to find someone in our line of work, you’re saying?” Instead of responding verbally, Luke just stared at Spencer while Spencer wondered if maybe this is what heart palpitations felt like. Realistically he knew it wasn’t, but he didn’t have another name for what it felt like.

Just when it looked like Luke would respond, Spencer cut in.

“Can I uh, have one of those water bottles, please?” It was Luke’s turn to raise a brow, and Spencer ignored it to ask about Roxy instead, knowing she was a subject Luke could talk about for days.

Spencer spent the rest of their time at the park very aware of Luke’s motions and words. How he gestured more when excited and it was probably due to his being able to use sign language. How he was most excited talking about Roxy, and would alter between gesticulating and patting said dog. He’d tell anecdotes and then listen to Spencer’s facts and infodumping. Spencer realised he had it bad when, too focused on what Luke was saying and doing, he took too long to respond and there was just silence while the two stared at each other.

Saved again from another possibly awkward moment then, it started to shower lightly. The two hadn’t noticed the fluffy clouds darkening slightly, gathering more mass in the sky above them. Luke laughed and stood up, Roxy coming to attention beside him.

“I wake up in bed, and there’s water everywhere. I try to escape it and it rains, and now there’s water everywhere again.” Spencer ran a hand through his hair as he watched the rain darken the sleeve of his sweater as he held his arm up in front of him.

“Pretty sure there’s no leak at my house, maybe you could come over for a bit? Just to get out of the rain, if you’re not ready to go home yet.” Spencer wasn’t ready to leave Luke yet, but he wasn’t going to share that. Instead, for a minute he let himself feel anxious about going to Luke’s house for the first time, then nodded and followed Luke’s lead.

While the trip from the park to Luke’s house was relatively short, the rain got heavier in that direction, and the two were almost wet through by the time they reached the house. Luke had Roxy shake herself before they went inside, but she still shook herself in the entryway when Luke went to go get a towel for the three of them. Spencer wrinkled his nose, thinking about all the germs and wet dog smell she had the potential to spread around. To spread onto him.

“Dr Reid, are you mad at my dog?”

Spencer startled and looked up to see a grinning Luke and laughed self-consciously, shaking his head.

“It’s the Reid Effect, makes me uneasy near animals sometimes.” Luke nodded, passing him a towel before trying to dry the dog. Spencer left his shoes and wet socks at the door and stepped into the living room, casting his eyes around the room that was much cleaner than his own. Even before it was flooded.

“You profiling me, Spence?” He felt a little warm at the nickname coming from Luke and shook his head.

“No, just looking. Your house is a lot less cluttered than mine.” Wondering if it was really doing anything, Spencer was patting down his clothes with the towel as he moved around the space.

“Well, it wasn’t too long ago that I moved.” Spencer squinted a little, disbelieving. “Alright, maybe it’s been long enough to get some new things, but we’ve been busy, haven’t we?”

“I think you could live here for another year and hardly accumulate more things.”

“You’re profiling more now, aren’t you?” Spencer laughed, humming in agreement as he started drying his hair. He wanted to keep looking around, but he was caught by the sight of Luke; he’d draped the towel over his shoulders and was scrubbing his hair with one end of it. He let his eyes follow the flexing of muscle in the man’s arm before forcing himself to look away in case Luke noticed.

“Well, maybe a little. I’m kind of jealous that it looks so nice, but I couldn’t keep my house like this with my book collection.”

“Yeah, maybe the place needs a little clutter to feel more homely.” Spencer had been looking around again, but turning back to Luke he noticed the man staring at him. “Let me get you a change of clothes? You’ll freeze as you are.” Spencer nodded, accepting clothes Luke picked for him. Luke had left Spencer in the main area then, only coming out when he’d changed his own clothes and received the all clear from Spencer.

Spencer held back a sigh when he heard a laugh from behind him. Luke had come out of his room and was now leaning against the doorframe with a wide grin. Spencer did sigh then; he was tired from dealing with his soaked apartment, angry that when he tried to escape it the fates saw fit to direct a sunshower his way and get his clothes wet. And now here he was, in the house of the man he’d been trying not to fall for for the last god (and Spencer) knows how long, and he was laughing at Spencer seeing the ill-fit of clothes for a more masculine body on his small frame.

He’d dealt with that sort of thing enough throughout his life, both before and after starting with the BAU. He didn’t really have the energy to face it now. He frowned and started to roughly pull off the loose shirt before realising he was essentially stripping in front of Luke.

He could feel the heat of angry embarrassment warming his face and neck, but confusion joined the emotions roiling around in his head when he saw that same confusion mingled with concern in Luke’s expression.

“Hey, are you okay?”

He pursed his lips, trying to figure out what was going on outside of his own mind. Unable to properly gauge the situation, he settled for a part of the truth.

“I think I look stupid; these clothes are too big.”

Luke stared at him for a moment before walking towards him. He hesitated a few times, his mouth opening and closing without a word before he seemed to settle on what he wanted.

“Are those your own thoughts, or things you’ve heard before?”

The embarrassment rushed up again, and Spencer ducked his head as his frown deepened. 

“One leads to the other often enough, don’t you think?”

“That’s a pity, because I like seeing you in my clothes. I think you look cute. Did you think I was laughing at you for looking stupid before?” Spencer’s continued silence was telling, and Luke put a hand on his shoulder.

“Spencer, I know I can’t undo damage from the past with just a few words, but if I could please know I’d do it in a heartbeat, sincerely. You don’t look stupid, okay? I like it. I really do like you in my clothes.”

Sensing that Luke was being genuine, Spencer now felt stupid because of his outburst, and the embarrassment hadn’t gone away either. His voice was quiet and his eyes were still firmly focused on the floor.

“Sorry. It hasn’t been a good day for me. Well, some it has.”

“Glad to be of service.” Spencer chuckled and finally looked back up to Luke. He was closer than Spencer expected, and he swallowed.

“I-I uh-. Thank you for the clothes, they’re nice. They smell nice.” Luke was beaming now, and Spencer was getting whiplash from his own emotions. In an effort to try and hide how revealing that admission felt, he was about to dive into a spiel about fabric softener when Luke placed both hands on Spencer’s shoulders.

“Spencer, if I were to say I’d like for today to be considered a date, how would you feel about it?” Spencer wet his lips with his tongue before trying to speak, nodding.

“I’d uh, I’d like that. Yeah.” Before he could add more, Luke pulled him into an almost crushing hug. He responded in kind, his arms coming up around Luke and his hands pressing the place between Luke’s shoulder blades, fingers curling in the fabric of his shirt. 

“This wasn’t what I thought would happen when I took Roxy for a walk today, but it’s something I’ve wanted to ask for a while. Well actually, I wanted to ask you on a date and then go out for one, but this works.”

“And you said we didn’t need spontaneity.” Spencer felt Luke’s laugh through his own chest, close as they were, and couldn’t stop himself from pressing his lips to Luke’s shoulder.

He’d flood the apartment himself if it meant he could do this every day; be in Luke’s arms and wrapped in his scent, giddy.

[shikai-the-storyteller]

I absolutely didn’t go back through and edit this at all and hardly any of this is verbatim but I tried to take notes on some of what Mae Catt said during her stream if anyone is interested!

EDIT: Here’s a cleaner post with most of the Q&A.

She says she doesn’t want to yuck anybody’s yums re: ships. She seems Arcee and Grimlock more as friends, but she didn’t say they can’t be in a relationship

They fell in love with Perceptor so they wanted him on the “End of the World fighting the Quintessons” team

They had to dedicate a lot of effort into Dead End b/c it takes time to send in info for modeling a character and deciding on their alt mode

She was pitching Obsidian from Beast Machines really hard. She didn’t know what his personality would be it was just a “Look how cool he is!” sort of thing

Thought it’d be fun to have someone pessimistic like Dead End be on the team

“According to us, Drift did not make it, but I fully endorse whatever you want”

“The brand team had grown up on the toys as we had grown up on the toons, so we just wanted to make the best thing imaginable.” That’s nice 

Rodimus was never considered for the show “it’s been covered to death”, but they were adamant about portraying Hot Rod as someone who wanted to be a leader

Hot Rod is someone who is learning to be a leader

“Please don’t tell JRO I forgot about Whirl” re: talking about why they chose each character for the “Anti-Quintesson” team

Q: Re: Why did Drift try to kill Roddy A: They said they needed a double-agent and they needed someone who would (seemingly) kill Hot Rod

She loves that Optimus is just trying so hard to rebuild Cybertron, I just want society to start rebuilding

Q: Since you mentioned Optimus's death... he didn't seem to have a plinth in "our" Matrix realm. Does that mean the list of Primes works differently? Like are the 13 more of a dynasty, rather than all being a group together?  A: They decided Optimus would be in the Alt! Universe matrix because they wanted to show he was dead. Logical backflips because he needed to be among the 13 to talk to Windblade. 

She says Starscream’s death hurt her most

They didn’t want to kill people off willy-nilly for shock value

"The audience will fall in love with Slipstream so she has to die" LMAO

She almost wanted Starscream to emerge from the Judge heads untouched but she’s ultimately glad that idea got shot down

Dead End’s eyes are white

She’d love to have a MTMTE Magnus / Minimus included. She wished and prayed to have Frenzy and Rumble

They wanted Jazz to be a lady!!!!!!!

These characters are like grown ups (kinda) with their own lives that we don’t see. Lots of stuff happening between episodes

“Rumble and Frenzy are always considered in my heart, but there wasn’t enough time or space or assets to do so”

“Alt Soundwaves also had their own Laserbeaks. I wonder if the scientist would’ve taken them out. He might’ve just gotten rid of them.”

“A lot of intelligent life is inherently mechanical” explaining why so much of the life we saw in the show were robots

She would’ve liked to have the other shows show up (TFP, TFA, G1, Shattered Glass) but they don’t have those assets or budget. “This will quickly become unclear to audiences who aren’t (you people).” They couldn’t have all these references when some of their audience wouldn’t get it

“Why does anyone collect what they collect? That’s a really angry dad who’s got five children and he plays music. Gotta have that” --re: the Scientist and Soundwave

Knock Out was considered but every Transformer under the sun was discussed at some point in the Writer’s room. 

Developing Sky-Byte’s character was simultaneous with Jetfire’s character, "We knew we wanted Sky-Byte to be a poet, and we wanted him and Megatron to be chummy”

From the getgo they didn’t want any humans distracting from the Transformers

Q: Is Megatron dead? A: “In discussions we wanted to kill him. Wanted to do a reverse Optimus death. However, in the final product, I kinda enjoy the ambiguity rather than the final decision. Can’t remember if we were decisive about that in the script.”

She wanted them to have IDW Tarn in there “OBVIOUSLY (the perfect decepticon) should look like this guy. A faceless mindless Decepticon that only serves Megatron”

Q: Is Dead End a good boyfriend? A: Dead End is a work in progress, but maybe Percy is patient enough to get him there

Q: Is Astrotrain a good boyfriend?” A: “No, no...he’s not a good person, really”

“When I was desperately trying to save Starscream’s life even though I brutally murdered Slipstream--” LMAO She wanted Starscream to have amnesia and she says she wanted to have a redeption arc. She wanted him to have a Windblade shard and have it be kind of like Castaway, where he only talked to it (and the shard only had 5 phrases it could say) and eventually Bee would befriend him Wanted to write Starscream as an abuse victim who expected the worse of the Autobots, but she wanted him to warm up slowly

Wanted a Starscream and Optimus episode where he’s like “you did your best and that’s what counts”

Q: Is Percy a good boyfriend A: “Absolutely--WAIT HOLD ON. He’s very blunt, he doesn’t mince words, if you can handle his bluntness then you’re good. He is what he is and you have to deal with him.”

Q: Is Soundwave a good boyfriend? A: Soundwave is not a good boyfriend. He’s a good casual romance but he’s not a good boyfriend. Soundwave would be a terrible listener. He hears a lot but he’d tune you out.

Percy did permanently take over Mac’s bar

She really wanted Obsidian and Transmutate to be in the show.

If Thunderclash was in the show he and Jetfire would HATE each other. Thunderclash would be a rival reality star (maybe) to Media Fire

Fave Episode was “I Am the AllSpark” b/c of that Megatron and Starscream dialogue Also S2 04 Soundwave and Shockwave

Transmutate would be more like the uprising version (?) but modeled more on the BeastWars version

The Starscream & Megatron beatdown was super severe and they were like “holy frick they’re really going for it” when they saw the boards for it

She likes the Windblade / Slipstream ship

Her favorite VA is Jeremy Levy, he’s a really cool guy

She thinks Starscream and Cheetor could become (not necessarily friends, but connected?) because of their connection to the All Spark 

Describes Starscream as an “Awful gremlin” several times

They say Megatron didn’t actually kill Starscream, just really beat him down hard

“Don’t take things I say as the end all be all”

She doesn’t think Bee would be a Prime, Windblade and Hot Rod would be a better Prime. He wouldn’t want to be a Prime. He’s the #2 to Primes!

With unlimited budget combiners could’ve been included, but it doesn’t seem like they thought about it

Astrotrain and the Insecticons are from Megatron X’s universe

Megatron’s priorities changed when he saw his doppelganger. Realizing he was a horrible tyrant, that scared him enough to return and not kill Optimus and make peace no matter what.

She thinks Cliffjumper and Bee wouldn’t get along, solely because of the IDW2 comic stuff

Got 26 episodes for season 3 because they got the 4-part movies

Megatron cares about his troops but not in a way that we would notice that care

Wasn’t a HUGE die-hard TF fan when she got into the series but she was a bigger GI Joe fan, she reread a bunch of things and did a lot of research

Cut joke: S2 E5 Megatron and OP finds the All Spark Decepticons and Autobots popping all over the world, Soundwave pops into Brazil where there’s a music festival and he’d crash the concert and hang out. He likes EDM the most?

The Titans want to be cities. They want citizens. They want to be lived in, that brings them joy (ouch)

Q: How did the Decepticons learn to stream? A: Because they’re deceptive! He knew he should dedicate some time to winning the hearts and minds of humans. Starscreams’ funeral was not the first time they streamed Optimus would use the official media channels, not a streaming service. Megatron would try to speak more directly to the people.

From the conception, the show wasn’t going to have humans

She thought people would ship Dead End / Percy but it wasn’t until she saw art that she started shipping them

Q: Is Optimus the type of streamer who would take 10 minutes to figure out how to un-mute his microphone A: Optimus is a dad. He has no idea what’s going on re: streaming. Optimus would say embarrassing news while Bee and Hot Rod are in the middle of streaming

Doesn’t ship Bee with anyone, she sees him as a little brother

Randolph put Rack ‘n Ruin in the show.

AcidStorm is genderfluid

Cold Construction doesn’t exist in this show. Maybe there’s one jet mode all the seekers really like

We have Mae Catt to thank for Whirl

Percy didn’t transform because not a good time to turn into a microscope while you’re trying to save your planet from Quintessons

If she were a transformer she’d want to be a stealth bomber. She’s 5′3 so she says she’d probably actually be a motorcycle like Chromia

They killed Prowl because it was Shadow Striker doing the killing and he’s a self-sacrificing lieutenant.

Enjoyed writing Starscream most, Clobber and Hot Rod became a joy, S2 E4 was her first one, it was fun getting into Hot Rod’s voice. She said it was hard doing Optimus’ voice, she’d always pass it off to someone to look at it.

She loves the idea of Wild Wheel robbing Astrotrain in train-mode, totally wild west-style

One of her proudest things was turning Lugnut into a gal

They wanted to include more female characters

They love Cosmos, she has a little toy of him. R2D2 but a transformer! They loved having her in the show

Blurr really was the fastest

Maccadam looking like a buff Rung was just a strange coincidence 

Q: Megop rights?  A: “Oh absolutely, duh”

Says we absolutely SHOULD write fanfic. Fanfiction made her into the writer she is today, she says you should write it

There’s a lot between episodes, people living their lives and characters living on the ship that don’t pop up in the show

She wrote non-stop Matrix fanfic from 12-20 years old, she learned a lot thanks to writing fanfic

Uses “They” pronouns for Rack ‘n Ruin but they both use “he”

Sad that Skywarp didn’t get a speaking line

Re: Starscream’s redemption arc: She wanted Starscream to have amnesia if they went the “he comes out of the ruins of the judge totally fine”. “A redemption arc needs to be facilitated by a character acknowledging that what they did was wrong. He would have a laundry list of excuses for everything, even if there was all that evidence to the contrary, but needs to acknowledge that reasons don’t matter because people got hurt. Needs to intend to do better. Let them try and let them fail, they don’t need to 180, it’s hard work to be a better person.”

Shadow Striker is taller than Optimus or is his height. She loves the gender-neutral designs for a lot of characters

She’s not going to say whether Ratchet finished medical school or not Laughed at the  "i don't believe that man has ever been to medical school" comment

Q: How would you feel about a female Optimus Prime? A: [GAY LAUGHTER] “So do you turn Optimus Prime into a woman, or do you take characters like Elita One and uplift her? I would want to lean more into giving Elita One more oomph, I do love how Optimus doubts himself and if he’s worthy of being a Prime.”

Says Rack ‘n Ruin are probably the Prime in that one weird universe lmao

Loves the idea that Transformers have siblings / families

She doesn’t think Cybertronians celebrate birthdays. “Why would you celebrate being alive for 4 million years that sounds like a nightmare.” She says that people would be celebrating milestones if nothing else

She’d kill to have Perceptor meet the other stunticons

She says she doesn’t post fanfic as much anymore. Sends them to Natalie as love letters (Ghost Busters fics specifically)

In a world where you had unlimited budget it’d be fun if Cybertronians were constantly shape-shifting and changing their forms, they’d like having Transformers who “grew a beard” and decided to “shave it”

Re: Ratchet and Medical school: she wants a “I choose to believe Ratchet has never been to medical school” shirt

Natalie (her GF) said hi 

She doesn’t understand cycles or astrocycles, she doesn’t understand the weird Transformers time stuff. (mood)

Natalie explained how ghost traps work and it was a delight "You're basically making a pocket dimension, that's how you capture ghosts" “The Technology for a ghost trap is like magic and science” 

Maecatt's bringing all her TF toys over to the camera 

Q: Elita prime when? A: All the time, in my heart! 

Q: Why are you so mean to Percy? A: He's so mature and pragmatic that he can take it, and is willing to take one for the team bc he understands that it's what he needs to do. Yes, he’s calmly feral.

Yes to the hurt/comfort Deadceptor fanfic joke answer

She jokingly says she's willing to buy Cyberverse fanart prints

“Arcee was fun to figure out because there’s an extra bit of pressure to develop a female character, there is extra pressure to do it well since it’s representing a different community (not that women are different species) more representation is needed. “What kind of woman can our Arcee be?”” Scared to write her poorly, but they realized she could be a fun dynamic duo with Grimlock, someone who could keep up with him, not a “girl” version of him, but someone who could stand on her own two feet

Collecting Soundwave because Soundwave is COOL. Wouldn’t you collect a single father of 5 who carries them around in his chest?

Shockwave altered his vibes to have maximum bad vibes to destroy the All Spark

Rebooting the franchise: she’d maybe do beast wars or something

Skullcruncher is a lady! She misses Mac but Percy takes good care of her

She loved Beast Wars Inferno, she loved that Inferno called Megatron a Queen. It was played as a joke because the 90s weren’t very socially conscious, but she liked that Megatron never corrected him or beat him down

She wanted to have Lightbright and Nickle in the show 

"Maybe Drift is alive, maybe he's rethinking his decision and he'll come back later" 

She said it's hard talking about writing a show because you're designing the experience and you have to make sometimes what sounds like cold and pragmatic decisions (eg: "we need a cold and spunky female") which sucks, but they need to balance out the show. She says she'd never do that just for the sake of doing it, but it's part of something that they do need to be aware of while working on a show “Starts from a weirdly cold pragmatic place, but we try and put truth in it”

Q: Is Skullcruncher Percy's bouncer now that he's running Maccadam's? A: Oh totally

She felt bad about the writing thing because she says "you could throw a rock in California and you'd hit a writer / director or whatever" but she says she really likes being an authority on things now, even if it’s weird

She said Drift would've been helpful in S3 for sure, maybe he'd come up with Repugnis

Q: If Tarn is the perfect Decepticon who's the perfect Autobot A: Someone with a Firetruck alt mode, Autobot insignia as a face. Nat and her talked about it a lot. She says Optimus SHOULD be a fire truck, it makes the relationship between him and Ratchet a little more fun since Ratchet is an ambulance, and Optimus has an AX. It just makes sense! She agreed that the perfect Autobot would be Thunderclash after the chat said that

“If you put the proverbial budget-gun to my head, I’d keep Unicron in planet-mode because it’s more mysterious, but I want both alt modes”

Her favorite Megatron is Beast Wars Megatron

They didn’t want to go the Unicron route because everyone goes that route

Q:  What sort of documents DID Optimus work on in the archives? A: Probably historical archives and working on all the Primes. Something like the French / American revolution equivalent, which informed his speech writing for Megatron and his own ethics. (NICE)

She doesn’t like Sky Lnxy’s design, it’s creepy. “He talks in the G1 episodes and the voice makes it worse.” She can’t get over his face

“Found” the social awkwardness for Optimus. Optimus depicted as a father figure in S1 because it’s from Bee’s perspective, S2 / S3 they were able to explore more and found the limits and found it was hard to maintain that level of heroic dialogue. Optimus would feel awkward about it too. Randolph did an impression of Optimus’ speech. “He can’t not be in war-mode” :(

Q: Were Optimus and Megatron friends ever, or did they just work together on the speech stuff? A: Oh hell yes, I think [the story] is always enhanced when they’re friends and when Optimus really believes in what Megatron was working on. Optimus’ rejection of Megatron is what pushes him over the edge, his best friend rejecting him pushes him into a place where he becomes a tyrannical person.

Q: Does Maccadam know we love him? A: *puts hand over heart and looks into the distance* Yes

“Who knows where Dead End ended up” then backtracks and says “Wait that sounds flippant”

Soundwave’s favorite Earth song is Despacito

Q:  What's the best selfie Arcee's ever taken A: Mae Catt loves the one with the giraffe. She likes the idea of Arcee having a bunch of human friends

Q: What do the Transformers think of the Florida Man? A: They can’t really tell the difference between humans, they don’t really get it. It just sorta looks like all the normal stuff they see on Earth (or something)

Q: Who's the Florida Man of the Transformers A: Rack ‘n Ruin or Skybyte. But he’s too nice hmmm.

Leaned into the wackiness of Wheeljack because of the VA

Q:  What does Optimus do when he's not giving speeches / being a leader when they were all hanging out on the ARK? A: I think he reads, he seems like a heavy reader. It’d be cute if he read really bad Earth romance novels. He seems like a guy who needs a break from everything.

Q: Does Optimus have hobbies? A: Not to borrow from Rung, but doesn’t it seem like Optimus would make model ships? Very quiet, very focused detail-oriented hobby. Oh duh, he also plays basketball.

“I’d love to see more jets [who aren’t our usual gang] and find out all jets are kinda snobby”. Kaon and Tarn would be fun, it’d be cool to make up places.

(Someone asking if Optimus would read 50 Shades of Gray, someone else saying “They’d take it the wrong way because Transformers turn gray when they die”)

Everyone on the Autobot side are friends with each other.

Q: Does Megatron do anything for fun or is he too angry? A: I want to say he’s too angry, he has fun beating people down but I don’t think he’s had fun for a long time

Q: Were you surprised that Jake Tillman was in his 20s listening to his Optimus the first time? A: Jake Tillman was a vine-r she listened to a ton. She’d heard him when he was in his teens

MaeCatt loves that Shadow Striker saved Windblade’s body and kept her safe

Q: what was most important to you personally to put out in each episode? like humor/characterization/arcs A: Wanted to make sure she didn’t write dialogue that was condescending, wanted to be true about the character. Needs to be true to the characters (and gay) 

Transformers probably don’t know what memes are. They know what they ARE, but they don’t get it. They wanted Hot Rod to be super into Earth culture (winning races and driving off before humans could realize no one was in the car), but they never had time to really get into that.

Wound up in the Cyberverse writer’s room thanks to her agents, says she was the only person who gave a crap about GI Joe stuff, the executives were so sweet and let her chat, and they said she wasn’t a good fit for the current live action project so they sent her to the animation side, they sent her to Michael Howzer and they hit it off talking about GI Joe stuff. She was a post PA, someone who helped editors finish things for TV, got a call with an offer. 

[pulaasul]

The Reaper and The Master of Death

Harry Potter and Death watch some events unfold, starting with Tobirama Senju's creation of the Reanimation Jutsu.

[FFN] [Ao3]

--------

Harry looked amused as the personification of death sighed beside him as he and the personification watched a certain white-haired, blue-armored man successfully create a spell, jutsu as they were called in this world, that resurrected the dead, technically speaking.

The shinobi, as Harry learned they were called, slammed his hands on the ground and the three persons that were bound before him had dust, ash and dirt sticking to their bodies up until three unfamiliar figures replaced the prisoners.

"Reminds me of the inferi actually." Harry thought out loud.

"The inferi are called zombies in other worlds," Death huffed. "This one actually grabs the souls of the dead and forcibly puts them in another, after ejecting the soul of the host body," They continued. "It's rather accurate to compare them to the Black Lantern Corps minus the use of host bodies to call forth the souls of the dead."

"So how this works is that a DNA specific to that body is what's triggering an effect akin to the Resurrection Stone through their Chakra and puts the summoned souls into a living body, essentially creating a zombie that retains all their personality and knowledge that uses a living host to exist."

"In a sense." Death nodded.

"At the very least, he seemed not too keen on playing god as the thought of resurrecting the loved ones he lost in the clan wars hasn't crossed his mind." Harry offered. "I'm pretty sure he's just using the emotions and skills tied to the dead to his advantage."

Indeed, none of the unfamiliar figures resembled the white-haired man at all.

"Working with Weasley has strengthened your strategies, I see." Death commented. "You are right, even your very own Albus Dumbledore succumbed to the temptations of the Resurrection Stone and tried to call for the actual resurrection of his sister and parents."

"I'm pretty sure this type of strategy wouldn't cross Ron's mind," Harry offered. "The guy has a pretty good sense of morals despite what we experienced."

"My point still stands," Death shrugged. "He was a strategic genius even when you both were still eleven."

"Still can't believe there are versions of Professor Dumbledore that wanted to control everyone, who'd gaslight everyone around him just to keep everything in his control."

"You've seen for yourself how those Dumbledores are," Death offered. "I mean there are versions of you who sided with Riddle."

"I know," Harry sighed. "Still uncomfortable with those realities." He shook his head. "In any case, back to the man, Tobirama was it?"

"That's his name." Death nodded.

"I don't think we should worry about this spell or jutsu of his to be used to resurrect entire armies, as Voldemort did with his inferi, the jutsu is still limited to the caster's chakra."

--------

"Okay this, this I did not expect." Harry admitted.

A hooded, pale as white man had a lot of prisoners bound up before him as he slammed his hand to the ground, making the earth and dust gather around his captives and took the form of another person.

"I did not think possible that using the chakra around them can be used to fuel the jutsu." Death nodded. "This makes for good entertainment I suppose."

"Even that Orochimaru person wasn't playing god as soon as soon as he understood the jutsu," Harry pointed out. "Even though he has a lot of similarities to Voldemort regarding his animal of choice and his quest for immortality."

"I agree, and he had his hands sealed inside my stomach for some time alongside the souls of the Hashirama, Hiruzen, Minato and the creator of the jutsu, Tobirama."

"I've got to say, it was pretty ironic that the jutsu's creator was summoned by the very jutsu he created." Harry commented. "I still have a lot of questions regarding you eating their souls tho, I still remember being human and that looked like cannibalism to me."

"It's a visual metaphor." Death shrugged. "How I seal the souls is dependent on the cognition of the jutsu's creator, had the jutsu's creator created the jutsu with a gourd as a container in her mind, I would have appeared with a gourd in hand."

"So where are they, if not inside your stomach?"

"Limbo." Death answered. "Until anyone finds a way to free them from limbo, which in this world's case my stomach, they're staying there for good."

--------

"I feel sorry for the Uchihas." Harry offered as he observed the shinobi alliance fight against the hordes of dead shinobi. "They were wiped out, barring a few survivors, and they don't get to join this war."

"Well fate works in mysterious ways," Death shrugged. "It turns out there actually was a consequence to creating this jutsu."

"Don't tell me, the early demise of Tsunade Senju's fiancé and younger brother." Harry raised an eyebrow.

"That and a few others."

"No way! The Uchihas were collateral damage too?"

"Remember one of Tobirama's students?" Death asked. "The one that had bandages all over his body?"

"Danzo? What about him?"

"Well Danzo took Tobirama's paranoia and suspicions on the Uchihas to the very extreme that lead to the massacre of the clan, which tied everything in a neat ribbon."

"But what about Naruto, he's been wearing the cursed necklace since he won that bet against Tsunade."

"What do you think? You're a child of prophecy, the same as him."

"Huh, never thought of that." Harry hummed.

--------

"What great irony." Death commented.

Kabuto has just finished the hand seals necessary to dispel the reanimation jutsu.

"The Uchiha, the collateral for the creation of such jutsu was the one to stop it from running and return the souls of the dead, where they belong." Harry grinned. "It's the man who was forced to kill his entire clan too."

"I want you to meet him and give him a reward for such display." Death urged.

"Any reward?"

"Yes, but if he does go for an actual resurrection, limit it only to one or two." Death nodded.

---------

"Hello Itachi Uchiha." Harry greeted the confused Uchiha.

"W-who are you?" Itachi's eyes narrowed. "The Reanimation jutsu should've been undone."

"It was." Harry nodded. "Take a look around you, where do you think we are?"

"The Uchiha compound?" Itachi looked around. "Only silent and cleaner."

"The Uchiha compound you say?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "Regardless, your effort to bring the souls back to where they belong was rather brilliant." He praised.

"It was in an effort to save the Hidden Leaf…" Itachi trailed off.

"Call me Harry."

"It was to save the Hidden Leaf Harry." Itachi continued.

"An altruistic reason." Harry nodded. "In any case, fancy playing a prank on everyone alive? Especially Madara?"

"Prank?"

"Don't you think it's rather curious that no Uchiha, apart from you, was summoned from the dead?"

"I didn't question the absence of the Uchiha in the front lines. "Had the Uchihas were present the Shinobi alliance would have been wiped out almost immediately or at the very least would prove difficult to be fought against."

"Are you so sure about that Itachi-kun?" Harry questioned. "I was under the impression that only a few of you were able to awaken the Mangekyou and train it's exclusive powers."

"No, I am aware that only a few of us have unlocked the Mangekyou and even fewer to fully harness its powers." Itachi shook his head. "Had Shisui been present in the battle, he'd have killed a battalion in one strike."

"Shisui of the Body Flicker." Harry nodded.

"With the benefits gotten as a summon of the Reanimation, he'd be unstoppable, he's fast enough that no one would be able to seal him, even moreso if Kabuto had sealed his personality and made use of his abilities."

"Shisui's presence would've put more casualties than they already are." Harry nodded. "In any case, back to my idea."

"What does pranking everyone mean for the people battling now would entail?"

"Apart from a short reprieve from all the battles, especially for the living? Imagine the look on everyone's face as soon as some of the Uchihas started showing up."

---------

Everyone has just lost the alliance's intelligence headquarters through the ten tail's attack.

Without a moment of reprieve Madara and Obito, by controlling the ten tails, resumed their assault on the shinobi alliance and bombarded with attacks with its appendages: tails, feet and hands.

It culminated with another tailed beast bomb that directly targeted the entire shinobi alliance, if not for the timely intervention of the reanimated fourth Hokage: Minato Namikaze.

As the previous Hokages arrived, they immobilized the ten tails which gave the shinobi alliance a turn to attack the huge beast.

The unprecedented happened however, the ten tailed beast created 'clones', for lack of better term, of various sizes and forms in an attempt to defend itself from the onslaught of attack form the alliance.

The alliance were able to stand their ground but none were able to approach the main body, where it lay restrained.

Suddenly, a lot of those 'clones' were suddenly slashed and bisected, some were even obliterated.

"You sure grew up Sasuke." A voice commented as he stood on top of Sasuke's summon.

"Shisui."

"Eeeeh! That's Shisui?!" Naruto exclaimed in disbelief.

"The Uchiha clan will officially join the Shinobi Alliance!"

The third Hokage and Sasuke immediately recognized the person who made the announcement, one Fugaku Uchiha.

"The Uchiha clan?" Tobirama questioned. "I thought they were extinct."

"Do not worry about that Lord Second." Shisui grinned as he appeared beside the second Hokage, slashing a clone that managed to get through the rushing shinobi. "We're all still dead, someone used the white Zetsus lying around as sacrifice and reanimated some members of the clan."

"Hiruzen, Minato." Fugaku acknowledged the presence of the Hokage he was familiar with.

"I apologize for Danzo's actions Fugaku, I was too weak to stop him."

"It's too late for apologies Hiruzen, I am however thankful that you let Itachi spare Sasuke."

"Of course."

"Shisui, accompany Sasuke and his companions to the ten tail's body the rest of us help clean these up."

"Yes Lord Fugaku!" Shisui and the other members of the Uchiha clan voiced their affirmation.

With the aid of the Uchiha clan, some that have access to the Mangekyou and Susanoo, they made quick work with the ten tail's clones that some were even able to assist Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Shisui obliterating all the obstacles the appeared on their way towards the ten tail's main body.

--------

"Apart from Madara, who's the other man beside him?" Fugaku asked the two Hokages he was with.

"You don't recognize him?" Minato questioned. "That's Obito."

"Obito? Shouldn't he have died during your mission at the Kannabi bridge?" Fugaku beheaded a ten-tails clone.

"From what I have gathered, he didn't." Hiruzen smashed another clone right under his bo staff.

"According to Kakashi, Madara was the one who saved him, his body was indeed crushed by the boulder that we thought had killed him." Minato slashed a ten tailed clone

"This is your fault Sarutobi! Namikaze!" One of the Uchihas with the third and fourth Hokage exclaimed.

"I will not deny my part on Obito's descent, but do not put all the blame on the third and me," Minato shook his head. "It was the Uchiha clan who thought he was a disgrace in the first place, did you not?" He huffed as he stabbed another clone in the eyes.

"From what the intelligence corps had been relaying since they were reanimated, Obito was also the one responsible for releasing the Kyuubi and ordered it to attack the village." Hiruzen slammed three ten tailed clones with his bo staff. "He was also the one who killed the entire clan, Itachi's hands were only soaked in your and your wife's blood."

"He's also responsible why both Kushina and I died." Minato offered. "Why don't we continue this conversation when were done with the war." He suggested as he shook his dead.

"No need," Fugaku shook his head. "What happened to the clan was a series of karmic events that started with the clan doing wrong with one of their own."

"He was such a sweet, optimistic and helpful boy," Minato lamented. "To see him turn out this way was what hurt the most."

--------

"Lee Focus!" Neji barked as he performed the Rotation and destroy all incoming enemies.

Neji landed beside Lee and performed a series of air palms and blew alot of the clones away from his general vicinity.

"Neji… Y-you're."

"Yes I am dead." Neji nodded. "However I was summoned alongside the Uchiha clan to help aid in this ongoing war."

"A-are there others with you?"

"Now's not the time for that." Neji shook his head. "We will battle one last time." He smiled at his teammate. "We will rendezvous with Tenten."

"Yosh!"

---------

"What's going on Shisui? The reanimation Jutsu should've been undone." Sasuke questioned.

"It was undone alright." Shisui jumped from an incoming attack. "We were reanimated right after it was undone." He fired a fireball at the enemies in front of the group.

"After it was undone?" Naruto questioned.

"Apparently, like with Orochimaru reanimating the previous Hokages, someone used the jutsu to summon members of the Uchiha clan and some others." Shisui shrugged.

---------

"Looks like your clansmen disagree with you Madara." Hashirama commented.

"It wouldn't be the first time that this happened." Madara scoffed.

----------

"The One Tailed Beast was once connected to me, I'll get them!" Gaara released a thick trail of chakra infused sand and grabbed hold of the One Tail's chakra.

"We finally found the weakness and that is the key. Leave the Eight Tailed Beast's chakra to me." Killer Bee rapped as he used the Eight Tail's tentacles and clung unto the Eight Tail's chakra.

A chakra tug of war between the ten tail's jinchuuriki against Naruto, Sasuke, Gaara and Killer Bee ensued. They managed to pull out the tailed beasts' chakra from inside Obito but they were at an impasse.

Obito was a strong shinobi in his own right and with the added bonus of being the ten tails's jinchuuriki, that power increased exponentially. He was able to cling unto the tailed beasts' chakra that reacted to Naruto and Sasuke's attack.

"Don't underestimate the ten tail's jinchuuriki!" Obito declared as he pulled the tailed beasts' chakra harder to his person.

The Susanoo armor sprouted a handed from the back and pulled on one of Kurama's armored tails.

"Just keep pulling Naruto!"

The members of Naruto's graduating class arrived and gave their assistance as they clasped on one of tails.

Soon after everyone from the shinobi alliance arrived and with the help of Minato's tailed beast form's chakra, everyone gave their assistance and pulled.

"That's great! Everyone on my mark!" Naruto declared. "Ready! Set!"

Everyone positioned themselves comfortably as they awaited Naruto's signal.

"Pull!"

Everyone from the shinobi alliance heeded Naruto's call and pulled on the chakra.

Naruto himself pulled with all his might.

"Don't underestimate everyone's power!" Naruto declared.

As much as Obito's will had wavered for a brief moment, he was still the most powerful being present, even with everyone trying to pull away the tailed beasts' chakra from him. He responded everyone's convictions and actions with his own and pulled some of the chakra back to him.

"Continue to pull Naruto!" A very familiar voice exclaimed. "Leave Obito to us!"

Kushina arrived with Mikoto and Jiraiya.

"Mom." Naruto and Sasuke muttered to themselves as they watched their respective mothers join the fray.

Another Susanoo armor manifested around the Uchiha matriarch as chains sprouted from Kushina's body and wrapped themselves around Obito's torso.

"I will be joining into the fray, I'll leave him to you ladies."

"Thanks for the lift Jiraiya." Kushina grinned.

"Kushina get in here." Mikoto scooped up her friend and placed Kushina beside her inside her Susanoo.

With Kushina and Mikoto pulling Obito and the shinobi alliance pulling the chakra with Naruto, the leaf's jinchuuriki was successful in liberating the other tailed beasts' chakra from the ten tailed beast, defeating Obito in the massive tug-of-war.

---------

The Sage of Six Paths and the all the previous Kages summoned Team 7 and all the other tailed beasts from Kaguya's dimension.

The reanimated people began catching up to team 7, particularly the Uchihas with Sasuke and Naruto's parents and godfather.

Shisui made one last action of ruffling his cousin's hair before joining Fugaku and Mikoto.

"I'm afraid we all must go." The sage of six paths voiced out as he shook his head.

The reanimated people nodded in understanding as they glowed and began to dissipate, their bodies disintegrating into earth and dust.

Naruto and Sasuke didn't waste time and bid farewell to their loved ones.

---------

"Why haven't we left the living plane?" Hashirama questioned.

"Some of you have yet to leave your earthly constructs." The Sage of six paths shook his head. "Also, as I am the father of Sasuke's and Naruto's first incarnations, of Indra and Asura, it is my duty as their father to watch this conflict I knew I have helped sow to its very end."

"Choosing Asura over Indra." The second Hokage crossed his ethereal arms.

"Go Naruto! Know that your mother's rooting for you! You know!" Kushina yelled.

"Go for it Sasuke! The entire Uchiha clan has got your back!" Mikoto responded her own cheer.

"Mikoto, is that how the wife of the Uchiha clan head should act?" Fugaku rebuked.

"Really?" Mikoto raised an eyebrow. "We're dead if you haven't already noticed Fugaku, I don't care about upholding the clan's values when the same values got all of us killed."

"I didn't realize Mikoto-san has quite a temper to her." Minato commented.

"Motherhood mellowed her out," Fugaku admitted. "She knew she didn't want her sons to inherit her infamous temper."

"I guess I should've known considering how good friends she and Kushina were." Minato chuckled.

"Birds of a feather indeed." Fugaku nodded.

---------

To Naruto's and Sasuke's surprise, and utter embarrassment, their loved ones have yet to return to the pure world and they just knew that everyone witnessed their battle.

"You did good Sasuke." Fugaku nodded.

"You were great Naruto!" Kushina praised. "My son is so powerful!"

"Just like we'd hope, right Kushina?" Minato asked his wife.

"As for the reason we're still here, I felt it prudent for everyone to say goodbye to their late loved ones instead of just a few of them having that chance," The sage of six paths voiced out.

The casualties of the fourth shinobi world war as well as the fallen loved ones of the living people, who just woke up from the infinite tsukuyomi-induced slumber, appeared and they talked with each other like Tsunade talking to her late fiancé and younger brother.

Team Gai talking to Neji.

Shikamaru and Ino talking to their respective fathers, and with Chouji, they conversed with Asuma.

"Wait!" Naruto exclaimed. "Konohamaru needs to know you're here old man!" He exclaimed as he disappeared in a yellow flash and appearing a moment later, carrying the third hokage's grandson.

"What gives boss?! I know I was bored in the village but you didn't have to drag me out of it out of nowhere!" Konohamaru whined.

Naruto shook his head and gestured to the third Hokage.

"Grandpa." Konohamaru's eyes widened. "Gramps!" The young Sarutobi tackled his grandfather and hugged him as tight as he could.

"You've grown Konohamaru." Hiruzen returned the hug. "I heard you had defended the leaf spectacularly." The late Hokage ruffled the young Sarutobi's hair affectionately.

"He has indeed sensei." Tsunade affirmed. "Saved his jounin sensei from being killed during one of Akatsuki's attacks."

"Keep up the good work Konohamaru," Hiruzen smiled at his grandson. "I'm proud of you."

"And so am I." Asuma interjected.

Asuma turned to his team. "Look after him will you?"

"We will Asuma-sensei." Shikamaru nodded.

Soon enough everyone bid farewell to their loved ones: Naruto with his parents and godfather; Sasuke with his clan; Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji with their fathers and teacher; Tsunade with her grandfather, fiancé and younger brother; Konohamaru with his grandfather and uncle.

As soon as everyone disappeared, Shisui, whose body have yet to disintegrate, collapsed.

"What's happening?!"

Tsunade and Sakura were quick to rush to the unconscious Uchiha.

-----------

"Hello Shisui Uchiha." Harry greeted the boy.

"Hello" Shisui greeted back but his hands were on his short sword. "Is this the pure world?"

"You have unique circumstances Shisui," Harry informed the Uchiha. "Someone made the choice to resurrect you as a reward for a job well done."

"Resurrect me?" Shisui raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry but shouldn't that be impossible?"

"Not entirely in your world," Harry shrugged. "Chiyo of the Hidden Sand was able to resurrect their Kazekage, Gaara, after he was killed hours prior, Nagato used the Rinnegan's ability to resurrect the hidden leaf's casualties during his attack on the village, Madara forcefully used the same ability with the Rinnegan in Obito's possession to resurrect himself," He explained. "All of them at the cost of the user's life."

Would you really sacrifice your life for me, whoever you are?"

"Call me Harry," Harry smiled. "And what makes you think I'm a living person?"

"I mean we are talking aren't we?"

"Where exactly do you think we are?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, I was about to ask you the same question." Shisui fired back.

"Humor me." Harry urged.

Shisui looked around his surroundings.

"This… this is the top of the Hokage's Tower." Shisui declared. "That's the Hokage Mountain." He pointed at mountain with the faces of the Hokage carved on it.

"Looks like Mount Rushmore." Harry muttered to himself.

"But it's silent and cleaner." Shisui observed.

"The Hokage Tower below the Hokage Mountain huh?" Harry hummed. "It make sense." He nodded.

"So this is the boy Itachi Uchiha wanted to resurrect." The sage of six paths observed. "Rather curious that he didn't choose his parents."

"I don't think it's quite that interesting Hagoromo." Harry shook his head. "One of Itachi's few regrets was Shisui Uchiha's death."

"Also one of the very few Uchihas who didn't inherit Indra's curse of hatred," The sage of six paths nodded. "He also loved his village that he essentially gave his life for her survival."

"Shouldn't Itachi be the one resurrected?" Shisui offered his input.

"That can't be done Shisui," Harry shook his head. "It has to be you."

"Why me?" Shisui questioned. "Don't you think it'd be unfair for everyone who lost someone in the war but somehow I'm the one who gets resurrected?" He reasoned.

Harry and the sage looked at each other and smiled.

"Don't you want to go back Shisui?" Harry asked.

"I'm not saying I don't want to…" Shisui trailed off.

"Cedric…" Harry whispered to himself

Harry shook his head as he focused on his current circumstance.

"Ultimately Shisui, you have a choice," Harry looked at Shisui's eyes. "You can choose to go back to the pure world or be resurrected."

"Can I have some time to think over everything?" Shisui asked.

"Take your time." Harry nodded.

Shisui took his time to decide and Harry could understand. Unlike his circumstances, Shisui didn't have anyone left to protect when Harry still had more he cherished.

Harry may have accepted the fact that he may die but when a choice was given to him, he didn't hesitate to grab it.

One thing was sure, things were different for one Shisui Uchiha.

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

"How is he alive?"

Were the words Shisui heard as soon as he regained consciousness, it immediately clued him on his current state: a living person.

"Unlike Madara, he didn't perform the hand seals necessary to keep himself in this world."

"No, only the Rinnegan has the ability to resurrect people from the dead."

"No, Chiyo-sama of the Hidden Sand used a medical jutsu to resurrect Gaara when his tailed beast was stolen from him at the cost of her own life."

"That still leaves the Rinnegan as the viable answer."

"Do you think Sasuke…"

"Why use the ability on Shisui and not on Itachi or his parents?"

"Then how?"

"Putting Shisui's resurrection on the sides for now, how're the people reacting?"

"The only people aware are the people present in the front lines, and the majority of them are indifferent on the matter."

"He's regained consciousness."

"Shisui Uchiha." Shisui was immediately aware that Tsunade was one of the people who was talking about him outside his room as he watched her appear through the door. "It appears that you have been resurrected." The fifth Hokage stood beside his bed and gave him an assessing stare.

"I don't really know lady Hokage," Shisui shook his head. "All I know that the Uchiha clan were reanimated at the place where I killed myself," He admitted. "Alongside the other casualties of the fourth shinobi world war."

"It appears someone used the Rinne Rebirth jutsu on you," Tsunade relayed. "That is the ability exclusive to the Rinnegan that resurrects the dead." She looked at the clip board she was holding." However, there's only one living person who has the Rinnegan, the others who have this bloodline are dead when you were resurrected."

"Grandma."

Naruto barged into the room.

"You're supposed to be resting Naruto," The fifth Hokage admonished. "You wanted a new hand attached to your arm."

"I know that but Grandpa Sage said that I needed to tell you something."

"The Sage of Six Paths?" Shisui raised an eyebrow, remembering the events of the war.

"Well?" Tsunade prompted impatiently.

"He said that Shisui was revived un…kon…" Naruto struggled. "Gaah! Why'd he have to use complicated words?!" He whined.

"You're saying that Shisui was resurrected using unconventional standards?" Tsunade finished Naruto's train of thought.

"Yes! Yes that!" Naruto eagerly nodded.

"Lady Tsunade, Shisui shouldn't even have his eyes." Sakura reported. "According to Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei, Madara's eyes disappeared when he used the Rinne Rebirth jutsu on himself."

"And According to Ibiki's report, the way the Reanimation jutsu works was what their body was what like when they died, if they died without their eyes, they shouldn't even have eyes." The fifth Hokage hummed. "Madara was the exception."

"According to Grandpa Sage, the reaper was the one who reanimated him." Naruto supplied.

"The reaper?" Sakura questioned.

"I'm guessing that's the being that appears when the Yondaime and Sandaime used the Reaper Sealing jutsu." Tsunade speculated. "In that case, I suppose this is one mystery that will never be solved." Tsunade announced. "I'm declaring that the circumstances of Shisui Uchiha's resurrection an S-class secret."

"Isn't that a bit overkill Lady Hokage?" Shisui asked. "It's not like we found something out, and wouldn't declaring my circumstance pose more danger?"

"You are right Uchiha." Tsunade nodded. "However, by declaring your circumstances an S-rank secret, we can avoid people asking questions." She offered.

-----------

"Are you sure you're okay about this?" Harry questioned Death as they watched what was happening in the Hidden Leaf's hospital. "Getting the credit for something that we know is a lie."

"No harm done," Death shrugged. "No one in this world knows of your circumstances, aside from the sage," They pointed out. "Even then I don't think he's sure of what you represent master."

"You and I both know that I'm not your master." Harry rolled his eyes. "You also know how I feel about garnering a title that I did not earn."

"But you did, uniting all three hallows." Death rebutted.

"Yeah if we're talking about technicalities, and you know we're not," Harry argued. "Why'd you even create them anyway?"

"Just like with Shisui, it was a reward," Death answered. "But unlike Shisui, it was a test of morals and values."

"Morals and values?" Harry snorted. "You do know that the wizards and witches are the worst kind of sort, especially the pure blooded ones."

"That's why it was a test," Death shrugged. "I was testing on how they would use my gifts. The first brother was ego centric and a bit of a narcissist, so he immediately boasted his new wand.

The second brother was a lover, but he let his love consume his being.

The third brother was a lot like you, he just wanted a quiet life and didn't want to be in the spotlight like his first brother, he let his love define but never consume him."

"So it wasn't a trick like some books had surmised?"

"It never was a trick Harry." Death shook their head. "I was never angry at them for escaping their supposed demise in the first place."

"So you mean to say that you never searched for the third brother?"

"Why would I search? The effects of the invisibility cloak never affected me." Death offered. "I suppose you could say that the cloak was a timer of sorts and I would only collect any soul in possession of the cloak when the timer passes."

"So if the third brother was the same as the first and second brothers, what could've happened?"

"There are a lot of possibilities, had he used the cloak, like how a certain toad sage would, he could be a case of dying of 'I did not know he was standing in front of me while I was practicing for the curse.'"

"Have you seen that happen?"

"Interestingly enough, the third brother has always acted the same way, despite the different circumstances of how the brothers acquired the hallows."

"So the existence of the hallows are also consistent in other realities."

"Of course." Death nodded. "Let me change the topic for a bit."

"Go on."

"Why'd you mention your fellow Triwizard Champion when you talked with Shisui?" Death asked, curious.

"Shisui reminded me of Cedric," Harry admitted. "I think, if he had survived the tournament, he'd do what Shisui had done."

"You do realize that there are realities whe-"

"Where he's a death eater, I know." Harry finished Death's train of thought. "We both know the circumstances behind such a radical change in character."

"Like with Shisui and Itachi, Cedric was a double agent, using the circumstances of his loss to gain audience with the Dark Lord and the one of the things that your son and Scorpius didn't know was that Cedric was never the cause for Neville's death."

"Cedric was a huge loss to the Wizarding World, judging by the circumstances that happened after the tournament in the world where he supported Riddle." Harry sighed.

----------

"So who's going to be the clan head?" Naruto found himself asking the question to Iruka. "Should it be Sasuke because of his present age or Shisui who was born years before Sasuke."

"What brought this question Naruto?" Iruka raised an eyebrow.

"I dunno," Naruto shrugged. "It just came to me."

"Technically speaking, you're the clan head of the Uzumaki clan Naruto, as its only known living member." Iruka stated.

"What use is being a leader if you're not leading anyone? What use is being a kage in an empty village?" Naruto pointed out.

"That's the same situation for both Uchihas." Iruka answered. "Shisui and Sasuke are the only Uchihas left and there is no need for a leader with only two members, one of which is the leader."

"What about the Shinobi council?" Naruto questioned.

"I'm afraid that the Uchihas have little to no power on the matters of the council for the same reasons why the clan has no head, the things that would be decided in the council would have little to no effect on them."

"What if Sasuke or Shisui were to revive the Uchiha Police Corps?"

"Then they have a seat on the Shinobi Council." Iruka smiled. "I'm really happy that you're taking this lessons seriously Naruto."

"I can see why these are important to become Hokage and being a ninja does not only revolve around flashy jutsus and overpowering the enemy," Naruto grumbled. "Does not mean I like it."

"I know how frustrating it is for you." Iruka offered a comforting pat on the boy's shoulder. "You've always been someone who learned things through physical activities instead of just listening and reading." He smiled. "I know that you can pull through this."

"I will definitely finish this and become Hokage! Believe it!" Naruto declared.

"I definitely believe."

[pajama-nerd]

Reading my way through Fazbears Frights, thinking about how none of these protagonists have ever interacted with any kind of horror media.

Reader Beware: Spoilers Ahead

Into the Pit didn’t read like time travel to me. It read more like a particular kind of haunting where the negative energy of all of the bad shit that happened at that location was locked into the one remaining 'feature' of the location: the ball pit. And Pit-Bonnie isn't the ghost of Afton, but rather the entity that was created from the memories of all that bad energy.

And the interesting thing to me about Pit-Bonnie is that - aside from the inherent creepiness of the situation and the fact that he had literally one facial expression (he can’t even blink for cryin’ out loud) - he didn't attempt to harm Oswald until Oswald went back to rescue his dad. Once Pit-Bonnie was away from the negative energy that had spawned him, he did Dad Things™. He did them in the creepiest way possible, granted, but we don't actually know how he feels because of his inability to express.

Maybe he wanted to stay. Maybe he just wanted a break from that place. Maybe that place has a hold on him, and being away from it allowed him a measure of free will.

And the fandom that I’ve seen about the Dashboard has locked onto Pit-Dad-Bonnie because the general attitude of the fandom - as far as I've witnessed - has been 'Oh. A scary thing! Well, now it's friend-shaped.' (or, in this case, Dad shaped) so of course my immediate question is, 'how would the story have changed if Oswald had made a more serious attempt to communicate with Pit-Bonnie?'

The immediate, cynical response is 'well it would have slaughtered him' but that's infinitely less interesting than the possible alternatives.

Perhaps he takes in the fact that Pit-Bonnie can't talk, and proposes an alternate method of communication. I'm talkin construction paper and crayons. And he gets Pit-Bonnie to tell his story a la Nephrite from Steven Universe. About how one day he just was. And how sometime after that, that version of Fazbear's formed around him. And how there were happy, smiling kids laughing in the pizzeria and he was happy, but how every time he tried to be friends with the kids something would happen.

The world would flicker and they would just be in that back room, like that. How he was desperate for some kind of a connection and could never have one because those kids – those memories – were doomed to die by the memory of his hands. How he noticed Oswald because Oswald didn’t fit – he was real – and how he’d wanted Oswald to help him figure out how to change what had happened (or to make it stop), but Oswald had run away. About how he’d tried to fish Oswald out of the ballpit and gotten his dad instead. About deciding to take his dad’s place so that he could get away from that place and how being here with Oswald was nice. Driving him to school was nice. Making him dinner was nice. Cleaning the house with him was nice.

(Imagine Oswald getting less and less afraid as he interprets the story, checking in with PB occasionally to make sure he's getting it right. Getting slightly annoyed tho, because he's not getting rid of this rabbit, is he? But he still needs to rescue his dad, so now what?)

Oswald eventually tells PB that he can stay, which surprises but elates the rabbit. Then Oswald tells him they have to get his dad back.

There's a negotiation. Obviously, they have to get his dad back. Has Pit-Bonnie been going to his dad's job? What about taxes? Things his dad knows how to do? What about Oswald's mom? Is Pit-Bonnie just going to pretend to be his dad around her forever? What if she wants to do...like...parent stuff? With her husband? If you catch my drift (PB does not, in fact).

Eventually PB agrees, and even drives Oswald back to the same block as the pizza place. He doesn't get close to it - definitely doesn't park in the lot - but Oswald just tells him to wait in the car and goes and wakes his dad up from the ball pit. His dad is confused. Disoriented. Way out of it. Let's Oswald lead him back to the car and sits in the back, too out of it to comment on the yellow bunny mascot in the front seat. They return to the house without incident, and his dad passes out on the couch.

Oswald eventually figures out that PB is the one making his dad so loopy - that the connection PB formed so that he could know how to drive the car, how to work the vacuum cleaner, how to make Oswald's meals, is also keeping Oswald's dad borderline comatose. It takes some convincing to get PB to give that up. PB is afraid to give that up - afraid that if he doesn't have an anchor, he'll go back to being an aimless product of rage and murder.

Oswald's solution is to spread the bond out. He'll take part of it. If PB splits his focus, it'll be less of a strain on his dad, and PB will have more than one anchor. This has the added property of giving his dad the ability to see the seven-foot-tall grinning plush rabbit (he doesn't react well. Neither does mom. Oswald has never had to talk so much in his life)

So now Pit-Bonnie is a part of Oswald’s life, and it’s hella weird at first, but everyone gets over it, because eventually you just get numb to weirdness. Except Oswald becomes obsessed with Freddy Fazbears, in an Unsolved Mysteries kind of way. Starts researching the place wherever and however he can.

Pit-Bonnie helps, in his way, after they figure out a way to communicate efficiently (modified Sign Language, because being bonded to Oswald means that Pit-Bonnie knows how to do all the things that Oswald knows how to do. So Oswald learns sign language. Which means that Pit-Bonnie knows how to sign now. He still only has the one facial expression, which makes asking questions a little complicated, but they work it out).

I imagine that Pit-Bonnie is very tuned in to the weirdness/darkness vibe that Freddy’s and its remnants (ha) give off. He starts reading local and then state, and then national newspapers, and whenever he gets the Fazbear vibe, he sets the article aside for Oswald to look at. Also he doesn’t sleep, so in the first week of Oswald’s obsession, he generates a lot of leads for Oswald by going through back issues of...everything.

This is a rambly thing, but my point is that most horror has a solution and most of the time this solution is subverted by having it happen to people who have no experience with horror movies, books, comics, or other mediums, which is…I dunno. Kinda cheap.

‘What if they ever saw Frankenstein and sympathized with the monster enough to have empathy for this thing?’

‘They’re not horror fans. And the ones that are have never seen or read the stories where empathy solves the problem.’

To Be Beautiful (a terrible, one dimensional story with a terrible message about self-image told the way that high school stories in the 80's-90's were told, which wasn't even accurate to how highs schools were in the 80's-90's) could have been solved by literally anyone being more than passively curious about the drastic changes that Sarah was undergoing. (Puberty doesn't work that fast. Her whole freaking face changed). Or by her mom going into her room at some point and asking about the 5 foot robot doll.

Count the Ways has many solutions, although, really? She shoulda chosen starvation. More time to escape or be rescued is always, always, always going to be better than a 'maybe I won't be bifurcated’ any way you slice it (I’m not sorry), but I'm fond of the idea of Oswald coming across an article about ‘theft of proprietary animatronics from a Fazbear Entertainment property’ and it leading him to Milly’s grandfather’s house in time to save her. Along with his seven-foot-tall grinning plush friend who can alter people's perception.

Fetch could have been solved by treating Fetch like a dog. Seriously. He is dog shaped. He is therefore a dog, first and foremost. Dog first, killer animatronic second. Which Greg didn't fundamentally understand (he strikes me as a cat person anyway). But Fetch spent that entire story trying to do what he thought his master wanted, and never got so much as a 'good boy' out of it. He didn't even try to defend himself when Greg went to town on him with a baseball bat because he just wanted to be a good dog for his boy. And even after that, when Greg expressed a desire to see Kimberly, Fetch still wanted to do something to get his master to call him a good boy. Honestly, if - after being warned about Fetch - Kimberly had planted her feet and said 'Sit!' I would bet actual Faz-dollars that Fetch's haunches would have dropped to the pavement out of surprise alone, because it would have been the first time in the story someone treated him like a dog.

Alec was doomed to be a teddy-bear from the moment his parents picked up a ‘how to raise my kids’ book, but he’s still alive. There’s no reason he couldn’t be rescued (by Oswald, who’s on the trail of all the weirdness related to Freddy Fazbear. I’d read that story. I’d write that story. I will probably write that story)

The Plushtrap story...had no flaws. That was the only solution, and good on those boys for making all the right choices except for the initial choices that put them in that situation to begin with. A+. Those teeth, Jesus.

1:35 am could have been solved with an apology. Come on. For a character that was supposedly in the Foster Care system being bounced from home to home, you’d think she could empathize with an entity that didn’t appreciate being thrown away. A sincere apology, a promise to never do it again, and Ella would probably have forgiven her.

I don’t remember where I was going with this. I started writing it before I clocked on for work, but that was eleven hours ago. Who can remember where a train of thought that far back?

[amplesalty]

Halloween 2020 - Day 3 - Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

The Apocalypse is Now for me!

Even without getting into the Universal sequels the way I have been with their Frankenstein franchise, I certainly have managed to get through a fair few Dracula related movies over the years; the 1931 version (and it’s Spanish language counterpart), Nosferatu, Shadow of the Vampire, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Dracula 2000, Van Helsing, Monster Squad, Hotel Transylvania and the BBC production from earlier this year. Never did a recap on the final episode of that though. This one has been on the list for a while, along with the 1994 Frankenstein movie, and it recently turned up cheap on blu-ray so why not? It is on UK Netflix at the moment so could have saved myself a few pounds but, eh, it can sit with the Universal boxsets and I am curious to look at some of the extras.

This is directed by Francis Ford Coppola and, for someone widely regarded as one of the great filmmakers of all time, I’ve never seen any of his work so this is a first. I do have the Godfather boxset here though that I should get around to a some point. Looking at his filmography, Jack really sticks out like a sore thumb.

Looking at some of the various Dracula adaptations though, one that stands out is an animated Batman movie called The Batman vs Dracula that came out in 2005. I kinda need to see that, along with the TMNT cross over they did last year. There’s actually more Batman/Dracula movies out there apparently, including a lost Fillipino film called Batman Fights Dracula and Batman Dracula which was produced and directed by Andy Warhol, both without permission from DC Comics. I wasn’t expecting one, let alone three of the things.

This version seems to be much more in line with the original source material, featuring a lot of scenes told from diary entries, letters and ship logs. Plus it features Quincey Morris and a more dramatic finale where Dracula faces off against a group consisting of Harker, Van Helsing, Seward, Holmwood and Morris before nearly getting stabbed to death. More interesting at least than sneaking in whilst he’s asleep and staking him through the heart.

It adds to an overall feel of sympathy that it feels like the movie is trying to build for Dracula. It opens up by showing his heroic feats in battle, fighting off the Turks and defending the Order of the Dragon, only for his wife to commit suicide when she receives fake news of her husband’s demise. When Dracula is told that his bride’s soul cannot be saved for she has sinned in taking her own life, he renounces God and drives his sword into a cross which proceeds to have blood gush out of it which he laps up. Even when he goes to turn Mina into one of the undead, he hesitates, reluctant to saddle her with his same fate.

Then when Harker arrives to conduct business with Carfax Abbey, Dracula laments the passage of time, how his great race is now but a distant memory and, when learning of Harker’s fiancé Mine, mourns his own departed wife.

That wig is really stupid though.

Even in the face of that, the movie still managed to win Oscars for Best Costume Design, as well as Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Makeup. It lost Best Art Direction to Howards End. The visuals truly are the high point of the film, particularly early on with the gothic scenery of Dracula’s castle or the surreality of all the blood in the chapel in the aforementioned origin scene for Dracula.

There’s one gorgeous moment on Harker’s journey to Transylvania where he’s writing in his journal and the scene fades between an interior shot of him, to this shot of the train seemingly travelling atop his diary admist a dusk skyline. That same orange skyline is in effect in the scene where Dracula fights the Turks, with everything playing out in silhouette.

Dracula’s armor is quite unique there as well. Has this ostentatious feel to it, I don’t know how protective it would be but it’s very striking. It’s something I’ve seen out of context before seeing the movie and it always made me think of the human body without skin, all the muscles and tendons and what not. Like Frank in Hellraiser before he’s fully reformed. It feels like the kinda thing you’d see as a unique armour set in Dark Souls.

I really like the lunatic asylum where we find Renfield and Dr Seward, even if it is underused. Renfield is always my favourite part of these movies but we start with him already mad and it’s Harker who has to take over his accounts and go seal the Dracula deal before being targeted by the Count and his mistresses in the castle. The whole asylum has this very grimey, industrial feel to it.

The guards have these head cages on and Reinfield has these odd hand/finger braces? For some reason the Dracula: Dead and Loving it version is coming to mind where everything is much cleaner and looks like some stately home. There’s that scene where Seward invites Renfield out for a spot of afternoon tea, only Renfield is more interested in the passing insects than any sandwiches or pastries on offer. Absolutely a world away from his surroundings here.

The cast is very strong, with Gardy Oldman as Dracula and Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing standing out, even amongst the lesser parts you’ve got Richard E. Grant, Cary Elwes and even Tom Waits as Renfield. Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder are also noteworthy, mainly for their English accents. It’s kina hard to see Reeves in this role personally as I’ve just come off the back of rewatching the first two Bill & Ted’s, as well as the new one, so I keep expecting Harker to be like “This Dracula dude is totally keeping me locked in his castle and intends to turn me into one of his undead groupies, that is most heinous!” I find Harker tends to just blend in by the end of the movie though as he’s often in these group settings along with Van Helsing, Holmwood, Seward and Morris and it’s the former two that often stand out most due to Van Helsing’s eccentricity and Holmwood being the comparative straight man who’s always confused as to what the devil is going on.

Certainly for the spectacle alone this is worth watching, beyond that, I’m not so sure. I think anything once Dracula leaves Transylvania I’m not as interested in, this version like the BBC once this year focuses more on the initial meeting between Harker and Dracula and spends more time within the castle, looking at their interactions and Harker’s suffering.

[enlightened-leader-success-vault]

Organizational Energy

Energy is a finite resource.  How we live our lives as an individual impacts hugely on how energised we feel. (Article – Energy – Are You Making The Most Of Yours)  Organizations often neglect to think about how they generate or dissipate the collective energies of their work force.  As a result those organizations miss out on the potential enthusiasm and productivity which is generated by the creation of an energizing approach to working.

Consider your own work force for a moment.  Do you think they are full of energy and enthusiasm?  Are they using their creative juices to underpin your department or organizational success?  Are they problem makers or solution finders?  

Staff who find that their working day leaves them feeling lifeless and without enthusiasm are far more likely to take time off work.  Even when they are actually present their sense of engagement and focus is likely to be far less secure.

Creating Organisational Energy:

There is no one approach to creating an energised and enthusiastic work force. However there are several underlying principles which go a long way to ensuring you get the best out of your staff.  Each organization will need to consider their specific circumstances and find their own way, in the most effective organizations this aspect of working life will be part of an ongoing dialogue with the staff.

A sense of organizational worth:

When you ask staff what they love about their job it is rarely the salary which is the crucial element.  In my work with clients across a wide range of organizations the most common response is that they want to feel they are needed and that they can make a real difference.  Having a sense of contribution is vital to that sense of worth.  The job description doesn’t matter, a cleaner can have just as much of a sense of pride as the CEO if their efforts are recognised.

As the Manager it is important that you recognize each person’s contribution and thank them for it. Be aware that among the pet hates people state that false praise or a sense of managers simply going through the motions is counter productive.  Knowing them by name, noticing when they have done a job well, or have gone that extra mile, giving credit for ideas and contribution are what matter.

An opportunity to be heard:

One of the greatest reasons sited for stress is a sense that the individual has no control over a situation.  Involving your staff in finding the solution is a great way of giving them a voice. The great bonus is that they often come up with some fantastic ideas.

It is vital that as a manager you make the parameters of those decisions very clear right from the outset.  What is not negotiable and why, and what is negotiable.  If you are uncertain about the efficacy of what they come up with set the review date when you will consider how effectively it is working sooner.

The impact of effective decision making:

Decisions which are well thought out clearly communicated and only changed when there is a clear rational need to do so can energize the work force.  Where the decisions have no rationale, or are constantly changed because they were not properly thought through in the first place, or are badly communicated so everyone gets a different version or half the story will sap the life energy out of an organisation.  The rumour train is hugely expensive in energy terms.  

How are decisions made in your organization?  How are decisions communicated?  How much energy do you spend smoothing things over or putting things right?

The power of anticipation:

Anticipating future needs, planning strategically can save huge amounts of time, energy and money.

This can be demonstrated by an example shared by one of my clients.  An IT servicing company decided to change its corporate image. Rather than talking to staff to determine the best time to do it, putting aside the necessary time to change not only the printed materials but the website, infrastructure and everything else which is involved, they made an announcement that the change was to take place in two weeks time.  The time chosen happened to coincide with the last two weeks of several big projects where staff were already under considerable pressure to meet deadlines. The end result was that staff had to work long hours; they felt completely overwhelmed and undervalued.  The legacy of not involving them in the decision making process lasted long after the change took place.

Do you anticipate? Do you train your staff to anticipate future needs and plan for them?  Doing so not only ensures that you maximise the use of the resources at your disposal but ensures there is time for strategic thinking and development.

In-completions create a sense of overwhelm which is de-energising.

Structuring work into manageable chunks so people feel a sense of achievement and completion can solve this problem.  This can be done by training them to break goals down into manageable targets.

Never take good will for granted:

Many organizations rely heavily on the good will of their staff. Good will is difficult to quantify but can have an amazing impact on an organization.  At its best good will oils the wheels, people want to go that extra mile because they feel appreciated and know that their contribution makes a real difference.  If taken for granted it is de-motivating, people turn into clock watchers, ‘jobsworths’ who resent any extra time or effort they are asked to contribute.

Are the right people doing the jobs?

If the job is too challenging people quickly feel swamped.  Overwhelm saps the energy and the confidence.  Appropriate training and support can minimise the problem.

If the job is too easy it becomes mundane and boring.  Boredom is incredibly tiring and quickly de-motivates.  The solution is not always easy.  Some jobs are by their very nature stultifying but breaking the day up into different activities can help.

As the manager how many of your team are under utilized and unchallenged?  Have you ever asked them how they feel about what they do?

When should you train in-house and when is it more cost effective to call in an expert.  I have watched staff wrestle with a specific activity which they need do rarely, perhaps once a year.  The training is ineffective because they undertake the activity so rarely they have forgotten how to do it.  It takes hours to do a job which done by experts would take a fraction of the time.  The net effect is a loss of confidence and high levels of frustration leading to a poor use of energy and effort.

Creating a good working environment:

If people are working in clean, bright, airy conditions they are more likely to feel that they are valued.  I find it amazing what a difference asking two simple questions of the staff can make if you implement their suggestions. It is that you value the staff enough to think about making their working conditions better which makes the difference.

What could we do to improve the quality of our working lives – things which have no budget implications?

What could we do which would improve the quality of our working lives we have a budget of….?

Do your staff feel that the management care about them?

How do you know?

Laughter is a great energiser:

Being professional is extremely important. Creating a culture where work is enjoyed and people can find humour together can be done in a highly professional outfit with very positive results.  Where staff share some social time together can pay dividends, especially when they have had a significant role in its planning.

Remember that like time and money energy can be used only once.  Over the next few days be curious about how you and your staff use their energies and how you create procedures within your organization to make the most of what is a precious resource.

[hermitreunited]

Capricorn’s Horn

Daily-Fluff-Dose Day Three

Prompt: Stargazing

Characters: Klaus + Diego

Ben keeps saying, “We don’t have time for this,” which is ridiculous for a number of reasons, not least of which is that one member of their group is a time traveler. Who isn’t as good at cars as he thinks he is, but Diego’s not saying anything. Five is good at hot-wiring cars, though - maybe he would just abandon failing vehicles and steal new ones in the apocalypse. Until all the gas dried up and batteries got too old to start. He can’t keep thinking about that, or he’ll start feeling bad for the little shit. It’s more fun to roll his eyes.

He’s out of practice rolling his eyes at Ben, but he’s working on that. For a while there, it was a constant stream of awe and wonder and not taking his eyes off of him for one second because it was such a miracle he was here and alive again. Apparently he was always here. Whatever. The point is that it is incredible, but Ben is also Diego’s brother still, so he’s getting over all of that and learning to tease him again.

Ben deserves it too, he’s so concerned about them missing this concert Vanya is playing in. They’ve saved the world, they can handle a car and a concert. But Ben always has been a worrier, Diego had just forgotten how much. Although part of it might be that he can’t bear to miss out on anything now that he’s alive to experience things. That’s another train of thought Diego can’t follow or he’ll get all soppy.

He decides instead that Ben’s more Type A nowadays because so much time spent following Klaus around had aggravated that particular personality trait. Diego can relate.

Speaking of Klaus, he’s drifted away from the loose semi-circle of testosterone gathered around the steaming hood. Allison and Vanya are flying over to Chicago because they have actual jobs and schedules, but the rest of them had decided to make a trip of it.

Or Luther had decided. “For Bonding” he’d said gravely, with audible capitalization, and the rest of them hadn’t kicked up enough of a fuss to stop it from happening.

Nothing bonds better than a cold night spent shouting at each other on the side of a one lane road out in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.

Ben snaps at Five, “Teleportation isn’t the same as being an expert at traveling in a motor vehicles - you get that, right?”

With venom, Five sneers, “Well you never learned how to drive, but if The Horror has any automative knowledge, I’m all ears.”

Luther’s giant body is perched on the low metal railing at the edge of the shoulder. He’s quietly reading the manual, starting from page one.

So everything is going about as well as could be expected.

Diego knows that if his brothers come to blows, he’s not going to be able to responsibly intervene. Watching and laughing will be easier to get away with if he puts some distance between himself and them, so he tramples into the field they are stopped next to and joins Klaus where he’s sitting in the tall grass.

“Whatcha doing?” he asks.

Klaus points up to the sky. “There are so many stars out here.”

He’s right. There are so many stars that the sky almost seems bright, even though the night between the pinpricks of light feels blacker than any Diego has ever seen. It’s a yawning empty endless sort of black, but it’s comforting, too.

“That there? That one’s Capricorn’s Horn,” Klaus traces a finger through the darkness. It doesn’t help Diego recognize the constellation Klaus is talking about.

He says, “Really?” He can at least pretend.

“No,” Klaus says. “Do I look like Spaceboy to you? And those three over there, those are the Crustaceaniola Cluster from the Hamburger Galaxy. I’ve studied astrology, I know lots of space things.”

Diego shoves his shoulder and Klaus cackles. He doesn’t topple all the way over, like he would have, back before everything happened that week. He’s still a twig, but he’s more solid now. Diego’s glad. “You’re an idiot,” he says.

“Is that gas back there toxic or something? I’m Four, you’re Two, remember?”

Diego rolls his eyes. The expression version of shoving his dumb brother. Not that he can see it, because it’s too dark and Klaus isn’t even looking at him anyway. His face is turned up to the sky.

The chill in the air makes this whole night feel cleaner than it ever does in the city. And closer, like he could touch the stars if he just reached out a little farther.

Klaus rolls his shoulders back. “Did you want to talk to Patch?”

“What? No.” The entirely honest answer of course is that he wants to talk to her pretty much all the time. Getting his time cut short so suddenly like that left him with lots of things to say. Klaus has been sober and working on his powers, and he’s been able to talk with Patch a few amazing, heart-wrenching, times. Tonight is a rare occasion where Diego hadn’t even really been thinking about all that before Klaus brought her up, though. “I just wanted to be with you.”

Klaus looks at him then, away from the stars for the first time since Diego came over here. He doesn’t say anything, though, just watches him for a beat before looking up again. Another rare occasion. Klaus staying quiet.

He has been more quiet, lately. He’s gotten more solid and gotten more quiet. Not all the time, he can still pull off a monologue of nonsense when he gets going, but there’s these hushed moments in between that Diego hasn’t seen from Klaus before.

Diego wonders if he’s noticed. He wonders if he himself has changed in ways that his siblings see but he doesn’t. They all see a lot more of each other these days.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many stars,” Klaus says. “I’ve spent plenty of nights outside, but the lights of the city blocked all this out. And it was always so smokey in ‘Nam.”

It’s an opening, a good one. Diego could delve into that story, that he only has caught glimpses of so far. Clearly, the subject is not far from Klaus’ mind. But he also seems so contented. Diego doesn’t want to break that peace. His little brother spends enough time with ghosts already.

Instead, Diego says, “I’m just glad to see the moon up where it belongs.”

“How’s the big guy doing, anyway? Considering how his - ” Klaus gestures at everything around them - “all of this is going.”

“Didn’t even make it more than two hours.” Diego shakes his head. “Excellent leadership.”

Klaus slides him a sly glance. “Didn’t you work for a mechanic shop?” It doesn’t matter how dark it is, the mischief in his eyes is easy to see.

If it’s a job you can get with a GED and no experience, Diego has probably had it. He’s worked almost every restaurant position at this point, although he hadn’t finished even one full shift as a host. He’s better at stuff where he doesn’t have to deal with the customers directly, washing windows on skyscrapers, painting houses, and yes, as a mechanic for a couple months.

He nods, and answers the question Klaus is actually asking. “It’s just a loose radiator cap. Looks like a bigger deal than it is, and all you have to do is tighten it up again. Takes two seconds. Literally a child could do it.”

“Well then.” Klaus’ smile is so wide. “You’ll have to excuse me.” He flips his sparkly beaded scarf over his shoulder and goes back to the car, shouting, “Hey fuckos, Henry Ford’s ghost is here and he wants me to tell you that you’re really dumb.”

He flounces past Five and Ben’s annoyed objections and reaches into the engine. Diego wasn’t lying about the fix, it takes two seconds and a child could do it. The engine stops steaming.

The rest of the guys are wearing matching expressions of bewilderment.

Klaus has already climbed back in, so he hangs his head out the window to yell, “Chop chop boys, we don’t want to be late!”

“Oh my god,” Ben says, pinching the bridge of his nose with a long-suffering sigh.

Diego’d never tell Luther this, but it turns out he was right. The Bonding is going to be great.

[lokilickedme]

Part 2 of Read By Loki Laufeyson - High Rise

By request

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own in 2016 (no longer available there) 

Rating:  Mature

Archive Warning:  No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:  F/M

Fandom:  Loki - Fandom, High-Rise (2015), Tom Hiddleston - Fandom

Relationship:  Loki/His Book

Character:  Loki (narrator), Robert Laing, Richard Wilder

Additional Tags:  Explicit Language, Loki Has Issues, Spoilers, Loki Does What He Wants, stick to the damn book Loki, lewd passages quoted from the book, references to bestiality and incest (thanks a lot for that, Ballard. You’re a dick)

Series:  Part 2 of Read by Loki Laufeyson

Stats:  Published: 2016-02-21   Words: 1220 (original version)

Part One: Loki Reads Chapter 9 of The Night Manager

  High Rise, Read by Loki Laufeyson 

by lokilickedme 

Summary:  Loki narrates another audiobook.  Apologies to JG Ballard, though not very sincere ones.  In fact I take it back, I’m mad that I ever had to read this.

Notes:  See the end of the work for notes 

  Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog... 

Well shit, lets just not waste any time at all getting to the good stuff, shall we?  When a book has the unmitigated balls to start off with a barbequed canine for the first course, you know you're in for an entertaining evening chock full of questionable culinary choices written in dirty grey prose, which we all know is just a gateway to every sort of perversion familiar to man and a handful or two heretofore known only to the Aesir - and I’ll tell you right now they get up to some kinky shit that’d make you want to tie your ballsack to a goat.  That’s not a metaphor, they’re known for literally tying their ballsacks to goats.  Okay, one of them is known for it.  Okay, I’m known for it.  It was me.  So once one has committed to snacking on the family pets, what comes after the appetizer, sex with a budgie?  What sort of sauce is the fellow using?  Did he sautee the dog or is that fucker deep fried?  Or am I missing a particularly rude innuendo here and he's actually giving the beast a blow job?  If that's the case then this might end up being a worthwhile read after all, and I can’t think of a much more romantic place than the balcony if you’re actually going to commit to pleasuring the wife’s poodle.

 ...Dr. Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months.  Now that everything had returned to normal - 

Hold up.  NOW everything's returned to normal?  You're eating a fucking dog, sir, either that or you're fellating it.  In what twisted realm is either of those scenarios considered normal?  We’re not counting Asgard, by the way.  And I'd rather like to know which part of the beast we're talking about here, I mean if it's the drumstick or the tenderloin then I hope you basted it with some herbs and a bit of olive oil before you slapped it on the hibachi.  If you're committing cunnilingus, then I'm presuming you know which part you're dealing with and I'll leave you to it, though the olive oil could serve dual purpose here.  But it does beg the question - is the beast male or female?  Not making a judgement, just getting the visual.

While we're pondering that, I'm going to do us all a colossal favor and skip ahead a bit.  This book really is difficult, and by difficult I mean I've had torture sessions on asteroids that were less annoying.  The story itself is good, heaven knows I enjoy chaos and mayhem and bestiality as much as the next power mad despot, but word for word this tale reads a bit like Lewis Carroll and Roald Dahl having the slowest orgasm in history during a mutual masturbation session while smoking Edgar Allen Poe’s gym shorts.  I actually think I might be having the slowest orgasm in history.

 'Come whenever you want to.'  Laing put his arm around her shoulders, steadying her in case she lost her balance.  In the past he had always felt physically distanced from Alice by her close resemblance to their mother, but for reasons not entirely sexual this resemblance now aroused him.  He wanted to touch her hips, place his hand over her breast.  As if aware of this, she leaned passively against him. 

And there it is my friends.  All good stories need an element of the forbidden, and it looks like sister-diddling wins the perversion jackpot for this evening.  This Laing fellow has the whoo hoos for big sis.  And you people give me shit over my "alleged" deviant relationship with my brother?  Last I recall adopted siblings were free to black hole it all they want, yet here we have a pair working out a tag-up without the benefit of notarized adoption papers.  Since we seem to be condoning this, lets all remember our hypocrisy the next time I'm catching grief for banging Thor, shall we?  And while we're at it, are we all just ignoring the Oedipus train wreck this man just owned up to driving straight into the wall?  'Big sis you look like mummy, here let me drug you and keep you as a sex slave while this whole place goes to hell around us.'  I may or may not be skipping ahead but I'll save you a little time and drudgery - it goes there, people.

 He pulled the drawers on to the floor, heaved the mattresses off the beds, and urinated into the bath. 

Ah, Wilder.  I do love a good silly mustache-twirling villain with self aggrandizing dreams of conquering worlds several floors above his own social status.  Because in the end we all want more than what we’ve got, don’t we?  Thrones, love, respect, use of the penthouse, a herd of stoned females.  At least he didn't piss on the mattress.  Nobody likes a bedwetter, even in hell.

 His burly figure, trousers open to expose his heavy genitalia, glared at him from the mirrors in the bedroom.  He was about to break the glass, but the sight of his penis calmed him, a white club hanging in the darkness. 

Yes my good man, welcome to the fellowship of the knob, our universal handshake is to sit on the sofa with one hand down the front of our pants.  Our penises calm us all.

 He would have liked to dress it in some way, perhaps with a hair-ribbon tied in a floral bow. 

Huh.  Just when I rather think I like this Wilder fellow and his obvious off kilter mental status, he shows us his wiener.  Which was more than enough in itself, thanks so very much for that.  Elegant move there, dipshit - whip it out and slap a bow on it, for times when you really want to class things up.  I for one can't think of anything more entertaining or intellectually fulfilling on a Friday night than tying a pretty ribbon on my schlong and running about with it hanging out of my trousers while I harass and terrorize feral women in derelict apartment buildings.  Sometimes I like to really mix things up by borrowing a pair of mother's clip-on earrings and dangling them from my testicles.  It makes me feel so fucking manly.  You know, for those times when you really want to bang your sister who looks like your mom and you know you stand a better chance of scoring if you really put in some effort with the self decor.  Or you could go all out impressing the masses by tying your ballsack to a goat, but granted, it’s not for everyone.

 This ultimate role had helped him on one occasion, when a marauding band of women led by Mrs Wilder had entered the apartment.  Seeing Laing being abused, and assuming him to be Eleanor's and Alice's prisoner, they had left.  On the other hand, perhaps they understood all too well what was really taking place. 

Yes, what was really taking place was this fellow Laing got himself a couple of kinky babes who were willing to tie him to a chair and beat him with the hind leg of an Alsatian.  I mean, who doesn't get off on that?  I tip my cap to you, Sir.  Never go fifty shades with one woman when you can go full-on Marquis de Sade with two.  And seeing as this merry band of female visigoths was led by that Wilder chap's wife, one can only assume he pilfered her pretty hair bows one time too many and the poor woman felt compelled to start tucking the ginsu’s into her gingham apron and go on raiding parties with her Wednesday night book club group.  Or perhaps it was the 'heavy genitalia' on display out of the front of his pants that drove her over the edge.  I understand leaving one's trousers open while traversing rapidly declining self-contained bastions of reverse civilization is valid grounds for divorce in some states.

 First she would try to kill him, but failing that give him food and her body, breast-feed him back to a state of childishness and even, perhaps feel affection for him.  Then, the moment he was asleep, cut his throat.  The synopsis of the ideal marriage. 

What - all marriages aren't like that? 

I’m going to stop right here so we can all go take a break, order in some Alsation, chase our sisters and next door neighbors around the room with gardening implements and figure out where we hid our morphine stash - which sounds disconcertingly like a typical Saturday evening in Valhalla to me, quite honestly - and summarize the rest of the book, which goes a little something like this:  Madness, mayhem, perversion, murder, violence, death, and why the fuck don’t these people just walk out of the damn building?  Yes I know, it’s an allegory on class warfare and societal prejudices and the shitty tendency humanity has to turn on each other and finally itself when faced with a breakdown in the decency and polite behavior that tentatively holds people at arm’s length until the shit hits the fan and everyone starts coming at each other with golf clubs.  Humans have a disturbing desire to go all Lord of The Flies the moment order breaks down, and this book casts a bloodshot eye on the fucked up results.  I’m telling you though, it’s nothing a good tug’o war match with a goat couldn’t have fixed.

All in all I would say this book is a challenging read, but worth it in the end if for nothing other than the visual of that guy with the bow on his schnitzel.  Best read while mainlining household cleaners directly into your lungs blindfolded and waterboarding yourself while listening to Raul Julia sing the Ave Maria on 45 rpms.  Trust me, you'll understand once you get to the part where the old ladies in cocktail gowns are brawling over use of the elevator. 

 End Notes 

Passages in italics are the property of J.G. Ballard from the novel HIGH RISE, copyright 1975.  I don’t own them, I didn’t write them, and dear god please don’t ask me about the dog.

[mobilehaircuts]

Easy ways to change your look with just a hairstyle

To change up your look, you could make good on those new year’s resolutions to eat cleaner, train harder and pack away fewer pints. That sounds exhausting. Or you could throw out everything in your wardrobe and start again. That sounds expensive. You could even go under the knife. But that is just plain crazy. 

Fortunately, not all changes to reinvent yourself are as drastic (or painful). A new and improved hairstyle can make a big difference to your overall appearance.

Chop it off Getting a new hairstyle can sometimes be scary, because it might not turn out as you wanted it in your head. The good news is that it doesn’t just come from what’s on top. The length on the back and sides also can enhance both your face shape and existing hairstyle.  Or you can go with a trendy hairstyle.

Going shorter on the back and sides is a great way to refresh your look without making any drastic changes that you will have to spend time getting used to or even end up absolutely hating. You’re simply sharpening up what’s already there and can therefore still wear your preferred style on top.

To make this a low-risk decision, consider features such as the size of your ears and the length of your face to avoid making either look comically out of proportion. The best possible haircut solution is to consult your barber because they’ll be able to work something out to go with your own face shape. The hairstyle you show your barber as a reference will very often need some adjusting.

Give yourself a Fringe Despite being a staple snip since the nineties (we have our moms and their bowls to thank for that), the fringe fell out of favor at the start of the decade, with new hairstyles like the pompadour taking over. However, the look has made a comeback with plenty of variations that are effective for framing a range of face shapes.

A fringe would be a good option if you’re looking for something low-risk, as if you don’t like the look, you can always just push it back. You can also ask your barber to sort you out with a two-in-one haircut that can be changed just by the way you style it. This means that if you have a style which is already quite long at the front, you can now bring the hair forward into a textured fringe with some length. The alternative, of course, is to push it across or away from your forehead.

Switching color There is a lot of guys on the Hollywood scene that decided to take a literal plunge into a bucket of bleach when they felt like they needed a new hairstyle. Some of these guys are: Zac Efron, Zayn Malik and Jonah Hill. Of course, bleach bath would be a bit dangerous and frying, but luckily there is a lot of dyes on the market that are more suited to the ones who are scared of commitment. 

Dyeing is a process that’s you should always be left to the professionals, but there are semi-permanent dyes that wash out in six to eight weeks and gradually fade away. Bleached hair might work for a range of styles, from buzz cuts to dreads, but maybe if you are really young and if you are not in a professional environment. Bleached hair definitely won’t fly at every age and in every office, so consult the advice of your friends and your barber before putting anything on your head. Six weeks can be a very long period if you have your hair color and have to wear a hat all the time.

Give it a good fade Beyond growing it out (and we sure know how awkward in-between stage is), guys with short hair are often limited when it comes to options for a restyle. Luckily, the sharpest hair moves of the last few years isn’t about to fade away anytime soon: in place of a single length on the back and sides, opt for getting a haircut that graduates from short too long.

There are many different types of fade. For the lowest risk, go for a low fade which is about an inch from the natural hairline and can grow out relatively quickly. Similar to getting a short back and sides, the results won’t stick around for long if you change your mind. However, if you do decide to keep it, there are plenty of opportunities to move on to more extreme versions such as high fades and even skin fades.  Consider using a mobile barber to cut your hair to save both time and precious fashion.

[akysi]

Always wanted to do one of these, and now I have. :D 8 years of improvement, wow! I’m also really bad at picking things so I don’t know if I picked the ones that best represent my progress, but eh. I did some edits, but the original base for this can still be found here. Extended thoughts about each year below, it’s a lot! Here’s to bigger and better things in 2019 (please ;_;)

2010: I started drawing digitally in 2006, though regrettably I didn’t save any of the art I did back then. 2010 was when I joined DeviantART, and thus when I started uploading art online. I had frequented DA well before that though (from about 2007 I think), and influence from the artists I followed are pretty evident. A few notable ones were ShaloneSK, Fourth-Star (now SeaSaltShrimp), and thazumi, all primarily dragon artists. Though none of my traditional art is showcased here, this was still a time when I did it often, usually via doodles in class when I was bored. The digital art you see here was made with my first tablet, a Wacom Graphire 3, and Photoshop Elements 3 that came with it. I had little knowledge of file quality, layering, colouring, and other mainstays in using Photoshop properly. Humble beginnings are these! My art education at this point was limited at best, but art was always something I did in my spare time. And like all of the art years leading up to 2010, I drew almost entirely dragons. Aside from practicing foxes for a story I had at the time, I wasn’t interested in drawing much else. I didn’t draw people at all until college, but we’ll get to that. 2011: Christmas 2010 / New Year’s 2011 marked the time I got Photoshop CS5, a version of PS I still use today. For a while I was obsessed with the idea of PS’s Pen Tool, as I saw it could give me much cleaner line art than what I could achieve on my own. I was finally able to test that when getting CS5, and while it worked well for the time, I soon learned the tenets of line weight and tapering, something I would have to practice myself. Up to this point all of my lines were either shaky or fabricated via the Pen Tool, and it shows. This was also a year of trying to mimic Fourth-Star’s dynamic perspective...without any knowledge of how it actually worked. Not a lot of improvement happened here outside of that. 2012: This was the year I bought my Bamboo Create tablet, something I still use with my laptop nowadays. I remember trying it out at my friend’s house before I bought my own, and really loving how I was able to do the line tapering without the pen tool. It still took a lot more practice, but looking back now it was easy to see I was on the way to making line art one of my art’s strongest qualities; something that stays true today. I find it ironic that line art used to be one of the weakest aspects of my digital art, but I suppose that speaks to how far I’ve come. I did more fanart this year, oddly enough. I’d always done it before but I guess I felt shy about sharing it. Notable fandoms were Danny Phantom and Sonic. I didn’t grow up with either, but ended up liking them both a lot, and would doodle them as much as my dragons. 2013: I graduated high school and started my first year of art college, specifically Art Fundamentals at Sheridan College. At this point, everyone I knew pointed to that school (and only that school) for anything related to what I wanted to do; if it wasn’t fine art, go to Sheridan. So I went into college with a bit of tunnel vision at first, but I knew from the start that I would be gunning for animation. Not to animate specifically, but to do character design / concept art for animation. I would learn later on what having this tunnel vision would mean for me, but we’ll get to that later too. This is about the point where more expansion of design and subject matter occurs, albeit slowly. The art featured here doesn’t include my schoolwork, but the much needed increase of anatomy, structure drawing and other college level art courses started me on a path to better things. I still had a long way to go though, and Fundies could only do so much. Unlike most people I actually got decent practice from it given my limited art background, but I still can’t say it was at peak efficiency. This was the first year I actually started drawing people, and it certainly didn’t come without its growing pains.

2014: Surprising no one, I didn’t get into Sheridan after my first year, though that didn’t stop me from being disappointed at the time. I took what was effectively the second year of Fundies, called Visual and Creative Arts (VCA). This was the year that sparked my interest in graphic / logo design, an interesting turn of events all things considered, and that would stick with me a lot more than I expected. This year also featured a few smatterings of character designs, or more specifically design sheets with multiple views, costumes, etc. Character design was a required segment of the animation portfolio, so this is likely what spurred my practice in it, aside from my pre-existing interest. That does not mean I knew how to rotate a character though, yikes! At this point I’d gotten pretty good at clean line art in Photoshop with my current tablet, as well as the merits of high quality imagery. There was a lot of purple in this year and 2015, though that’s nothing really new for me.

2015: This was easily the busiest (and most path altering) year. Second semester of VCA happened during this time, but also what would be new beginnings for me. If I didn’t get into Sheridan animation, I had a choice to make for a plan B: Either stay at Sheridan for VCA Year 3 and try again for animation, or try to get into animation at another school. My buddy Amelia then dropped Seneca’s name in one of my elective classes, and I had no idea how much of a fateful conversation that would be. She mentioned it was considered a second to or even better than Sheridan, and that at least provided a clearer answer for me. A lot of trepidation followed: I didn’t get into Sheridan animation for the third time, and thus applied to Seneca (and a few other places). I was pretty scared of being a first year again at a new school with new people, and while my art definitely reflected the time I spent at Sheridan, I had no confidence in it being good enough for a portfolio given my track record. But low and behold, I got in! I was on my way to a three year rollercoaster of all-nighters, amazing ride-or-die classmates, and relentless, rigorous training. The art from this year does reflect this, both in quantity and quality of uploads, though in more of a “transition period” kind of way. This was the year I really started to draw human characters, most notably with the creation of my first comic project: Starglass Zodiac. This was the first time I had a story idea with a primarily human cast, much less a comic idea, though the designs for them didn’t start appearing in my uploads until the following year. As you might expect I didn’t have a lot of confidence in drawing people. Ironically, my first year of animation taught me all the skills I initially needed for the portfolios!

2016: When I mentioned a path altering year for 2015, I was referring specifically to the path in my art education. 2016 was a path altering year for everything else, and a polarizing one at that. 2016 was a year that was kind to no one, and while the details of what happened to me are not really relevant to this post, there’s no denying what effect it had behind the scenes. This was the year that I fully realized I’d developed symptoms of depression, and with my increasing anxiety to match, this didn’t (and still doesn’t) go so well. I don’t think that’s really reflected in my art, however. Regardless of my mental state, the outside view of my art still features the colourful characters that they always had. By this point I was in my finishing first year / starting second year, and this was easily the best time for me. My time to shine, if you will, at least when it came to character design class. We had an overarching story project that was perfect for SGZ, so I used that time to develop the characters. The double-edged sword of troubled times is my escapism is cranked to 11, so this was probably the year that spurred the most story ideas out of me. This year (and part of the next) started both Id Pariah and Feather Knights. I got my iPad Pro for Christmas this year too, and that proved to be a game changer in the amount of art I could make. I was already used to the Cintiqs at my school, and I was lucky to finally have a screen tablet of my own. 2017: The end of my second year and the beginning of my third and final year of animation. Classes split, streams chosen and a world of missed opportunities began. I didn’t do a lot of art at the beginning of the year, aside from the beginning of my Feather Knights stuff. On top of that, my college had a 5-week long teacher’s strike that literally no one wanted to be a part of, effectively derailing all hope for a good semester. Attempting to do a short film project with this happening was a recipe for disaster. During this strike was the start of my first month long challenge though: Huevember. It was an uncertain time, and most of us were not compelled to get much school work done. Completing Huevember did feel like an accomplishment though, as I was actually able to keep up with it even when school started again. I’d say this art year focused a lot on colour for this reason. What art I was able to complete outside of my schoolwork saw a lot of expansion in that area. In all honesty 2016-2018 tends to blend together for me, for better or worse. 2018: My graduating year. The strike did its damage to my final semester too, but ultimately I survived. Despite completing 5 years of college, my path became the most unclear. Third year taught me a lot of things about myself and how I approach art, but most were not positive revelations. The expectations set out for me are ones that I cannot achieve. However, I have more time than ever to do art, making this year the most art I’ve made to date. I also participated in Inktober, which reminded me how far I’ve come as an artist, despite not doing traditional art for what felt like a century. My illustrative work for Inktober ended up being some of my best art this year, and the prompts made me get creative in more ways than one. The dark cloud hanging over my head has not disappeared since 2016 however, and the toll that has taken shows more everyday. As far as my art was concerned I did more of what I loved, mostly in the form of character sheets and designs. It’s all I can do, for now. 2019, I have one thing to say: Don’t you DARE.

[superemeralds]

fanon shadow beef

[ I’m going to ramble about headcanon shit and stuff that I see done out of character in fanon in no particular order. This might be very chaotic so bare w me. ]

Everyone else: 

Shadow uses guns on a regular basis. 

He is not repulsed by guns. 

Shooting is one of his hobbies. 

He probably owns at least one gun and keeps it at home.

 Me: 

Shadow is very uneasy around firearms and avoids using them at all costs. 

The sound of gunshots (and similar loud sounds) makes him flinch. 

(On new years he retreats into his cabin in the woods so e doesn’t have to hear the fireworks.)

There’s very obvious reasons for that yall.

He avoids demands to "do his job cleaner" by using guns. 

Shadow is for gun control and strongly advocates for making it illegal for private households to own and store guns.

He Hates Guns. 

He. Hates. Guns. 

The reason he joined GUN despite it being a very triggering environment is because he has the mindset that he has to endure exactly this to overcome it.

+ he has to make sure that GUN doesn't go down that path again. You all know what I mean (and we all know that they will) 

After all this time, the commander from ShTH and Shadow made up, after covering up all misunderstandings and acknowledging they were both young and heavily manipulated back then. For the short while that this commander is still in charge Shadow has great faith that GUN will take a good turn, which is what moved him to join (they probably discussed it at the dinner that the commander (canonically!) invited him to with his family.

Additionally, he wants access to their data bank to learn as much as he can about the planet and secrets that governments might have. 

He never obeys his orders without question and often breaks rules and opposes GUN, sabotaging missions and just generally doing his thing while using his status in the organization to get what he wants. 

Due to his position and the sheer fact that he is the ultimate life form (and way too valuable to not be “under GUN’s control”) the authorities can’t punish him in any way for his betrayals and kinda get used to it.

God I have So Much Beef with the wiki page for him lmao lemme just. :)

<< Shadow also has a ruthless and merciless edge in combat that all other characters in the series lack, and displays a natural "killer instinct". >>

He only intended to kill Sonic in SA2 because he was blinded by rage and he planned to destroy the entire planet anyways.

I hate when people call shadow merciless and murderous and “killer instinct”... That’s not him...

He was TRAINED to be like this but that’s not who he really is.

Of course that learned behaviour isn’t easily unlearned, even if he cant remember when and how he learned it, but he has his own morals, too, and he is very very much against senseless death. If he can prevent it, he sure as fuck will do all he can do to save a life.

In Shadow’s eyes life is precious, something extraordinary. He promised to Maria to protect it, and he, himself, thinks of it as something worth protecting. Its true that he has a lot of trouble to accept his own feelings and thoughts as important and valuable, but that is due to the way he was raised. 

(as an experiment that is not treated like it has its own will, he was constantly told to comply in experiments, but they never even bothered to tell him what this was all for or engage in deeper conversation with him; as we can see in SA2 when shadow talks to Maria about how confused he is about his purpose of existence.)

More than enough I see him frown or be disgusted or just. plain angry at nothing in particular in fanart. (or the evil bloody murder type of character... or him proudly holding guns or shit :)))))) Hm... )

There’s a difference between an angry face and a person that just doesn’t smile as neutral expression. like… there just are people who have a neutral expression but look unhappy because their mouth naturally rests in a ^ position instead of a - or a v …

<< In the original Japanese version, where Shadow omits honorifics and speaks highly of himself (if not rudely), though contrasting this, in Japanese he normally uses the "boku" pronoun when referring to himself as opposed to the more arrogant/confident "ore" pronoun (which characters such as Sonic use). >>

okay so the difference between boku and ore is that ore is VERY casual and mostly used when talking to someone you are close to, or when you're just really sure of yourself. Boku is a pronoun used mostly by young boys or when someone speaks humbly abt themselves.

And I don’t know how this confuses anyone, since Shadow did grow up on a fucking space station and that’s all he’s known, and he was probably treated like a child, even when he was grown up. Plus, Shadow might be a little arrogant and think very highly of himself (which he mostly does because all his life he was taught that he is a very special and superior life form, mind you), he still very much respects whoever else he is talking to, and he doesn’t take credit for his powers or the things that make him special. He’s the “it’s not a big deal” kind of guy. And he doesn’t mean it in a derogatory way, he means it in a way, that he doesn’t want to trouble the other person.

Making the other person believe that he has everything under control and that he’s okay gives them a sense of security in tense situations, which can be vital to success. 

The way he interact with people might come off as rude and arrogant, but he does act with the best intents for the people around him. It’s just that even when his intent is well, his thoughts might be destructive rather than productive. (for example him thinking his feelings don’t matter and bottling them up.)

<< On occasion, Shadow appears to have some degree of mental instability. This is demonstrated by his instances of post-traumatic flashbacks to Maria's face prior to and during the events of Shadow the Hedgehog, though it could be argued that they were simply an effect of his amnesia. >>

whoever wrote this please eat a cactus

PTSD is not a joke and it’s definitely not just amnesia induced stress.

I remember seeing someone repost a gif of Shadow looking around anxiously shortly before having a flashback and saying how “cute” it is how “observant” and “jumpy” he is……

Those are PTSD symptoms and I hate how people make them the joke of a comic oftentimes. Sure these people could be uninformed but im just… Think a little more about it before making this shit up bc it physically hurts to see.

<< In Sonic Forces, it's heavily implied that Shadow ruthlessly slaughtered an entire mercenary band not only in an extremely dismissive, nonchalant manner (not even remembering the incident a few months later), but also seemed slightly proud, mocking the mercenary defence squad by saying they themselves needed a defence squad. >>

Sonic forces can fuck off its bad writing and it’s not shadow.

I made a comic showing what REALLY happened in episode shadow because *rolls eyes* sega doesn’t know their own characters.

[ read it here ]

Shortly summarized and in reference to what I said before: Shadow deems life precious and worth protecting, he would never kill without having a good damn reason to do so. (Like when he sees no other way to prevent a GREAT catastrophe or when the person just really DESERVES it. )

<< Shadow also possesses some sense of identity, as evidenced when after falsely being told that he isn't the Ultimate Lifeform due to a lab report. He states to Rouge that even if his memories were fake, he is still Shadow the Hedgehog. Similarly in Sonic Heroes, during the Egg Fleet level, he mentions that even without his memories, he is still the Ultimate Lifeform, Shadow the Hedgehog. These qualities make him rarely susceptible to being manipulated by other forces. >>

LMAO YEAH BECAUSE HE’S BEEN MANIPULATED FAR TOO MANY TIMES IN THE PAST HE’S DONE WITH THAT. 

:))))))) BACK TO THE PTSD SYMPTOMS

He is incredibly distrustful and keeps mostly to himself, because he can’t be sure that someone else would (a)buse him for their own gain :) betray him, or do something horrible to him (or someone he’s close to).

His identity as Shadow the Hedgehog, the ultimate life form, is literally ALL HE HAS LEFT IN THIS WORLD.

Everyone he knew and was close to DIED. He woke up 50 years in the future, all alone. He literally had NOTHING.

He didn’t even have a reason to live, which motivated him to carry out Geralds plan to destroy the planet.

<< Despite his apathetic nature, Shadow is not without compassion and has shown concern for others at certain times. >>

I think you mean…. 

Despite having trouble to convey his feelings of compassion and concern for others, he is shown to make attempts of support through his actions and carefully chosen words.

As already mentioned, Shadow never learned how to socialize, he’s awkward about it, and on top of it all he has trouble trusting and opening up to people. Stop saying he doesn't care, he just doesn’t know how to show that. 

Also Shadow is a very logically thinking person, so he might look at things a different way than others and see things very dry and objectively. He doesn’t mean to be rude or evil, whatever he does is always with the other people’s possible concerns and feelings in mind. (He just has trouble to read their emotions and imagining what they might think/how they feel about a situation).

<< Shadow brushes off most kindness or sympathy that is sent his way; in Sonic Heroes, when Rouge showed concern for Shadow when he saw a broken android, Shadow curtly brushed her concern away. >>

GOD. That’s because he doesn’t know how he feels about the situation himself yet. He also feels like he doesn’t deserve concern or worry from other people; and he very strongly dislikes making others feel bad. Making other people worry about him makes him a bother, and he doesn’t want to be an inconvenience. He puts on this mask of strong ultimate soldier that has everything under control, so he doesn’t hinder anyone from reaching their own full potential.

I mean.. I mentioned this like 3 times now but this is SO important!!!!

He appreciates support, but often times he feels like it’s shallow or the person might have secret intentions; so he only ever truly accepts it when he feels like it was genuine and deserved.

<< Despite the fact that Shadow often fights for the greater good, he is considered an anti-hero by the most part due to his morality. He does whatever is necessary to get what he wants or feels is right, though this enthusiasm causes him to take risks and jump into situations without fully thinking it through. >>

B-But that is the definition of anti-hero….

SOMEONE WHO DOES WHAT THEY WANT/HAVE TO DO TO ACHIEVE WHATEVER THEY THINK IS RIGHT ???

He’s just chaotic neutral you fungus………

<< Shadow's fighting style focuses on brutal, unrestrained and powerful hand-to-hand combat. In line with his nature and potent abilities, Shadow has adopted a fighting style where he fights his opponents using powerful blows, such as karate chops, swift punches and roundhouse kicks, to which many of his attacks have a significant amount of force behind them. With the speeds Shadow can move at, he can disable the opponent through the force of his blows alone, while leaving them at the mercy at his incoming attacks. >>

HERE’S THE TEA:

He attacks his opponents with such heavy blows hoping to take them down with minimal effort, but without actively harming them too much. 

His attacks are chosen very carefully. In 06 his chaos spears even just paralyzed his opponents asjfhsakj like. he can do that.

AS ALREADY MENTIONED: shadow is out to immobilize; not to kill.

putting opponents out of commission is the goal, not to end their life in vain…. it’s RIGHT THERE

<< With the speeds Shadow can move at, he can disable the opponent through the force of his blows alone, while leaving them at the mercy at his incoming attacks. >>

HE DISABLES EM WITH ONE BLOW SO HE CAN JUST GO ON WITH HIS MISSION ASJKHFASKJ

this whole “leaving them at mercy” bullshit is unnecessary and incorrect.

<< While not having any physical weakness, Shadow was initially a somewhat easy target for manipulation during the time he had amnesia due to his confusion about who he was. >>

THIS IS IT! MY ENTIRE BEEF WITH HOW THE FANDOM TREATS SHTH AS A GAME!!!!!!!!!!! HOLY SHIT!!!!!!! HOOOOOOOOLLLLYYYY SSSSHHIIIIIITTTTTT!!!!!!!!!! LET ME TELL YOU

okay so the whole POINT of the game is to show the player ALTERNATIVE TIMELINES in which shadow is manipulated in slightly different ways which lead to slight changes in his personality and like. with all the selective information he received he can be manipulated into becoming different kinds of people. 

i don't see how people dismiss the entire game as not canon?????, IMO those are all very valid and canon alternative timelines??? like… canon AUs???????

you can't just throw the entire game under the rug??? 

and saying things like “shadow is an android now i guess bc of that one shth ending” im..,

he was MANIPULATED into BELIEVING so. Eggman lied to him so he would obey him. (or just to make him unstable enough to be able to restrain him)

(proof ^^^^^ dialogue of eggman speaking to shadow during the final boss, saying that he lied and that shadow is the real shadow)

OH BOY ........ THE TRUE ENDING!!!!!!!! HOOOLY SHIIIIT

people have so much beef with shadow “leacing the past behind him” and like the “sayonara shadow the hedgehog” in the last cutscene…….. im…………………….

“leaving the past behind” doesn’t mean just forgetting about everything and pretending it never happened, it means ACKNOWLEDGING that it happened, ACCEPTING IT…. learning from it and then…. MOVING FORWARD.

it means that you learned from your past and are now at peace with it, not stressing over it anymore… finally able to focus on the present moment and your feelings in the NOW; maybe even think about the future a little more.

just. yeah. it means he made peace with his past and wont let it define him (in the sense that its all he thinks about and that his haunting memories control him) and he is more confident in himself and perhaps regained some self-worth…

and that “sayonara shadow the hedgehog” is 

 a call to say that his old “self” is now gone, and that it's time for the new “self” to rise

 just look at the room he’s in and the picture he's looking at…… those were maria's last words at him…… let him mourn one last time, let him make peace with her death. he’s been stressing over it long enough.

<< Professor Gerald's granddaughter, Maria Robotnik, is by far the one person that made Shadow the happiest. She was like a sister to him, and they shared the same dream; to visit Earth. >>

Can yall stop shipping them romantically? thanks.

I headcanon that Shadow adopts the Robotnik last name for a VERY GOOD reason.

okay im done w the wiki bye fuckface

I’m not done yet tho.

I want to talk about a thing I see in lots of fanart too... 

Shadow smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol.

Shadow is a highly sensitive creature and alcohol has an unpleasant sting to it when you drink it and he KNOWS it’s bad for people’s health. He would never indulge wild parties or participate in “jolly drinking” where people drink for the purpose of getting drunk and having “fun”.

He very much appreciates having one drink with rouge at the bar (for the taste, purely) or a beer at a meal with someone else. 

He doesn’t actively seek it, but he also is not totally repulsed by it.

What disgusts him is the abuse of alcohol and he doesn’t like associating with that behavior and stays away from people who do that. 

why? easy. let’s just take a look at cigarettes.

each package has a warning and disgusting picture of the aftermath of smoking on it, and everyone is very well informed about how bad it is for their own health, and more so for the health of the people around them. 

He does not accept people who put whatever benefit they think they receive from this, if they put it before the well being of others and willingly make themselves sick and rot.

Same goes for alcohol. Everyone is very well aware that its toxic to our bodies, but people get drunk and risky anyways. This way of fleeing their troubles is illogical and ungrateful. 

Ungrateful to the gift of life, to the healthy bodies they posses.  It has a lot to do with the unfairness he feels when he thinks about how Maria had a life expectancy of 9 or 10 years for something that wasn’t even her fault. And there are other, perfectly fine humans out there, that willingly destroy their bodies and willingly accept that they are harming the ones around them with their behavior too.

[ DISCLAIMER: This is not meant to call anyone who reads this that drinks or smokes out as a bad person; you can do what you want I’m not trying/going to try convincing you to stop or make you feel guilty. This is the standpoint of someone who has experienced health related loss, so it indeed is extreme. I am not trying to start a debate. ]

another beef i have is the weird idea that shadow is a lusty dominant rapist

[ warning that sexual themes might be discussed, but not explicit ]

shadow is MOST PROBABLY asexual; and even if he was interested in intercourse he would be polite about it, seek consent and so on and so on

just are many people forgetting that despite him being very mature, he had not had much life experience yet. 

not to be reaching but he kinda fits the “born sexy yesterday-trope”; where he is mature, there’s a gray area on his age, and he is clueless about how life works and basically a man-child “that needs teaching”

just that for some weird reason i see a lot of people draw shadow as very flirtatious, and in fanfictions he gets very violent towards romantic partners and ofc the infamous sonadow rape porn (tho ive encountered stuff relating to the born sexy yesterday shit too)

[ im not here to discuss how WRONG the things above are in its own, im just here to talk abt characterization today. ]

i just want generally everything to stop........... its bad........ don’t put that shit up in public and then even untagged........

[ warning end ]

..........

before anyone comes at me like “uuummmm but things you said are bad are actually portrayed in canon like that”

sorry but

hate to say it but i know their character better than sega themselves.

I’m tired and my wrists hurt i need to stop typing now but you did not hear the last of me.

[littlemisssquiggles]

RWBY Remarks: ‘Little Cute Boy Ozpin’ AU. What would the story have been like if Ozpin was reincarnated as a 14-year-old boy but was still his own character?

greenfablesinverness replied to your post “AU Where Oscar only went to Mistral cause his uncle Ozpin had written...”

That “Ozpin was originally a de-aged Oscar” actually makes a lot of sense looking back at the beginning of the series. I think this was the original idea, but after Monty died Miles and Kerry felt too uncomfortable since BAM, this is Ruby’s love interest, and it might come off as creepy, so Oscar became a totally knew character entirely.

Squiggles Answers:

Hmm, makes sense. However even if that were true and the original story was for Ozpin to be reincarnated as a teenager after death without Oscar as part of his story, I don’t think the original intention by the CRWBY Writers and the show creator would’ve been to make Ozpin Ruby’s potential love interest. If anything, it makes more sense if the intention was to have Ozpin still be his own character after rebirth and have Ruby gain her love interest as a new character with or without it tying into Ozpin’s story.

As a matter of fact, y’know what? They could have easily done both. Did you know that the CRWBY Writers could have still given us the same Ozpin-reincarnation storyline being intertwined with Oscar’s without having to make them share a body? Let me explain how.

Oz the Kid

Just have Ozpin reincarnate as a young 13-14 year old boy with amnesia to be found in Mistral on the outskirts of the Pine Family farm where he’s discovered by a young Oscar Pine.

Instead of Oscar being inspired by Dorothy Hale from the Wizard of Oz, imagine if… our veteran farm boy was based off of the woodsman who saved Red Riding Hood from the Big Bad Wolf. That could’ve been a nice way to tie Oscar to Ruby’s character which could’ve additionally been used to foreshadow their potential relationship.

Instead of Oscar being Ozpin’s newest form and successor, he could’ve been the old wizard’s young protector. Just as how the woodsman saved Little Red Riding Hood, Oscar could’ve saved a reincarnated young Ozpin and that’s how the two could’ve met. Humour me to rewrite Oscar and Ozpin’s story a wee bit.

Imagine an AU where instead Ozpin’s curse was that he returns as a teenaged boy with no memory of his past self and it was the purpose of the members of his Inner Circle to find and train him back to his former self. This would explain why Qrow had Ozpin’s cane. He was the scout. The proverbial eyes in the sky whose primary responsibility was to search and find the missing Ozpin in the event of reincarnation.

Speaking of Qrow Branwen, what I found odd about V5 is that in the scene where Oscar meets RNJR for the first time after helping a happily drunk Qrow back to their residence in Mistral, Qrow kept muttering that he found Ozpin. As if he had been searching for him since his death. While this provided us with a comical scene and cute introduction into the group finally meeting Oscar, in the context of continuity from V4, it doesn’t really add up.

Back in V4, Qrow was never actually shown searching for Ozpin. He’d been following RNJR since the end of V3. If Qrow had been looking for Oz the entire time during his side of the story for V4 but then later deviates from his duty to Oz after learning that RNJR was being hunted by Tyrian Callows; then that would have made more sense. Not to mention that it would have tied into the joke in V5 a lot cleaner, right?

I know it’s meant to be one of those gags where a character claims to have fulfilled a task that the audience knew they never accomplished. Y’know like that ‘My job here is done’ meme with Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask.

Nonetheless, that was one nit-pick for me with the writing for V5 because it’s a joke played for laughs that can just as easily double as a small  plot hole. But then again, this is just me.

Back to my AU: in this version of the story, let’s say Oscar is 16-years-old instead of the titular 14. Still young but this time he’s the exact same age as Ruby instead of the two being two years ago---thus killing any potential arguments surrounding the two year age difference.

Oscar’s original background story could still be kept. I do like the concept of Oscar Pine being a 16-year-old farm bred boy who lived in the nowhere of Anima on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Mistral alone with his aunt on their family farm. In my version of the story, Oscar actually has ties to huntsman that he’s fully aware of. His parents were huntsman who once fought bravely for their kingdom but died in the line of duty years prior to the story. This left a young Oscar in the care of his widowed aunt who raised him for another half of his life and who he came to love like a second mother. 

In this AU, Oscar was originally meant to go off to Haven Academy. He had even already excelled at combat school and had passed the entrance exam qualifying him as a student. His aunt was very proud of him when she heard the news as much as he was. Oscar had always wanted to be a huntsman following in his parents’ footsteps to become a hero. However a week before Oscar was meant to depart for Mistral, his aunt suddenly fell very ill. 

Though the neighbourhood doctors did their best to help, in the end, Oscar’s aunt was diagnosed with an illness that rendered her bedridden and too weak to take care of herself. Since she had no one else to look after her, Oscar decided to abandon Haven. 

Though it would mean giving up on his dream, it was a sacrifice the young lad was willing to make for the woman who loved him like he was her own son. Oscar felt morally obligated to look after his aunt even if it meant living the rest of his life taking care of her if he needed too.

Though his aunt was content on having him care for her over a random stranger, that didn’t stop her from feeling remorseful over forcing her own nephew to abandon his own life for hers and the guilt hindered her more than her disease did.

But no matter how many times his aunt used to incline that Oscar move on with his life and not worry about her, the boy would stubbornly ignore her wishes and chose to stay by her side. She needed him and in that moment, Oscar needed to care for her.

Even if it meant spending the rest of his life as a farmhand in Mistral, it was a choice Oscar would willing make for his family because at the end of the day, she was all he had and that was all that mattered to him.

But Oscar’s quite life took another sharp change when, one day, while tending to the farm like he usually did on mornings, he heard a sudden strange noise come from the woods outside the farm. Thinking it might be another one of those occasional small Grimm that liked to wander onto his family property from time to time, Oscar quickly grabbed the axe he had planned on using to chop some wood for his aunt and ran straight towards the outskirts in the direction of the noise.

To Oscar’s surprise, his discovery was not what he was expecting. Wondering the woods alone outside the farm was a young boy. His hair was as silver as starlight and to make the situation more awkward, the boy was also found naked as he was born. The lad couldn’t have been older than fourteen years old though he was rather small and lanky for his age. The minute Oscar called out to the kid; he suddenly keeled over and fainted into Oscar’s arms.

This boy is in fact the reborn Professor Ozpin back as a young boy. However if the story was to be played out like an episode then it would have ended on a cliff-hanger with the audience not knowing the true identity of this young boy who happened to cross Oscar’s path.

The next time the story picks back up, Oscar is forced to care for this young stranger who doesn’t have any recollection of who he is and where he came from.

When Oscar probed the young child with the obvious questions---Where did he come from? How did he end up near his farm? What’s his name?

The only thing Ozpin could tell Oscar, at least the part that made sense to the young farm boy, is that he is Ozpin. Anything else and he would get this pained look on his face as if trying to remember something important. After staying a couple of days on the Pine Family’s farm, young Ozpin eventually regains some of his memories and is able to tell Oscar that he needs to go to Mistral; saying that he has a ‘friend’ over there who could help him.

But his memories come in spasms. One minute he’s an inkling of his old self, remembering important details that he’s able to relate to Oscar. Of course none of it makes sense to Oscar but at least Ozpin is able to tell him. However when Oscar would ask Ozpin to make sense of everything he told him, he would then revert back to the other side. The side of him that was basically a helpless young boy, lost and confused.

Oscar tries to convince Ozpin to stay with him and his aunt on the farm until they could figure out a way to help him get back to where he came from. However, when he’s lucid, Ozpin kept insisting that he needed to leave for to Mistral immediately.

In my AU, Ozpin’s reincarnation suffered some complications.

Let’s say…each time Ozpin reincarnates, in order for the process to work successfully; meaning for him to come back younger but with all of his memories intact, it requires a lot of magic.

Let’s say, Ozpin depleted a lot of his magic during his last stand against Fall Maiden Cinder. As a result, this fight left him with less magic than he needed to reincarnate successfully. So his rebirth was botched.

Despite successfully returning in his adolescent form, his mind and memories became as shattered as a jigsaw puzzle.

Imagine…the Professor Ozpin we all know only with the short term memory akin to Dory from Finding Nemo. Rather than being whole, this new Ozpin is almost like two minds in one. One mind is Ozpin himself---he knows who he is and is quite coherent enough to recount his countless eons of memories.

But on the other mind, he is just a helpless little boy, frightened, confused 200% of the time and needing someone to care for him while also recounting whatever actions his ‘other self’ does---the total opposite of the man we all know Ozpin to be.

And to make matters worse, it doesn’t help that this new younger Ozpin often slips in and out of both personalities. One minute he could be recounting important info that could be helpful to the given scenario and the next minute, he’s like a naive toddler unable to remember anything.

Ozpin has always been portrayed as the man with all the answers. So can you imagine how daunting it would be especially for all the characters who believe in his wisdom like Qrow if the man with all the answers returned as a crippled version of himself unable to help anyone because his mind is too fragmented from his failed rebirth process?

I like this idea because it gives a new perspective of Ozpin while also presenting a new purpose to Oscar Pine.

Y’see in this version of the story, instead of Oscar being Ozpin’s successor and the two being forced to share a body; Oscar would unintentionally be drafted in as a member of Ozpin’s Inner Circle tasked with protecting him during times of reincarnation. Oscar essentially becomes Ozpin’s guardian---his protector as the two journey toward Mistral to rendezvous with one of Ozpin’s allies.

And this time, when Oscar leaves home to go with Ozpin to Mistral where he would also start being trained to become a huntsmen, it’s his choice and something he wanted to do from the start before he met Ozpin.  

If the CRWBY Writers wanted a way to reincarnate Ozpin, have him come back young while still making Oscar his own person, they could have done it like that. But for now, I guess it’ll make for a pretty cool AU.

 As to why Ozpin would reincarnate in Mistral near Oscar’s home of all places, lemme hit you with a solid explanation using some canon evidence. Remember the World of Remnant episode on the Four Maidens? Remember the old wizard who lived like a hermit in the middle of the nowhere?

Though it was never confirmed if the hermit lived in Mistral per say, for the sake of this AU of mine, let’s say whenever Ozpin died he had a tendency to respawn near common areas his past lives once resided in. So let’s say Oscar’s family farm was built over the same property that was once the land of Ozpin’s predecessor---the old hermit wizard and creator of the Four Maidens.

Though it was never confirmed if the hermit lived in Mistral per say, for the sake of this AU of mine, let’s say whenever Ozpin died he had a tendency to respawn near common areas his past lives once resided in. So let’s say Oscar’s family farm was built over the same property that was once the land of Ozpin’s predecessor---the old hermit wizard and creator of the Four Maidens.

That’s sounds like a cool way to tie Oscar to one of Ozpin’s previous lives and it can even work in the canon AU. But for now, let’s leave it like a cool idea.

The Wizard and the Farm Boy

Imagine…in this AU of mine, Ozpin living with Oscar and Auntie Pine for a short time---probably a couple of weeks giving him enough time to regain some of his more important memories while growing close to the Mistralian farm folk a lot better.

Imagine if…during this time, Ozpin shared a small private talk with Auntie Pine. Going to sound heart-wrenching but the concept I had is that in this AU, Ozpin met Oscar around the time his sick aunt was on her last days.

In her final moment, while Oscar was outside tending to the farm as always, Auntie Pine called Ozpin to her bedside and asked him for a small favour to an elderly woman. At that time he was himself and not his other ‘child-like’ persona who had been christened ‘Ozzy’ by Oscar; just so that he could tell the two minds apart. Auntie Pine beckoned Ozpin to help her write a letter. A letter that she wanted him to give to Oscar.

While Ozpin is helping Auntie Pine, at some point, she turns weakly to the old wizard and lets the truth slip to him about her little condition. I imagined their conversation would go something like this:

Auntie Pine: …I’m sure you’ve noticed but I’m not a well woman. In fact, I’m dying. Have been for some time now and that’s the cold, hard truth, plain as day. And…I don’t think I have much time left.

Ozpin: …I’m…sorry. I---Does Oscar…

Auntie Pine: ---No. I’ve been…trying to think of a more…delicate way to break the news to him for months. It’s hard…not to mention exhausting trying to tell the truth to someone who only wants to hear the good version of the truth all the time. He…used to listen to me y’know. But ever since I got sick, I feel like he listens more to my illness than me. Sounds crazy, right? He’s always been the stubborn type. Just like his father. But he’s got a big heart. He’s…a good boy and he’s…going to make an amazing huntsman one day. Probably one of the best this world has ever seen. But he can’t do that so long as I’m here…holding him back. And I’m ready to go. Heavens, I’ve been preparing to go for a very long time. But I’m worried…no…I’m afraid that if I go now, it might…break him. And I don’t want him to break. I saved him from that the first time after his parents died so…the last thing I want is to be the one responsible for him falling apart…

Ozpin: …Ms Pine…

Auntie Pine: ---Call me Emma, please. You don’t have to be so formal.

Ozpin: …Emma, you should…talk to Oscar.

Auntie Pine: …I told you. He won’t listen to me. But he will listen… to you. I know he’ll listen to you. I’ve heard your talks when Oscar thinks I’m just sleeping. *chuckles* For some strange reason, even with all your crazy talk about magic…and maidens…and people coming back to life and going to the city…he listens to you. Ozpin, I know we haven’t known each other for that long…and I know I have no business asking any personal favours of you. But…you seem like a real level headed young man or…old man, whichever one you prefer. Can you aid an old woman with her final request? Promise me that no matter what happens, you won’t let my Oscar fall apart. It’s a lot to ask of a stranger but I like to believe you ended up here with us for a reason…a good reason. One that could change Oscar’s life for the better and give him more than I ever could. So please…I…beg you…please…promise me…

Ozpin: …I…have made more mistakes than any man, woman and child on this planet. I’ve made many promises that I have failed countless of times to uphold. However, in all my lifetimes, this is one promise I swear I’ll do my hardest to keep.

Auntie Pine: *smiling weakly* …You’re a good person Ozpin. I don’t know…what kind of skeletons you have in your closet. But I’ve always prided myself on being a good judge of character. Only a good person would make a promise to a dying woman and shed tears real enough to prove that he’s at least going to try to keep that promise so…thank you…

At this point, Auntie Pine extends a frail finger to touch Ozpin’s cheek as a single tear trailed down his cheek. Ozpin is stunned; not just by the old woman’s gesture but by his own reaction to his emotions. So instead, all he could muster is a silent nod all the while Auntie Pine is beaming at him through a pale face of smiles. Auntie Pine: Tell me…Ozpin…you’ve died before right? Does it…does it get any better…in the afterlife?

Ozpin: …I…I wouldn’t know…but for your sake, I truly hope it does.

Once again, Auntie Pine flashes Ozpin a fragile but contented smile and the old wizard felt his shoulders quake as he finally gave into his own tears.

Auntie Pine: …I think…I think I’m ready to see Oscar now…Can you…can you call him…for me please?

So Auntie Pine passes away after giving her final goodbyes to her beloved nephew. The death, of course, did exactly what Auntie Pine warned Ozpin would happen. It broke Oscar; to the point that he fell into a state of depression. As Oscar once disclosed to Ozpin during his stay, he had no other family. A lot of his past neighbours were either elderly folk who passed away or families who uprooted and moved to the main city. Oscar and his aunt were the only two left from the old neighbourhood. So when it came time for Oscar to bury his aunt, it was to an audience of only Ozpin.

Everyone else was gone. He had no one and for the first time since his parents’ departure, Oscar felt more alone than he ever did in his entire life and the feeling of loneliness devastated him more than the grief.  

At this point, Ozpin had stayed in the Pine residence for a little over two months and he was beginning to turn anxious. He had hoped Qrow would’ve found him by then. However since he didn’t, the old wizard figured something grim must’ve befallen the Branwen man (let’s say this was around the time Qrow had discovered Tyrian Callows was hunting RNJR and had diverted from his search for Oz in order to protect his family and her friends; leading to Qrow getting poisoned and…y’know the rest). This increased Ozpin’s urgency to get to the main kingdom.

Since Qrow hadn’t found him as originally planned, Ozpin had no choice but to journey to Mistral on his own. At least by then, he could rendezvous with the sole Mistral representative in his Inner Circle: Leonardo Lionheart and the two could’ve figured out a way to get in contact with Qrow.

Unfortunately, Ozpin had a problem. Two problems in fact. One, he needed someone to be his guide. Because of his botched rebirth, his memories of how to traverse Mistral were not the best. Not to mention that he wasn’t quite familiar with Oscar’s side of Anima. In this AU, let’s say getting to the train station shown in V4 was a much more perilous trip than what we got for the main series canon.

His only hope was gaining Oscar’s aid in journeying to the nearest train station that would then take them to the Kingdom. This led him to his second problem. Ozpin…did not want to leave Oscar by himself. He couldn’t. Not after the young boy and his family had taken him in the way they did and especially not after what he promised Auntie Pine.

It was then Ozpin made a decision. He was going to take Oscar to Mistral with him. Kill two birds with one stone. That way, Oscar could help him get to the city and Ozpin can keep a watchful eye over the young farm boy. Sounds simple, right?

The only problem was…Oscar refused to go. He just…wanted to remain on the land where his family was buried. Maybe become a hermit left alone to his grievances. It was then when Ozpin saw a connection between himself and Oscar

He was once this same way.

Remember when I said in this AU, Ozpin respawned near the Pine Family Farm because coincidentally the property was the same soil he once lived on alone as a hermit before he met the Maidens?

I like story ideas that in hindsight add up perfectly together. So perhaps this is a nice way to highlight a connection between Oscar and Ozpin for this AU.

I like this idea because I can imagine Ozpin hitting Oscar with the trademark RWBY questions: ‘What’s your favourite fairy tale?’ before telling him the famous The Four Maidens fairy-tale we know of. The twist is that Ozpin would reveal to Oscar that, of course, the fairy tale is true; explaining that the old wizard from the story was him in a past life. Ozpin would admit to Oscar that once upon a time, he too shared his same sentiments of wanting to live alone and isolated from the outside world; believing that a life of solitude was the only purpose left for existence after losing everything he loved.

But it was the kindness of four strangers that ultimately reminded Ozpin of how much more beauty and wonder existed beyond his walls. How his life wasn’t over yet. That he still had a second chance to start anew. Ozpin told Oscar this story in hopes that it would stir him to his senses. Convince him to be his companion on his quest.

It did not unfortunately. Despite his pleas, Oscar still stubbornly refused. This left Ozpin with no choice.

Not wanting to force Oscar to come with him especially in his time of grief, Ozpin solemnly decides to leave him behind and venture on his own. Before leaving, Ozpin gives Oscar the letter Auntie Pine had made him record her final words to Oscar. Of course, Oscar is still acting stubborn and doesn’t even want to read the letter. At this point, Ozpin is out of options and out of time. So he leaves Oscar and begins his own journey.

But as I mentioned earlier, in this AU, Ozpin isn’t familiar with traversing Oscar’s neck of Anima. So even though he left the Pine farm days ago, he eventually got himself lost and ended up wandering aimlessly through the woods for some time. This also led to Ozpin running into the local Grimm inhabiting the area which was a pack of hungry Beowolves. Though Ozpin did his best to combat the ferocious creatures, the old wizard’s luck unfortunately ran out when he reverted to Ozzy in the heat of danger, rendering himself incapable of defend himself further.

To make a long story short, Ozzy is soon rescued by Oscar, much to the child’s surprise. The young farm boy came to Ozzy’s aid wielding a weaponized battle axe which doubled as a Brunswick rifle. I like that as Oscar’s signature weapon in this AU since I talked about it before. Fusing the weapon with fire dust, Oscar torched any oncoming Beowolves attempting to harm Ozzy while sending the others fleeing in a blazing trail of panic.

To make it funny, Ozzy questions Oscar on how he knew where to find him after leaving days ago only for Oscar to respond that since he grew up in the area for most of his life, he knew the woods like the back of his hand so finding Ozpin wasn’t a problem especially since the old wizard had gotten himself lost and had actually been walking in circles for the past few days, much to Ozzy’s embarrassment.

Ozzy then questions Oscar of what made him change his mind about finding him. That’s when Oscar shows Ozpin the letter his aunt had left for him. The teenager apologizes to the old wizard for his behaviour before announcing that he had made up his mind to help him get to Mistral. His Pine pride wouldn’t allow him to allow such a, quote, ‘helpless child’ to wander the dangerous woods all alone even if said child is also a reincarnated 1000+ year old wizard. After all, it was the right thing to do and it’s what Oscar’s Aunt would have wanted him to do.

Despite the initial slip up, Ozpin was more than relieved to have Oscar accompany him. So with that, the two set off towards Mistral together.

 In this AU, part of the story is dedicated to Oscar and Ozpin going through their own journey towards Mistral just like Team RNJR. It isn’t just Ozpin spending time trying to convince Oscar to leave for Mistral before boarding the easy train.

One critique of V4 I’ve seen is the disappointment fans shared about Team RNJR having to make the long journey towards Mistral while all Oscar and Ozpin had to do was hop a train. Never mind that Oscar coincidentally lived within close proximity to a working train station that could instantaneously take him directly to the kingdom citadel.

And never mind that he also coincidentally got through with it despite having no money and needing Hazel Rainart to coincidentally show up at the same train station to help Oscar score a ticket. Yep, all one big coincidinks.

So since this is an AU I’m concocting here, I really like the idea of Ozpin and Oscar going through their own trials and perils on their separate journey to Mistral. They could still hop on a working train and still run into Hazel Rainart along the way for the final part of their Journey to Mistral. I mean RNJR took an airship at the end of their side of the journey which is the next best thing.

But like RNJR, it would’ve been cool to get some travels with Ozpin and Oscar: Fighting more Grimm, giving Oscar more opportunities to show off his capabilities as a huntsmen to protect Ozpin. In this AU, of course.

Not to mention that, since Ozpin wouldn’t have had his signature Oz-cane, I really dig the idea of Oz having to depend solely on utilizing what little magic he had to assist Oscar from time to time.

Referring to the main series now, we’ve never quite seen Ozpin actually perform magic in the canon, have we? We know he’s used his magic before but never actually seen him do it onscreen outside of RWBY Chibi

So imagine how cool it would have been to see a young Ozpin relearning to use his magical powers and this time, we actually get to see him cast spells or whatever the equivalent of performing magic in the RWBY-verse is like. 

I can picture Ozpin or Ozzy casting magic to help him and Oscar get out of tricky situations. Like for example: using magic to conjure up a shield of protection in order to save an overpowered Oscar from a charging Boarbatusk. Y’know like the one he summoned during his clash with Cinder Fall in V3.

Or perhaps using magic to ‘heal’ a serious wound on an injured Oscar by reversing time (like how Rapunzel healed Eugene in Tangled but without the glowing hair and song). Or maybe, just maybe, Ozpin using a wizard mind spell to manipulate someone into handing over a free boarding pass so that he and Oscar could take the train to the city. Those are three ideas.

It’s odd though. Despite Ozpin being confirmed as a legit wizard (a cursed wizard but one nonetheless) and in spite the confirmed existence of magic in Remnant by Ozpin himself, we’ve never actually seen Ozpin perform any feats of magic. Never mind that he used magic to create the Four Maidens and grant the Branwen Twins shapeshifting powers in his past life. Never mind that he did say his magic is finite and dwindling (whether that’s true or not). Still…he’s a wizard! Yes his magic is low but it could be cool to see him do something magical, even if it’s as small as a simple spell.

I don’t expect Ozpin to part the ocean or turn water into wine (although Qrow might enjoy that trick) but…still…it would be cool to see him perform a little something, something magical. Cause y’know…he’s a wizard! My hope is that Oscar is somehow capable of using magic for the main series canon so that we can possibly see some Ozpin magic tricks for V6. Hopefully.

 But for now, I’ll stick with my AU idea.

How would this AU handle the Oscar-Ozpin dynamic?

In this AU of mine, I like the idea of Ozpin and Oscar kinda joint adopting each other in a way. As Ozpin, he decides to take Oscar with him on his journey to Mistral, taking full heed of the promise he made to Auntie Pine that he would ensure the future that her nephew wanted---to become a huntsman; an objective that even Ozpin soon started to believe the boy was strongly capable of as he came to realize Oscar’s potential.

Oscar, in turn, comes to care for Ozpin’s well-being as well and even becomes like his own young protector or Guardian of some kind.

If Oscar was made to be Ozpin’s protector rather than his new vessel as an alternative, then I can definitely see the two sharing a big brother/little brother dynamic. I like the idea of Oscar and Ozpin both being big brothers/proxy dads to one another. One mind provides Oscar (and essentially all the young heroes) with the huntsman training and experience he’s always desired while at the same time, the two build a trusting mentor and apprentice relationship with each other that Ozpin only shares with the closest members of his Inner Circle (such as Glynda and Qrow).

And this dynamic is also transcended into the other side of their relationship where it’s the reverse and Oscar is Ozpin’s caretaker, using his training to protect him when he’s most vulnerable (as Ozzy) while establishing a bond where Oscar actually does look after Ozpin (as Ozzy) despite him being leagues older than him.  

I kind of picture Ozpin and Oscar’s connection in this AU of mine like Kara and Alice from Detroit Become Human.

Originally, both Oscar and Ozpin knew nothing about each other. Only met on coincidence. Yet in some twisted fate, their lives became intertwined and to each other, they suddenly became someone whose well-being they now valued as much as their own and wholeheartedly wanted to help. 

Like I’m imagining both Oz and Oscar both justifying their commitment to helping each other during private talks with Ruby and Qrow. Ozpin is of course talking to Qrow while Oscar is with Ruby.

Oscar to Ruby: 

Oscar: …I don’t think your uncle likes me very much.

Ruby: Don’t be silly. He’s just a little grumpy sometimes…with just you…a lot.  

 Oscar: *laughs* Nice save. Good attempt. But…nah, my aunt trained me well enough to sniff out when someone really doesn’t want me around. And…I think your uncle thinks I shouldn’t be here. I don’t blame him though. He probably thinks I shouldn’t stick around anymore since Oz is back with you guys. Back with his people.

Ruby: You’re his people too. He told us you saved him.

Oscar: I just gave him a place to stay and some food. But…thanks… to both of you for the kind words. I mean, I promised Ozzy I would help him get to the city to meet his friends and I did. I guess…I really have no business sticking around here.

 Ruby: Well…then why are you still here?

 Oscar: …Uhh…I guess… one of the reasons is because of Haven Academy. Lionheart told me that he still has records of my old acceptance letter into the academy. Said…if I still wanted, I can actually become a student here.  It’s a chance for me to finally live my dream of becoming a huntsman which is all I could ever ask for.

But if we’re being honest, the real reason I want to stay is because of Ozzy. Ozpin…needs me. Well…maybe not the version of him that’s a 1000 year old magical wizard guarded by a tall, rugged, mean-faced bird man wielding a giant scythe. Uh…no offense?

 Ruby: *giggles* None taken.

Oscar: But…the part of him that’s just a little kid y’know. When he’s…just a boy---just Ozzy, he reminds me so much of myself before I went to live with my aunt. After my parents died, I was so scared of being alone but my aunt made me feel loved and safe. She stood by me because she knew I needed her. That’s why I want to stay for Ozzy. Ozpin may not need me but Ozzy does and so long as he wants me here, I’ll do everything in my power to protect him.

Ozpin to Qrow

Qrow: Oz, why’d you bring that kid with ya? Who even is this kid? Where’d you even find him?

Ozpin: That kid’s name is Oscar. He’s from Mistral but more outside the kingdom and…he saved my life when you failed to find me, I’m afraid.

Qrow: Well why is he still here? *takes a swig from his flask* Shouldn’t he have gone back to his little house on the prairie now that we’ve met up with Leo?

Ozpin: He’s here because I want him to be here. My reincarnation may have…suffered a few unsettling complications but I wasn’t totally off my rocker when I told you I wanted Oscar to join my Circle. He may be young but within my short time with him, he’s shown me that he has tremendous potential. So with some training and proper guidance, I believe Oscar is destined for greatness.

Besides I…sorta also promised his dead aunt I would look out for him after she died. Can’t break a promise like that now, can I?”

Qrow: *through mid-sip* You did what?

Ozpin: It’s…a long story.

Qrow: Great. So basically you picked up a stray.

Ozpin: A stray with potential. Besides, I took you in once didn’t I? And look how well you turned out.

Qrow quirks a brow at Ozpin while taking another long swig from his flask. At this, Ozpin shook his head and sighed.

Ozpin: …Well…I can’t take full credit for all your quirks.

Qrow: Yeah but at least I grew up already knowing how to fight? What does Farmer Brown know how to do besides swing an axe? Anyone can swing an axe. Heck I can do that blindfolded with both my hands tied behind my back on my worst day. Besides… he’s so…young. He’s younger than I was when I joined the Circle. Ozpin: *amused tone* Why Qrow Branwen, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were a little jealous of Oscar.

Qrow: *almost chokes on his flask* Me? Jealous of that pipsqueak? Oz, I just recovered from my last hangover, please don’t make me vomit. I just don’t like the way he thinks he’s all high and mighty just because he’s the glorified babysitter to your other half.

Ozpin: Oscar isn’t like at all. If anything he’s been the most mature for his age…definitely more mature than certain people I’m looking at right now.

Qrow: *condescending tone* He calls you Ozzy. What is that?

Ozpin: *calmly* It’s just a nickname. A nickname both Ozzy and Ozpin don’t mind.

Qrow: *grumbles* I also don’t like the way he keeps chumming up to Ruby lately.

Ozpin: Really Qrow? He’s 16. She’s 16. They’re allowed to be friends.

Qrow: She’s my niece! Don’t encourage your babysitter to be any kind of ‘friends’ with my niece, capish?

Ozpin: *exasperated*  …Fine. Are there any other complaints you have regarding my ‘babysitter’?

Qrow: Just one. I don’t think this kid’s got the real chops to be a huntsman, let alone someone who’s meant to be a part of your Circle.

Ozpin: Is that right? Well then since we’re both being honest here, I think I have the perfect solution for that. You’re an experienced huntsman Qrow. Previously a teacher at Signal Academy who trained your own niece to be a powerful scythe wielder like yourself. Not to mention you’re one of the few people in this world I would trust with my life.

Qrow: *burps* What’s your point?

Ozpin: You don’t think Oscar’s got what it takes. Then help him. Train him and bring out the best in him; as I did once for you.

In the main series, Qrow is currently Ozpin’s right hand for the Mistral Arc going towards Atlas (since Glynda, his original right hand from the Beacon Trilogy is stuck holding down the fort in Vale with Professor Port and Dr. Oobleck). But what would be cute is if Oscar also unintentionally became Ozpin’s right hand but…more so to young Ozzy, Ozpin’s ‘child-like’ other half in my AU.

I like the idea of both Qrow and Oscar being Ozpin’s right hand men and the two butting heads at first. While Oscar is perfectly okay with the times Ozpin needs to be alone with Qrow since the older huntsman is one of Ozpin’s most trusted.

For this AU, Qrow secretly harbours a bit of jealousy toward Oscar who was only picked as Ozpin’s newest guardian because of the complications of his reincarnation. Whenever Ozpin reverts back to Ozzy, he’s completely intimidated by Qrow and won’t let the Branwen man talk or even be alone with him unless Oscar is present.

In this version of the story, Ozzy is very attached to Oscar. Like a nervous child clinging to their parent.

It’s a different dynamic from the show canon but that’s why I like it as an AU. Plus I really dig the notion of Qrow being tasked to personally train Oscar by Ozpin as he is the newest member of his Circle and his youngest Guardian. I like the parallel of Oscar to Qrow because once upon a time, Qrow was in Oscar’s shoes as the original youngest member of his Circle along with his sister. However, unlike Raven, Ozpin took a greater shine to Qrow due to his loyal nature and provided him with more training and trust; allowing the two to forge a friendship stronger than any relationship Oz had with his remaining Guardians.

I like the idea of Qrow originally being jealous of Oscar only to eventually warm up to him after realizing their commonalities. So in the end, Qrow becomes a surrogate father figure to Oscar and learns to care for him as much as Ozpin did; recognizing his potential as well.

It’s a nice way to have Qrow and Oscar bond through their ties to Ozpin but without Qrow treating Oscar as Ozpin most of the time. As an AU, it can work.

How would this AU handle the RoseGarden relationship/romance?

Well for starters Oscar and Ruby will be the same age of 16 years old in this AU. Oscar would also be his own character. For this AU, I love the idea of Ruby slowly falling in love with Oscar purely for his, quote, ‘big heart’ after observing  his caring nature towards ‘Ozzy’, the childlike persona of Ozpin’s younger form.

Instead of Oscar being based off of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, he’d be based off of the Woodcutter from the Little Red Riding Hood fairy-tale. Though Oscar is Ozpin’s protector who saved Ozpin, his fairy-tale inspiration would share the same origins with Ruby for this AU. That’s the idea I had.

So in conclusion:

This is my first time coming up with an AU idea for RWBY. And for what it’s worth, I really love what I pumped out. It makes me kinda wish things had been done sorta like this in the main series canon. Buuuut... that doesn’t mean I’m not excited to see how the CRWBY Writers will handle developing Oscar and Ozpin’s dynamic in the main series.

They definitely have created a very unique and interesting character in Oscar Pine and his current predicament with Professor Ozpin. So as a proud Pinehead, I’m curious to see how it’s going to be for the following seasons especially with how they plan on balancing development and character growth for both sides of the Man with Two Souls while also showing progress with their relationships; both within Ozpin and Oscar’s ties to each other as well as the other characters they encounter.

But until I get to see more of the planned story for my two favourite characters in RWBY (Oscar and Ozpin), I guess for now I’ll toss out deas for AUs feautring one or two alternate ways the CRWBY could’ve written Ozpin and Oscar’s story; starting with this one. I think my ‘Little Cute Boy Ozpin’ AU is my best and favourite one written down so far.

It definitely puts together some of the best ideas I could think of in the event that the story had been written like that. Besides if it doesn’t work as an AU for RWBY then it would make one hell of an original adventure inspired by RWBY with maybe a few influences from the Wizard of Oz tale.

Wouldn’t mind playing around with a story like that if I ever felt up to the task. But who knows? For now, it’s just a really neat AU idea brought to you by the squiggle meister. Hope you fellow RWBY fam like it.

  More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

~LittleMissSquiggles (2018)

[writerbanana]

Microsoft edge download save as

MICROSOFT EDGE DOWNLOAD SAVE AS HOW TO

MICROSOFT EDGE DOWNLOAD SAVE AS INSTALL

MICROSOFT EDGE DOWNLOAD SAVE AS PC

Click the GET POLICY FILES button to download the policy files.

Scroll down the window and select the version details of your Microsoft Edge.

Here is how you can use the Group Policy Editor to change the download folder: GPE stores information in the form of policies, which can be modified to make the desired changes. Similar to Windows Registry, Group Policy Editor (GPE) enables users to customize the behavior of their operating systems from an administrative standpoint.

MICROSOFT EDGE DOWNLOAD SAVE AS PC

Even if you’ve never used a PC cleaner before, you’ll have no problem using it.Īnother easy way of changing the download folder for Microsoft Edge is by using the Group Policy Editor.

MICROSOFT EDGE DOWNLOAD SAVE AS INSTALL

After you install the tool and run an initial scan, the tool will automatically find and fix problems without human intervention.ĬleanMyPC is also quite easy to use. In addition to removing junk files, CleanMyPC has a range of tools that can address other PC problems. Choose Downloads from the left panel and in the right pane click on the Change button.Select Settings from the list of options available.Launch Microsoft Edge and click on More button (three dots) on the top-right corner of the window.As you see, when we download files from Edge, a save as dialog box appears and when we click save, it starts downloading but, when we go to Edge Legacy and Internet Explorer, there used to be an option to run an installer or open a file without saving it meaning the file gets downloaded and it gets. If there are multiple users on your PC, prevent them from customizing such features using Windows Registry. No, my suggestion is not about to open a file without actually downloading it. However, this method can be used by all standard users to change the download location. The simplest way to accomplish the task in question is through Windows Settings. The user can elect to Always open files of this type by using the option in the menu in the download shelf, after which these file types will be listed on the settings page ( edge://settings/downloads) you saw earlier. All the methods are easy to execute, and should not take much of your time! In this guide, we will walk you through different methods of doing so in detail. You can change it to either another location within the primary partition or a different drive or partition entirely. The Downloads folder is part of the primary partition, so if storage space is a concern, it is not wise to fill it up with a lot of large files.įortunately, Microsoft Edge Chromium has the option to change the default downloads folder. This is logical, but it isn’t suitable if you perform hundreds of downloads on a regular basis. The default setting for Microsoft Edge is to save your downloads to the ‘C:/Users/username/Downloads’ folder. Microsoft Rewards freeloads & security Education Virtual workshops and training.

MICROSOFT EDGE DOWNLOAD SAVE AS HOW TO

Wondering how to change download folder for Microsoft Edge Chromium?

[inspiredled]

LED Lighting: Everything you Need to Know

Since its launch, LED lighting product has come a long way, and it is now one of the most popular forms of lighting for both residential and commercial applications. In this article we will take an in-depth look at how LEDs work, what makes them different from other types.

What are LED Lights?

A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when electricity passes through it. The first generation of LED lights used red, green and blue diodes to produce white light. Today’s LED lights use more than three colors to create a wide range of hues. They also have longer lifespans and lower energy consumption than traditional incandescent bulbs.

How Does LED Lighting Differ From Other Light Sources?

While many people think of LEDs as simply being small versions of regular incandescent or fluorescent bulbs, they actually differ in several ways. First, they are much smaller and brighter than their predecessors. Second, they can be dimmed and controlled by electronic circuits rather than using mechanical timers. Third, they last far longer and consume less power than incandescents and fluorescents. And finally, they do not contain mercury like traditional lighting sources.

Why Use LED Lighting?

There are reasons why you may wish to make the shift to LED lighting. For starters, these lights provide superior performance compared to traditional lighting options. They offer greater efficiency, better color rendering, and longer lifespan. Plus, unlike traditional lighting options, they require no maintenance or replacement.

There are also environmental benefits associated with LED lighting. Unlike traditional lighting options, which release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere during production, manufacturing and disposal, LEDs emit virtually zero emissions. This means that they help reduce air pollution and contribute to cleaner skies.

The next time you consider replacing your old lighting fixtures, you may find yourself drawn toward LED lighting. It offers so many advantages that it should be considered as an option before making any decisions regarding your lighting needs.

Types of LED Lights: 

Miniature LEDs: These miniature LEDs are perfect for indoor uses such as table lamps, desk lamps, floor lamps, ceiling fans and decorative lighting. They come in a variety of sizes and forms and can be easily mounted on ceilings, walls or furniture.

Dimmable LEDs: Dimmable LEDs allow users to control the brightness of the bulb without having to replace the entire fixture. You can adjust the intensity of the light emitted by the bulb by changing the amount of current flowing through it. Most of today's dimmable bulbs feature built-in circuitry that allows you to change the intensity of the light output.

High Power LEDs: High power LEDs are ideal for outdoor lighting applications such as pathways, walkways, driveways, parking lots and landscaping. They are typically designed to withstand harsh weather conditions, including rain, snow and extreme heat.

Lighting LEDs: Lighting LEDs are designed specifically for commercial and industrial applications. Their high luminous efficacy makes them suitable for areas where there is heavy traffic or large amounts of foot traffic.

Flashing LEDs: Flashing LEDs are used for signaling purposes. They are often found at airports, train stations and other transportation hubs.

LED Lights Uses:

LEDs have a number of different uses, from home to business. Here are some examples of how they can be put to use:

Home:

● Kitchen: In kitchens, LED lighting provides an energy efficient alternative to halogen and compact florescent bulbs. They can be used in place of standard incandescent bulbs, saving money while providing more even illumination.

● Bathroom: LED bathroom lighting has become increasingly popular because it produces bright white light with minimal glare. It is a great choice for bathrooms and guest rooms.

● Living room: LED living room lighting is becoming more common due to its numerous benefits. It saves electricity, reduces eye strain and provides uniform light distribution.

● Bedrooms: LED bedroom lighting is another cost effective way to illuminate a space. It is easy to install and requires little maintenance.

Business:

● Office: LED office lighting is a cost effective solution for businesses looking to save money. It is highly durable and long lasting. It is also environmentally friendly since it emits no harmful chemicals or gases.

● Warehouse: Warehouse lights are essential for warehouse workers who need to see clearly when working at night. They provide ample light with low glare.

● Parking lot: Parking lot lights are necessary for safe driving at night. They must be installed so that drivers can see well ahead of their vehicle.

● Landscaping: Outdoor landscape lighting helps create a welcoming ambiance around your property. It also provides security and safety.

● Sports field: Sports fields require special lighting to ensure visibility during games and practices. The right type of lighting can make players feel safer and help referees determine whether a play was made or not.

● Entertainment: When designing entertainment venues, LED lighting is a smart choice. It offers a variety of advantages over traditional lighting options. For example, it consumes less electricity than conventional lighting sources. It also provides better color rendering and greater efficiency.

● Construction: During construction projects, contractors rely on LED lighting to ensure that work zones remain visible. It’s important that these sites are lit properly to avoid accidents and injuries.

● Retail: Retail stores depend on LED lighting to promote sales. It allows shoppers to easily find products and navigate the store. This makes shopping easier and more convenient.

● Commercial buildings: Commercial buildings need commercial grade lighting fixtures to ensure that employees and visitors are able to move freely throughout the building. These fixtures must be sturdy enough to withstand high traffic areas.

Advantages and Disadvantages of LED Lighting

Advantages:

● Energy Efficiency: LED lighting uses about 75% less energy than other types of lighting. It is also much more reliable than fluorescent lighting.

● Long Lifespan: LEDs last up to 100,000 hours compared to 10,000-15,000 hours for fluorescent bulbs.

● Low Maintenance: LED lights do not have any moving parts. They don't need frequent cleaning like fluorescent lamps.

● No Harmful Chemicals: Unlike mercury vapor lamps, which release toxic substances into the air, LED lights emit no hazardous materials.

Disadvantages:

● Costly: Compared to incandescent and halogen bulbs, LED bulbs are expensive. However, they offer significant savings in terms of energy consumption.

● Bulb Replacement: LED bulbs use different types of bulbs such as compact florescent (CFL), GU10, GU24, etc. To replace an old bulb, you will need to purchase new bulbs.

● Light Color: LED lights produce white light rather than colored light. Therefore, they cannot replicate natural colors.

The Future of LEDs:

In recent years, many manufacturers have begun producing LED bulbs that mimic the look of standard bulbs. Some even claim that these bulbs provide the same amount of illumination as regular bulbs. However, this technology has yet to reach its full potential. Most companies still prefer to sell their own brand of bulbs because they want to control quality and design. In addition, there are some limitations with current LED technology. For instance, most bulbs only last 3-5 years before needing replacement. Also, they tend to lose brightness after being exposed to extreme temperatures.

Conclusion:

LED lighting is becoming increasingly popular due to its numerous benefits. Whether you're looking to illuminate your home or business, LED lighting is a great option. It's long lasting, durable, and efficient. If you're interested in learning more about LED lighting, visit our website today!

Inspired LED is a LED Lighting Expert . We help businesses and homeowners select the best LED lighting solutions for their needs. Our professional team provides free estimates and consultations.