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libermachinae · 4 years ago

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Lost Light/Rodimus

Notes: No, I don’t mean the crew. Unedited bc I’ve already spent way more time on this crack fic than I meant to. Rated G, no warnings apply, 2K.

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It wasn’t Brainstorm’s fault, entirely.

“How the hell did you make a metrotitan spark?”

Just mostly.

“Well, it’s actually an extremely complicated, delicate, precise procedure,” Brainstorm said as they ran for their lives through shifting, narrowing corridors, Rodimus’ engine gunning to keep up with the jet. “It’s something other scientists have been trying to crack since before the war started, but between the exact measurements of the photonic supercrystal and the pattern of coding charges, no one else ever managed to—”

“Okay, forget how!” Rodimus shouted. “I don’t care about how! Or why! Or even at what point you decided to make a massive t-cog to go with it—”

“Actually, Perceptor cracked that one.”

“—or how you got it past Riptide and the rest of security! I don’t care!” A wall appeared front of them; Rodimus swerved around it while Brainstorm pulled into a neat roll. A wingtip brushed Rodimus’ roof. “Assuming we survive this any other way than First Aid scraping our pancaked frames off a random corridor wall, you’re going to tell the whole story to Megatron, and he can use all the practice he’s had with me to tell you exactly how terrible an idea this was.”

“Pancaked?”

“Earth term. Watch out!”

The hallway to the shuttle bay disappeared behind two shifting plates, and Rodimus had just enough time to brake and avoid being crushed. Brainstorm pulled up and transformed, landing at Rodimus’ side.

“Oh, this isn’t good,” he said.

“No kidding?” Rodimus angled his mirrors to look around, but every glance just revealed fewer directions to escape to. “We’re trapped.”

“Not that,” Brainstorm said. “We’re in the abdomen.”

“Belly of the ship, sure.”

“In root mode, the Lost Light’s power core is situated in the lower decks, under multiple layers of plating and insulation to keep the heat from frying everyone around it.” Brainstorm traced a small circle on the plating just underneath his cockpit, then drew it up, toward his chest. “When Perceptor was designing the transformation sequence, though, we couldn’t quite work out how to transport the core with all its extra plating. So, we just, hm, put a pin in it.”

Rodimus stared.

“So, what you’re saying is—”

Brainstorm pointed to the ceiling.

“The power core is one level above us right now. As soon as the transformation sequence is completed, it’s going to come online. The Lost Light’s designed to handle that kind of output, but not standard Cybertronians.”

“So, right now, this moment, we’re standing in the smelter, waiting for it to come on.”

“More like in front of the smelter after the blast doors have malfunctioned, but yeah.”

“Okay!” Rodimus revved his engine. “Well, that’s no good! We’re getting out of here.” He glanced around again. The walls were thick, but there had to be a weakness somewhere. “Don’t you have a drill gun? Or a drill you reformatted into a gun that can still be used as a drill?”

“I have a regular gun.”

“You do not.”

“I do!” Brainstorm insisted, pulling the standard issue pistol from subspace. “I was just about to see if I could do something about the problem of a finite ammo capacity (spoiler, I could’ve) when Light’s t-cog started spinning. I have others on me, but nothing that’s gotten the Perceptor stamp yet.”

“Everything else you’ve got will kill us if we fire it?”

“Might,” Brainstorm corrected, “they might kill you. Percy just hasn’t had time to test them yet.”

“Okay, fine.” Rodimus glanced around once more, optics falling on one feature he’d thus far overlooked. “You know what? We can work with this.”

It’s a simple fact that if you’re desperate to have floor-to-ceiling windows along the vehicle-accessible corridors of your miles-wide spaceship, they’re going to need to be reinforced. Heavily. A full round of shots fired at point-blank from a non-infinite pistol might be enough to get a crack in it, but that’s about it.

Of course, if you then ram that crack with a Matrix-armored sports car dropped from the undercarriage of a speeding jet, you might get somewhere.

Rodimus hit the window bumper-first, vibrations from the impact traveling in both directions throughout his frame. Whatever he was feeling, though, the window was having a much worse time: the crack stretched and exploded, shards of glass whipping out into the empty density of space. Rodimus went with them, and for a brief second he feared he would never stop going, before strong arms and the sound of thrusters secured him.

::We’re alive!:: Brainstorm’s comm crackled to life in his audial. ::And assuming at least a couple people listened to Minimus’ instructions, we should be looking at a good—oh frag.::

::What? How bad is it?:: Rodimus tried to angle his mirrors, but two teal wings blocked his view.

::It’s fine! Don’t worry!::

::That’s my ship, Brainstorm, of course I’m going to worry!::

::It’s alright, Rodimus.::

::Who was—::

A white hand appeared in front of them, large enough that Rodimus could have done donuts on its palm, large enough to punch a moon clear through. Brainstorm’s thrusters were straining to slow them down while Rodimus’ emergency brake slammed on, but momentum seemed committed to mashing them like a reverse rustbug.

The hand shifted, flipping over so the palm was underneath Rodimus, scooping up until his tires were just skidding across the metal surface. Forgetting to release his brake, his swerved before he came to a stop, swinging around and taking in the full view of his ship as, with a final ripple, her plating shifted into place.

She glowed. From the fuel rods around the corona of her helm and the winding lanes of windows around her arms, legs, and sides, light streamed from her, but not so much that she hurt to look at. Her optic band was a solid magenta and, Rodimus suspected, unseeing, but even that gave off a light that drew the eye, even as Rodimus felt the increased pressure of the hand lifting them up. In their ascent, they passed her chestpiece, the bow of the ship, and through the viewscreen Rodimus saw a decent portion of his crew, staring back out at him.

They came to a halt in front of her faceplate, and from this distance Rodimus could see the wavering patterns of optical lights, perhaps attempting to generate an expression. Ratchet would demand a look at Perceptor’s coding, he thought, a moment before the Lost Light’s voice returned.

::Hello, Rodimus, Brainstorm.::

::You gave her a comm suite?:: Rodimus asked, glancing at Brainstorm.

::Didn’t you check the ident?:: Brainstorm returned. ::She’s using the communications hub.::

::Oh.:: He glanced at her again. ::Can you access all of our major systems like that?::

::Yes.::

::Cool. Neat.:: An independent Cybertronian with the ability to quantum jump. And they’d been doing so well staying off the bad side of this reality’s Galactic Council.

::Do you have a name?:: he asked.

The optic lights wavered, shifting without meaning.

::Of course,:: she said. ::Drift named me Lost Light.::

Rodimus spluttered.

::How do you know that?::

::I have complete access to all in-network records,:: she said. ::My ‘memories’ extend as far back as my registration five million years ago, though they become more comprehensive within the last several decades, starting with the commencement of your quest.::

::Anything anyone ever dispersed via in-house networks, saved to a private console, or was automatically logged by the systems is up for grabs,:: Brainstorm said. ::Makes introductions pretty simple, at least.::

::Sounds like a fancy way of saying she’s got the worst possible first impression of everyone, but sure, that’s an optimistic way of looking at it.:: Brainstorm had climbed off him, so he transformed and took two steps forward. ::I’m Rodimus, your co-captain. Though, you already seem to know that.::

::Yes. I know all of you.:: For a moment, Rodimus thought they were moving again, but it was the large helm tilting forward. ::Thank you, by the way, Brainstorm. Though I unfortunately agree with Minimus Ambus’ preliminary assessment of your actions, I do appreciate this opportunity to be alive.::

::Like creator, like creation, I guess!::

::Wait, you talked with Minimus?:: Rodimus asked.

::Of course. I’m speaking to everyone right now,:: Lost Light said. ::I’ve been looking forward to this.::

::Wow. You’re either going to be Swerve and Misfire’s missing trinemate, or their biggest competition.::

::I do not find either of those options appealing.::

::Oh, yeah, that’s fine!:: He waved his hands. ::Just a joke. You can do whatever you want, now, you’re your own bot. Well, within reason, I guess. We might need to make another new officer position for you, and then—::

::I will continue to perform my duties, Rodimus. You have no need to worry in that regard.::

::Oh, good.:: Rodimus’ spoiler sagged and a few bubbles of trapped air escape his vents. Brainstorm’s scheme hadn’t dehomed them, at least.

::If you wouldn’t mind hearing it, I do have a request.::

Rodimus’ spoiler twitched back up.

::Sure!:: he said. ::After everything we’ve put you through, we owe you, huh?::

::I would prefer you not consider it that way,:: she said. The connection crystalized and strengthened into a private transfer as Lost Light cleaved Brainstorm into his own channel. ::After reviewing the records, I find I admire you, Rodimus.::

He stared.

::Oh?::

::Despite what you call a poor first impression, I have observed a crew that cares for each other and looks after its most vulnerable, with you as the spark that inspires such communal behavior. You act for the good of others, you encourage selflessness and self-improvement. Does that sound correct?::

There was nothing to hide behind on the palm of her hand. That observation could not kill Rodimus’ instinct to flee.

::I, uh. I don’t know?::

A flicker around the optic band again.

::Oh. My apologies. I have only just started to engage in pattern recognition, and it is possible my assessment is—::

::It’s fine!:: Rodimus assured. ::Sorry, you did fine. Um, yeah, I guess you could say all those things about me. Not everyone would, but if that’s what the logs are telling you, you should trust your instincts. Maybe just like, make sure to update them with your own observations?::

::Acknowledged.:: There was a pause, and Rodimus imagined she was sorting the suggestion among her priority trees. ::I will maintain my assessments as an ongoing process. However, if I am utilizing my initial understanding of each crew member as a basis to form a more informed conception of their character, then it is logical to assume that there must be some element of validity to my initial evaluations, correct?::

::Uh, sure?::

::Excellent.:: Her whole visor brightened, a straightforward positive that must have been easier for her programming to calculate than the emotions it had been trying to convey before. ::Then it is not unreasonable for me to hold to my initial conviction that I admire you, Rodimus. If you have time, I would like to get to know you better.::

::Huh. Uh.:: He hated to make assumptions, but the way her visor sparkled seemed more coordinated now. ::Can you give me one moment?::

::Of course.::

He hopped into a channel so well worn it felt like sinking into his own thoughts.

::Rodimus? Are you okay?::

::I’m fine, Drift,:: he said. ::Just, uh, need some advice.::

::Just advice? Not a rescue? Rewind and Perceptor managed to map out a way down to the shuttle bay, if you need an out.::

::No, no,:: he insisted. ::I’m just… I really don’t want to assume anything, but I think it’s possible my ship just asked me out?::

::Oh, yeah.::

::Oh, yeah?::

::I mean, she did,:: Drift said. ::Before you and Brainstorm broke free, she commed everyone, introduced herself, told them her favorite thing she knew about them, then asked about you.::

::Do I… want to know what she asked about?::

::Depended on the person. Swerve got interrogated about whether you’re available.::

::Swerve?::

::The Lost Light Insider pegged him for a rumor monger and she ran with it.::

::Cool. Great.::

::Hey. Really, you okay up there? Tailgate’s halfway through the vents, we can come get you, if you need.::

Rodimus pointed his gaze down to the deck, though he was too far away to see anyone individually. It was possible the ship’s exterior cameras were still streaming to the command screens, in which case Drift would undoubtedly catch his disapproval.

::Please make sure Tailgate doesn’t get squished, I don’t need Cyclonus seeking vengeance against our ship.::

::Sure. But seriously, Rodimus, are you okay?::

Rodimus spun his wheels with a flick.

::I’m fine. I just… isn’t this, I don’t know, kind of taking advantage?::

::I mean, she asked you, and—wait, are you interested?::

His engine heated up and Rodimus started to pace.

::I don’t know! Maybe?::

::Aw, Rodimus!:: He could imagine Drift’s face: goofy smile, softly dimmed optics. ::Hang on, I’m patching Ratchet in.::

::No, hang on, you don’t have to—::

::You’re saying yes?:: Ratchet demanded as the new connection crackled through.

::I don’t know,:: Rodimus insisted. ::I could? She’s attractive. And she knows a lot about me and hasn’t decided I’m worthless slag.::

::Rodimus,:: Drift chided.

::Hey, look, I’m not saying that about myself,:: he countered. ::Just that it’s a conclusion she could have come to, but didn’t. And I guess I kind of like that?:: He shrugged. ::I wouldn’t mind getting to know her. First new Cybertronian we’ll meet for a long time, you know?::

::Sure,:: Ratchet said. ::Follow her lead, but be up front about your expectations.::

::Both of you will have bots looking out for you,:: Drift promised. ::Seems like she and Nautica are already hitting it off pretty well.::

::Alright.:: Rodimus smiled. ::Okay, thanks guys. I think I can handle it from here.::

::Sure you can,:: Drift said.

Rodimus cut the call and switched back to Lost Light’s channel. Brainstorm was wandering around behind him, still engaged in his own animated conversation with his creation.

::Still with me?:: he asked.

::Of course.::

::Great,:: he said, offering her a smile and a flicker of his headlights. ::So, yeah, I’m down to spend more time together.:: He leaned down until he was sitting, crosslegged, on her open palm, brushing the smooth metal with his own hand. ::You can tell me all about what it was like that time we were getting chased by space pirates.::

::I look forward to it,:: she said. The platform of her hand drifted closer, until Rodimus could have reached out and brushed his fingertips against his facemask. He could have felt afraid, then, but he didn’t. Instead, he felt a warm light in his spark as he regarded Light, the familiarity and comfort that came with meeting an old friend face to face for the first time.

#maccadam #rodimus #transformers #crack #my writing #oneshot #lost lightimus

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alittlefrenchtree · 3 years ago

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Hiii, it's me again! I actually want to quickly move forward in my reading and not fall behind with notes. Because it makes less sense to write them if I already know what's going on 7 chapters ahead. So let's get started.

SPOILERS DUNE BOOK II : MUAD'DIB (Chapters 5-9)

Chapter 5:

*happy sigh 😌😌😌*

(learn silence, people. It's important.)

You already know how much I love this litany and if there's more in it, I'd be delighted.

Ok, I actually have a nerdy not really funny story about moving dunes. When the worm pops a bit later, Paul describes it at mound-in-motion and there's actually some truth about that. I've recently read an article (and I want to read more about it) about dunes and some scientist thinking that dunes are moving and communicating with each other (in their own mineral, sandy way of course). It sounds fascinating so I let you know if I learn more stuff more or less related to Dune.

This both hurt and feels relatable somehow, even if I don't know how exactly. I like the idea of things approaching from a different angle, of Paul being the only motionless point in a world that keeps spinning around him. The key then wouldn't be to change the world or even to do anything but only to adjust his own position in the universe so he ends up what he meant to be. And the sentence is pretty. The vision appeared to have shifted and approached him from a different angle while he remained motionless.

I still wonder how it works though. The visions and their changes. Do they significantly shift every time he comes close to death? Or say the litany of fear and survive? Or is it more realistic, the smallest details and decisions becoming the biggest changes? I wish Duncan would have been there with them and yet I like this journey through sand and survival just between Paul and Jessica. He probably would have been killed soon after anyway. Unless he's not really dead. Ok, moving on.

Remember when I said that Paul could have/find a way to control sand worms? And now he's saying this:

There are a lot of cues in these few chapters about worms, about riding (or whatever it's called) them with the hooks, about how they're in all likelihood the ones creating the Spice? That's why they're called makers? And that's what the Fremen who died with Hawat was about to called them? I kind of hope there is more to it though, other than only being respected because they're making the spice. There is another quote at the end of the chapter that intrigued me about the relation between Paul and the worms:

He looked at his hand. How inadequate it appeared when measured against such creatures as that worm.

I really like this chapter a lot. Firstly because I love scenes with only two characters so this is delicious for me. Secondly, I love reading about walks through endless lands with nothing but nature, so double yummy. Thirdly, there is a lot of informations. About the worms, and about how Paul is evolving in the desert. There is the rescue of his Mom but, even more importantly, how he rescues the pack. I think it's a very important scene both literally and metaphorically. It doesn't seem like an important scene but it really is in the building of the Paul's character. I hope to see it address in some way in the movie. Because not only he uses the Spice for another purpose than money and getting stronger or smarter or higher, but he uses it to take back what's necessary for his survival in the desert. If that's not adapting to Dune, I don't know what it is.

Chapter 6:

This is going to cause some trouble at some point, isn't it? Halleck and his people teaming up with smugglers, thinking the Atreides are dead. He's going to end up fighting against them without knowing it, right? 😔

Chapter 7:

Moooom, I love him so much 😭😭😭

But, I hate not knowing what's going on exactly and I hate it even more when it's about Paul and Paul's power so we're all going to sit here together, read this again and again util we've rambled enough to come up with AT LEAST five theories about something.

Like why. Why does he cross a time barrier at this precise moment? How does it work? He came close to death again so has he defeated another timeline where he was supposed to die? Hence the unknown territory, the darkness? Or are there defined blindspots? Around the worms maybe? Because of their spice maker job? Or is he just exploring and developing his new abilities? Learning to not rely only on his inner eye but on all of his powers and abilities? I need answers. I need to finish reading this book (books) and reading the theories of someone who's been thinking about every detail of them for the past 50 years.

I really liked this couple of chapters about Paul and Jessica's journey through the desert. You can really see Paul coming to terms with it. Fighting it, using it, accepting it, welcoming it. Seeing its beauty and his future in it. I'm looking forward this symbiosis. It looks beautiful.

Chapitre 8:

Ok, that was painful. Firstly, because I wasn't expecting to see Kynes die at this moment and secondly, because it was a very slow agony to witness. To be honest, I'm getting a bit tired to see characters die? It denies so much of the potential for characters development and for relationships development. The lack of it is going to become a bit sad for the whole story.

And it's heartbreaking to understand that Liet gave up his only chance of survival to save Paul and Jessica. I don't know how much he knew before, if he already knew he was going to die or if he thought he had a real chance but it's going to give so much power to Paul with the Fremen? If it becomes known that Liet died to save him and his mother, believing in them.

I supposed there is some kind of parallel to see here, between the previous chapter and this one, with Paul practically arising from the desert and Liet dying in it at the same time/shortly after? Like how Paul is supposed to take Liet's position of influence with the Fremen?

The chapter is also heavy on... social/political/ecological talks. Or one-sided conversation since the other side is dying. Not saying they shouldn't be there since they are the actual themes of the book but maybe it could have been made in a more natural way? Or not all at once?

But it made me think of Caladan. Which I could have done earlier, I agree. But Caladan is the planet of water, right? Water. The very thing Arrakis is lacking of and wants/needs. I would have like to see a bit more of Caladan, actually. How it was. How Paul was on it, actually. If he was as adapted as Caladan's environment than he seems to be to Arrakis'.

Chapter 9:

There it is. Paul as an outcast Duke finally facing Fremen forces for the first time.

This is a good chapter but I think the key point here is this:

I scrolled past a post the other day (without reading it entirely because of fear of spoilers), that was saying how people thinking Dune was about religion hadn't understand it because it was a story about propaganda. But, at the risk of sounding blasphemous and as a non-religious person... Isn't it kind of the same? Religion, propaganda, fandom,... At some point, there was someone with high powers of influence who comes to make people believe in something (whatever it's true, partially true, partially false or entirely false) to make them adopt a specific behavior, most likely a form of submissiveness? (@ tumblr porn bots, i'm not talking about you). What people make of that belief, it's what really matters.

What interested me more here is to consider this in relation to the opening chapter quote.

It's the eternal question with prophecies. Would a prophecy become true even if nobody knew about it or believe in it? Or do people, by acting according to it because they heard and believed it, make it real and effective? Did the Missionaria Protectiva create its own Kwisatz Haderach or would Paul would have been born with the same abilities and the destiny if they hadn't existed?

We see the future isn't set in stone in Paul's visions, but does his actions and decisions influence the shape of the future or is he just bumped from one predefined timeline to another? And are there really that much differences between the two? How many metaphysical questions can you write in one post?

Quick word about Chani before wrapping this one up. I think I'm going to like her? She seems cool at least. I'm not sure about Paul's reaction to her though. Yes, he supposed to be 15 but he's also something like half of a divinity so. *snorts*. Or maybe I'm just every day more tired of seeing romance being put everywhere and romanticized to the point of 99% people still thinking it's the ultimate form of love and relationship and the ultimate thing to achieve in life. OR maybe it's because everybody engaged in a classic couple-relationship immediately lost 12 points of esteem in my eyes. Don't know. Will see. I imagine I have to brace myself for Paul x Chani babies at some point, since it's 1964? If they survive that long. Very not looking forward to it. The babies, not the survival.

Anyway gotta go before I start wishing bad things to hypothetical fictional babies. Tschüss! 🌔💛

#DUNE FIRST READ

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itsclydebitches · 5 years ago

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RWBY Recaps: “Spark”

What’s the current mood? I would sell all future RWBY seasons for one episode of The Mandalorian.

Okay, I exaggerate. Overall this episode had some really great moments, just (per usual) tied up in a lot of awful implications. Which frankly is a step up from last week’s more overt nonsense, so I’ll take it. I’ve just got Space Dad Fever like the rest of the internet so whenever RWBY does something stupid my brain goes, “Why can’t you be more like Baby Yoda? With non-forced cuteness and consistent writing?”

Okay, okay I’m focused on the correct fandom. I swear.

This episode opens with Penny waking the group up extra early. Yang wants to know what time it is. “Time to be huntresses, of course!” Really, the contrast between, ‘I love my job’ and ‘But my job makes me get up at an ungodly hour’ is easily the most relatable thing RWBY has done this season. I was also just greatly amused by the animation choices with in-world implications. Like that Weiss sleeps with her giant braid in. Or that the group owns nothing except for the new clothes on their backs. I wondered after the Volume Six’s train scene if most of their luggage had been up front with JNR, or if they’d lost it all during the crash itself. We only see three bags as they make their way to the farm.

Did Oscar re-pack everything before they had to hightail it out of that burning, grimm-infested place? I don’t remember and I’m way too lazy to go check. Yang then loses her motorcycle. Who knows, if they did have stuff, whether it got onto the stolen airship. Doubtful. I mean, Weiss showed up with a massive amount of luggage, but that’s for hiding grandmas. Basically, what I’m saying is that I think the group showed up in Atlas, exhausted, and had to tell Penny they don’t have PJs anymore. Cue standard issue t-shirts and strange thermal-ish pants.

We then begin a montage of their different work. It starts out not with the missions they signed up for last episode but anything and everything connected to Amity Arena. Keep clearing out the mines. Protect resource transports. Fill in for the missing soldiers in Mantle, etc. On the whole I legitimately loved these moments showing the various relationships and life as a huntress in Atlas, with the exception of two scenes. The first is during the section where we see Blake and Yang working with Marrow, who makes the mistake of saying a) that they should consider partnering with other people sometime and b) pointing out that he’s not sure their styles are complimentary.

Look, I get it. A few hours after the episode dropped and tumblr is already exploding with GIF-sets of this scene, celebrating how Blake and Yang are so in love they can’t even stand Marrow suggesting that they might spend some time apart. From a shipping perspective it looks like gold and as someone who also ships them I’d normally be inclined to celebrate too. Except that this is a really unhealthy pattern of behavior. Marrow is right. The group should practice partnering with other people for the simple reason that this is a job and they may not always get to decide who they’re going to work with. It’s a job with endless risks and they may not always be able to control who they end up fighting beside, because when was the last time a plan actually worked right? The advice of ‘Hey. Don’t stagnant by only fighting with the same person 24/7’ is sound, especially in an episode already focused on training and progress. As is the innocent observation that their styles don’t seem to compliment each other. Marrow isn’t being cruel here. He’s not trying to insist he knows better and separate them based on that. He’s just making casual conversation---and gets this in response.

This scene would read completely differently if Blake and Yang were playfully smug after that attack combo. Then it becomes a moment of bonding where they’re correcting Marrow through a bit of teasing. Instead they’re legitimately mad. Mad enough that Yang’s semblance briefly activates. I’ve mentioned before that Yang has a tendency to think the worst of people and act violently towards them on instinct (Ozpin, bot in the street) and that Blake has a tendency to go wherever she leads, even when that makes no sense for her own characterization (siding with Yang’s anger over her own experiences as an abuse survivor). This is another example of that. Marrow gives them good advice and makes a casual comment? Immediate fury from Yang. Yang’s pissed off? Well I’m gonna be pissed off too. I try not to bring shipping too much into these recaps, but I do think it’s worth mentioning here. Big Blake/Yang fans have a tendency to paint everything they do as the most Romantic Thing Ever ™; anti-Blake/Yang fans have a tendency to make blanket statements about how their relationship is inherently unhealthy. But as usual the truth lies somewhere in between. They’re fantastic together, I think Rooster Teeth is setting up a relationship, and there are also aspects that are unhealthy. Not because it’s queer (which is the basis for most antis’ anger), but because the writing has them enabling their flaws in the name of “support.” Sorry, but if you can’t deal with someone making a comment as innocent as Marrow’s without beating up a grimm in fury about it... then you either need to work out that relationship insecurity or work on general anger management. Because Marrow didn’t deserve those cold looks and these two weren’t justified in receiving his panicked backpedaling. It’s one of those little things that presumably means nothing on its own, but combined with Blake and Yang’s entire development speaks volumes. Let them talk through Adam. Let someone call Yang out on her judgments. It’s ‘fine’ in situations like this; not fine in situations like Volumes 5-6.

The other part of the montage that didn’t sit well was another ‘joke.’ Just like I’m not inclined to view Yang and Blake’s anger as cutesy romance stuff here, I’m not comfortable brushing off Jaune’s interaction with the kids’ moms as a bit of humor. Yeah, maybe I’m “sensitive,” but was no one else creeped out by that? Jaune might technically be an adult, but he’s, what? Nineteen? So a junior in college. Maybe a sophomore. A young adult is what I’m saying. Is it possible all these women are also eighteen to early twenties (it’s so hard to tell ages with RWBY) and they just had their kids early? Sure. It is possible that these women all decided to become single moms, or divorced their partners, or are open to polyamory? Also sure. But let’s be real here, that’s not the joke. The joke is that a group of older, presumably married women are thirsting over the young, hot huntsmen. People would be more willing to admit that it’s not a great humor choice if RWBY had done that to one of the girls, but when a guy is the target it’s seen as a funny victory. Look at Jaune getting all that older, adulterous attention! As Nora herself says, “It’s totally the haircut.” (Even though that haircut remains atrocious, sorry.) The message is basically that if a guy is hot enough it doesn’t matter that he’s just trying to do his job, that he’s probably far younger than you, that you’re probably married... go gawk at him and give him gifts that clearly make him uncomfortable.

Again, I realize I’m being “sensitive.” It’s just a web series, just a stupid scene meant to generate a laugh, etc. But I’ve reached a point in my life where I simply don’t find that sort of stuff humorous. As a woman who has had much older men hit on me while I’m trying to do my job, I look at the same thing happening to Jaune and ask, “Why was this supposed to be funny again?”

But anyway, enough about all that. Other moments in the montage include Ruby and Yang fighting grimm together (presumably in their downtime. Nerds), Winter pretending to be unimpressed with Weiss’ summoning, and Ironwood telling Oscar that maybe they can “jog [Ozpin] loose” with a bit of training.

Yeah, remember how excited we all were that, based on the Volume’s opening, we would at least see Oscar training with Ironwood? Remember how we all thought that this would provide him with some much needed character development? That maybe this would be the moment when he struggled with and potentially decided to come clean about their lies? Or he tries to talk to Ozpin while sparing with an incredibly difficult opponent? You know, since Ironwood himself brought up jogging Ozpin loose, we might actually get some interaction with Ozpin?

Boy were we optimistic! What we actually get is them charging each other for one hit before we cut back to others training. Namely Jaune. And this right here is the problem with this entire episode: for however cute and wonderful these moments might seem, they’re all flat out ignoring the primary conflicts of the show. The ones the writing keeps refusing to grapple with. Who knows how much time this montage is supposed to cover, but it’s substantial. We get multiple flashes of different days, see the group working on different missions, a couple different moments taking place in the early morning, so I’d wager at least another week has passed. Combine that with however long it took Pietro to make their weapons and you’ve got the group fully entrenched in their lies. No one is questioning Ruby. Ruby isn’t making headway towards trusting Ironwood. Everyone is just kicking their heels, happy with the status quo until something forces them to finally make a decision. They now, officially, have no right to judge Ozpin for the time he took to trust people. We see them doing the exact same thing here and they’re all happy about it. With the exception of those two quick flashbacks in “Ace Operatives,” we’ve seen no evidence that the rest of the group is struggling with their own hypocrisy. I---like many---had hoped that Oscar’s training session would finally acknowledge and expand on the rest of the team’s initial hesitation. But no.

(In which Jaune’s expression is me.)

Jumping ahead just a bit, we see this same issue when Ruby, Penny, Qrow, and Ironwood are out driving the supplies. Ruby and Penny finally have some time to themselves! Will they discuss her murder and resurrection? Nope. Ruby vaguely references it with, “You know...” but there’s no actual depth to their conversation (and if you can’t even say ‘When you died’ that implies that maybe there are some lingering feelings about all this). Instead Ruby is interested in whether Penny has made new friends and she says that Ironwood claims she has no time for friends. Slot that in next to the Ace Ops’ ridiculous, “We’re not friends.”

Second, we have this moment between Qrow and Clover where they reiterate the huge gap between age and experience here. Clover is hoping that “another generation” will do right by Remnant after we’re gone. Namely Ruby and the others. Continuing with that age theme, he reassures Qrow that “those kids wouldn’t be where they are without you” which is all well and good, but is anyone going to tell THEM that? The adults don’t need to know that they’re doing good work---even if it is nice for Qrow to get some validation for once---rather, the whole “we don’t need adults” fiasco came about because the teens refused to acknowledge that work. We don’t need someone telling Qrow that he’s helped keep them safe. Overlooking some insecurities (which RWBY isn’t tackling anyway), he knows that. We as the audience don’t need to hear it because we saw it all happen on screen. Rather, Clover should be put into a position where he reminds Ruby of all that her uncle has done for her. Just like Qrow talking to Ruby about her motivations for moving forward against Salem doesn’t accomplish anything, Clover telling Qrow, as one adult to another, that they’re worth something doesn’t accomplish anything either. These parties know all this already.

As a side note, this is why you should mix things up. Not just so that Blake and Yang can practice fighting beside other people, but so that people who don’t already agree can be challenged for once. Put Yang with Qrow and have him comment on her anger, continuing Tai’s work. Put Ruby with Clover and let him talk to her about what adults have done to get her here. All these moments of potential development are lost by maintaining the expectation that the original partners have to be the priority. Rooster Teeth had an easy way of throwing new people together by assigning them various missions and they didn’t take it. Yang is still with Blake. Ren is still with Nora. Of course Qrow is with the one other guy his age who we have to pair him with. Reinforcing these relationships is great, but so is pausing them too.

And then there’s the drinking.

Hold up one second. I need to grab a bit of writing from my Volume 6 finale recap. Think back to Qrow and Ruby’s interaction in the airship:

And then Qrow lowers his bottle which… what? Alcoholism doesn’t work like that. Much more importantly, no one has tackled his drinking this season. Or the reasons he was drinking in the first place. Literally, Qrow’s semblance, his place in the war, Ozpin’s secret, none of it has been addressed. He has no reason to suddenly put aside his flask like he’s actually learned something. Does RT think we’re going to just imagine scenes that never actually happened?

After I posted this a couple of people pointed out that it doesn’t necessarily mean anything. We’ve seen other times where Qrow goes to take a drink and then thinks better of it, so it’s a reach to assume he’s magically given up drinking now. Which, fair. Now though it looks like that’s precisely what we got. Sometime between being found passed out on the front steps of the Argus house and reaching Atlas, Qrow just decided he was done with drinking and thus far we’ve seen no evidence that he’s struggling with that. Meaning, it’s not a conflict he’s working through. That doesn’t seem to be his arc this volume.

Yet he’s an alcoholic. Qrow’s drinking may have functioned as a joke for most of Volumes 1-3, but Volume 6 made it abundantly clear that this problem is incapacitating for him, especially after learning about Ozpin and Salem. So what happened? What changed? Even if I choose to overlook Qrow just deciding not to engage with his addiction anymore without help or backslides that we know of (doesn’t work like that...), I can’t ignore the fact that there was no catalyst for this. If the show wanted us to work under the assumption that Qrow stopped drinking because it endangered his family then they should have had him stop after the farm. You know, when he was almost killed by Apathy and had to be dragged out by his nieces. As it is, his drinking continues on throughout their whole time at Argus. He’s not picking up his scroll. He’s passed out on the steps. He’s brushing past Ruby to go get a drink instead of helping them figure out a way past Cordovin. Then a day later they make it to Atlas. So what precisely in that 24 hour period happened to change one of Qrow’s defining characteristics? Or, if this is supposed to be an arc wherein Qrow attempts to get sober and struggles with it, why haven’t we seen that? Again, they’ve been in Atlas for weeks now. This isn’t a one day sober Qrow with a naively optimistic outlook. He’s apparently been managing this for a while now with no downsides, no difficulties, no regrets.

Blake and Yang getting mad at Marrow instead of acknowledging their trauma. Oscar taking one hit at Ironwood instead of grappling with their secrets. Ruby talking about new friends instead of the relationship she already has with Penny. Clover telling Qrow adults are important instead of anyone telling the teens that. Qrow revealing that he’s just not drinking anymore. For reasons. It’s amazing just how much space this episode provides for the characters to start working through their conflicts and we bypass every opportunity. This is RWBY’s primary problem. Beyond the pro-protagonist perspective is the issue that, especially since Volume 5, the show has made a habit of introducing intriguing problems and then either twisting them so they have simplistic ‘solutions’ (we don’t need to tackle Ruby’s hypocrisy. She’s just “different” from Ozpin) or ignores them completely. We don’t need a new friendship vs. professional relationship conflict. We don’t need a new luck vs. bad luck semblance conflict. Not yet anyway. Not until we work through the conflicts that have already been introduced. Let Ruby talk to Penny about their own relationship. Let Clover help Qrow get sober. RWBY is like me when I’m writing fic. Why would I finish the thing I started when there’s this shiny new idea over here? Except I’m engaging in a low-key hobby whereas they’re writing for their livelihood. For the love of everything, please solve the problems we already have before chucking in new ones. You can give us all the same moments and relationships, just tailor them so they acknowledge the things the viewers have been waiting for you to tackle. I don’t need to know why Ruby and her team are Super Special because they’re BFFs when everyone else in Atlas apparently rejects friendship like the plague. I do need to know why a guy who was introduced downing a glass of whiskey apparently got over his alcoholism off screen.

Ugh. You know what we need? Penguins. Everyone look at the penguins for at least five seconds and allow them to cleanse your soul.

Heading backwards, before the transport scene we get a training fight between JNR + Oscar and Neon’s group. I honestly wonder how a team like theirs feels about them getting their licenses. After all, they fought at the Battle of Beacon too. The only reason why RWBYJNR got into extra, life-threatening situations is because they stupidly went off on their own. I realize that duh, as a story we can’t just have our protagonists twiddling their thumbs, but from an in-world perspective Ruby snuck out of the house to hunt down a woman who would absolutely have killed her and 100% would have been kidnapped if Qrow hadn’t followed to keep her safe. Everything else stems out of that. So not exactly a classically heroic basis for special treatment. All of which Neon and Flynt presumably don’t even know about because it touches on all those secrets. I suppose they just heard something along the lines of, “I, Ironwood, am giving two Beacon teams early licenses because they survived a horrendous battle. You, my actual students, don’t get them even though you did the same work.” It could have been really interesting to have some tension over this and for the group to see another complication of their secret keeping. Here they have to keep Cinder, the Maidens, the Relic, etc. quiet... but because of that it leads to some pretty awful miscommunication between friends. There are repercussions to your secrets and not all of them are things you can plan for or fix.

We don’t have anything like that though. Obviously. Instead we just get a generic fight with a side of weird Nora/Ren stuff. Meaning, Neon calls him Nora’s boyfriend and asks, “Where’s that energy when he’s around you?” Later Nora asks if they’ll still get sandwiches before work and Ren heaves out an annoyed sigh.

That moment struck me simply because it doesn’t come across like one of his normal, happily indulgent sighs. Ren seemed legitimately annoyed. Which is even stranger when we consider that Nora isn’t being over the top here. Sure, she pops up behind him in a sort of silly manner, but really all she’s doing is expressing that she’s hungry after an intense battle. Can we please make sure we grab something before heading off to work? That’s a more than reasonable request.

Ren shutting her down over his hair. Seeming to ignore her when she fiddles with it while on patrol. Neon’s comment about his lack of energy around her. Nora getting mad enough about it to give her a black eye (RWBY so rarely shows injuries). Ren seemingly put out by her theatrics. They’re all little things that only seem to paint a picture when put together, but of what exactly? It’s like I said last time, if the show wants to introduce some sort of arc for Nora and Ren this volume it had better do it soon. Really soon. Details that may or may not be setup can only take you so far.

During this battle Ironwood smiles down at all their progress, which could be endearing or creepy, depending on whether you think he’s hiding something (more on that in a bit). Neon actually acknowledges Oscar’s existence and draws a blush out of him, so thank you for that, Neon.

I thought for just a moment that Jaune might compliment Oscar too, but he just compliments the other team instead. At least they’re letting him train with him. After last week’s episode I’ll take this small step forward.

Back past the talk between Qrow and Clover, we finally get to meet the infamous Robyn Hill. She blocks the road to Amity Arena with one of her Happy Huntresses, the same faunus who was spying on the project last episode. And who I forgot to mention in my recap. Whoops. I love Hill already though precisely because she’s able to do what our protagonists couldn’t last Volume: stand down when a plan fails.

Hill takes her shot by putting up the roadblock and asking Clover to be straight with her, but when that doesn’t work and it looks like they’re about to come to blows, she admits defeat and lets them through. That’s how you handle a tenuous ally. Keep the peace and regroup with a different idea. Show them basic respect so that they might help you in the future. Clover’s “good luck” regarding the election speaks volumes about how everyone does want to help each other, they just need to figure out a way to do it. Hill could have attacked the group and stood her ground purely because she believes she’s right---just as Ruby did with Cordovin---but she demonstrates her maturity instead. She didn’t risk lives for the sake of getting what she wanted right here, right now. Despite the fact that what she wants likewise involves the safety of the people. Take note, Ruby.

Speaking of, everyone catch that guilty look when Ruby learns that Ironwood’s project is taking resources directly from the city that most needs it? Yeah, what did you think was going to happen? At the very least the group saw that they were taking manpower away. Ironwood needs them to help protect Mantle because most of his men are off in the middle of nowhere, so the group is well aware that their actions are causing a negative impact. I highly doubt that the eight of them (including Qrow) can make up for however many people Ironwood is pulling out, to say nothing of the fact that many of them (like Ruby here) are also on Amity duty. They’re allowing Ironwood to put people, money, supplies, and time towards an endeavor that they know is bound to fail. Sure, it would be nice to have communication across Remnant without fear of losing that to the grimm again, but we all know Ironwood is primarily doing this because of the Salem situation. If he knew about her immortality he’d probably go, “Hmm. Well, the first part of the idea is still nice, but I probably shouldn’t pour this much into just a regular communications tower. Defeating Salem potentially justifies me hurting the people to get this done. But not anything else.” I’ll say it again: Ozpin’s secrets didn’t endanger anyone. Everyone from Pyrrha to Yang agreed to put their lives on the line for reasons entirely separate from Salem. Their lives were in danger from the start and, given their choices, always would be in danger. Ruby is the one whose secret is not just threatening all of Remnant in the future, but actively hurting people now too. She has the ability to stop this and she chooses not to.

Or rather, she chooses to keep putting off the decision. We’ll tell Ironwood when we’re ready. Yeah right. I still want someone to challenge Ruby on what this magical ‘He’s trustworthy!’ moment looks like. They’ve spent weeks with this man, fighting for him, training with him, accepting gifts in the form of weaponry, armor, facilities... so what exactly is it going to take, Ruby? I’m not saying Ironwood is trustworthy, I’m saying you can never know until the day they betray you. If that day comes. So when is Ruby going to acknowledge that? That she will never get that magical moment and that she’s just like Ozpin, putting off telling someone because the information weighs so heavily and there’s just too much to risk?

Hill thematically acknowledges the last two Volumes with, “It doesn’t have to be difficult. Just tell me,” while we all know it’s not that simple. Even if people would like it to be. Clover refuses, Penny spots two invisible huntresses closing in (nice), and as said, Robyn backs down.

We then end this episode with a long bonding session between Winter and Weiss. We see them fighting with their summonings and Winter comments about how, “You’ve grown up a bit, haven’t you?” We get it. You’re not subtle. Weiss has grown up. “Make no mistake. School is over.” They’re adults now! If only we saw that more than we heard it. Weiss at least is a character who has had legitimate, excellent development over the last couple of volumes. I’m admittedly a bit confused though regarding how that development aligns with the old Weiss. Meaning, we learned early on that she wanted to become a huntress to redeem the Schnee name. Now Winter is talking about how separating herself from the Schnees was the best thing to happen to her and Weiss seems to agree. So is that it now? Is Weiss just concerned with being her own person, or is she still invested in being a Schnee? Just a Schnee who embodies what her family used to stand for? It’s unclear based on the conversation.

Then. Ugh. They discuss Ironwood’s choices and Weiss snidely comments that, “Everyone thinks what they’re doing is right, but really they’re just looking out for themselves... and their secrets.” Yeah, Weiss. INCLUDING YOU. Are they really so dense that they don’t see how lying about how Ozpin disappeared was looking out for themselves, namely by making sure that Ironwood continued to embrace them with open arms instead of getting pissed? After all, it’s less likely that the group would have gotten a nice place to live, awesome weaponry, high-tech places to train, and early licenses if they’d admitted to their sins last volume. They’re also protecting their own secrets by spending these weeks nice and quiet, just ignoring the Ironwood problem completely. Weiss is protecting their secrets right now by encouraging Winter to question Ironwood’s intentions---subtly casting him and Ozpin in a bad light---while she herself is keeping secrets from Winter. I mentioned before that Ironwood’s smile could potentially be a bad omen if we follow the writing rule of, “If a character insists someone isn’t keeping anything from them... they’re definitely keeping something from them.” Winter’s belief that Ironwood doesn’t keep secrets from her sets up the expectation for the audience that he probably is. But we don’t actually know that yet. Weiss thinks Ironwood might be keeping secrets. Weiss knows for sure she and the rest of her friends are keeping secrets. Only one party is definitively guilty here, so I’m not sure why she feels entitled to act like she still has the high ground.

With Ironwood’s honor in question, Winter takes Weiss to see the Winter Maiden. We really don’t get to learn much about her except that she still looks young-ish (again: RWBY ages are hard) and seems to like to paint.

No one else can visit her---and thus we don’t hear the conversation---because Ironwood wants Winter to inherit the power. Okay. So that leaves us with a couple options now:

Older woman can inherit and Ozpin made a very iffy call in trying to foster that responsibility off on a First Year. Which is probably down to more writing concerns than Ozpin’s characterization. Meaning, you want to keep the conflict among the main cast, not bring in a random new character to do the volume’s Important Thing. So you set up Pyrrha as the Fall Maiden, even though in-world that looks like a sketchy decision. To say nothing of the fact that Rooster Teeth isn’t very good at setting down hard rules. What functioned as a limitation during Volume 3 can easily be wiped away in Volume 7. In the same way that we went from Qrow’s semblance being totally passive and range-based to “sometimes I can’t control it.”

Ironwood and Winter are assuming that Winter can inherit, but she’s actually too old now. They’ll be blindsided by this when the power unexpectedly goes to someone else.

Ironwood has convinced Winter that she can inherit but actually has some sort of other plan up his sleeve.

Really, my biggest takeaway is Winter’s speech about how she is choosing this. Regardless of whether fate forced her into a situation with only bad options. Regardless of whether others also want her to make this decision. It’s still her choice. 95% of the fandom needs to listen to that speech and then chuck Pyrrha into Winter’s place. Having only tough choices isn’t the same thing as having no choice. The fact that your choice coincides with what others want doesn’t lessen it. They both chose to take on this power and it’s wrong for others to trivialize that by claiming that the men in their life---Ozpin and Ironwood---manipulated them. It’s implying that they can’t make their own decisions. That making this terribly difficult choice doesn’t come down to their own strength. They know it’s dangerous, regardless of whether they understand every detail of that danger, and actively choose to take on that responsibility anyway. Because they want to do some good in the world. The fandom has worked its butt off to take that away from Pyrrha and I really hope they don’t do the same to Winter.

Although... the death flags. Yeesh but Winter looks like a particularly enticing target for the end of this Volume. What with talk of destiny and all... I really hope the series doesn’t go the route of giving every Team RWBY member one of the Maiden powers, what with Winter in a position to think about Weiss if she dies with the power, Raven in a position to think about Yang, and Cinder obsessed with Ruby literally all the time... yeah. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m personally more invested in ‘normal’ people managing the impossible through hard work, belief in themselves and each other, all that jazz. Not already overpowered people (at least in Ruby’s case) getting literal magic to solve their problems with. There’s so much more you can do with that.

Finally, Jacques comes online to spew a bunch of BS about how everything ever is Ironwood’s fault and he’s totally suffering just like everyone in Mantle.

Right.

As Winter says though, the lies are just enough of a “spark” to ignite an already pissed off populace. We close on an angry mob beginning to tear the streets apart. Guess we’ll find out next week how the group tackles that nasty problem.

Until then! 💜

Minor Things of Note

What was that sandwich gag? RWBY is really pushing the humor in iffy directions this volume.

I enjoyed Qrow and Clover playing cards though. What a mess with their semblances.

Also, I made us a poster:

#rwby #rwby volume 7 #rwby volume 7 spoilers #mymetas #rwby recaps

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vulpinmusings · 5 years ago

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Ski’tar and Friends part 19: Bringing the House Down

This week, Ski’tar, Vemir, and 6 head to the Drow planet, Apostae, to catch a thief.

Part One

Last Part

Archive

Our next mission was given to us by Venture Captain Niaj, a pale-skinned gnome. We met her in a room lit entirely by holo-maps of various planets, including a few that Vemir, 6, and I had personally visited. Niaj explained that her primary purpose right now was tracking the Starfinder Society’s trade connections old and new, and that included the recent weapons deals. After the false deal we’d just dealt with had been flagged as suspicious, the Society had cut a new deal with a more reputable source: one of the largest Drow families on Apostae.

Apostae is a real charming world. It has little to no atmosphere on its surface, is honeycombed with networks of barely-explored tunnels made by some ancient extinct race, and the entire planet now basically belongs to those creepy subterranean demon-worshiping elves known as the Drow. I’ve heard that the Drow aren’t as bad as they were back in the pre-Gap days on lost Golarion, and they do have a somewhat reputable weapons trade running out of Apostae.

I still dislike them strongly.

The plan had been for us to accompany Niaj to Apostae to help guard the weapons the Society had bought, but a complication had arisen: someone had stolen the weapons. And for some reason, Niaj didn’t feel up to personally joining us on the new mission to locate the thief and get the goods back. With very little to go on, Vemir, 6, and I were shuttled off to Apostae.

Security around the planet was rather tight – our perfectly legitimate shuttle was scanned by a squad of fighters once we got into orbit, and as soon as we’d stepped out of the ship we were rounded up by some security Drow and escorted to the office of the head of the Drow family we’d bought the weapons from.

We were left waiting in a dim and grimly-decorated office for several minutes before Seobarn Zeizerer deigned to show up. While he said he was sorry that the weapons had been stolen, he felt it was not his business to help us locate them and deal with the thief. The thief in question happened to be a former member of House Zeizerer who had been disowned and ejected for just this sort of deal-interrupting behavior, and as Seobarn explained that to us we all saw that the situation weighed on him more than he was admitting. We reasoned, cajoled, and stole peeks at his computer screen until he admitted that he would very much like to punish the traitor properly and would give us leave to act in his name so long as we didn’t dally. He pointed us to a couple possible informants and, for good measure, gave us twenty-four hours of carte blanche to use his name to get whatever resources we needed, so long as we got the weapons and got off Apostae by the end of that period.

Twenty-four hours seemed like a lot of time to work with, right up until we tried to hunt down the first informant. It took us five hours just to navigate the dome-city of Nightarch and find the guy. Sixer intimidated him into revealing what he knew: the thief was named Violet, and he’d taken the weapons to a warehouse underneath an empty club.

Now realizing that our time was of the essence, we split up to apply our specialties to gathering more information. I hacked my through the planet’s computer network to get a floor-plan of the club and warehouse and spent several hours manually translating Drow in a search for information on Violet’s possible associates. Vemir inquired at a bounty office, got some useful information, and decided to rent the services of a few Orc thugs to give us some extra muscle in case of a fight.

I was not feeling inclined toward fighting our way through the building, so I came up with a plan: once we got to the club, I’d hack into its security system to find where Violet’s gang was hanging out and where the weapons were located. On the assumption that the gang would be hanging out in a central location, I would wire up bombs to blast the floor out from under them and leave us free to just waltz out with the weapons.

Considering my history with conflict-avoidance plans, it should come as no surprise that things did not really go my way.

We requisitioned explosives using Seobarn’s authority and hired some vehicles in order to get to the club faster. We had no difficulty getting past the simple chain-link fence around it. I knew from the floor plans that there was an exterior door that would lead us straight to the freight elevator down to the warehouse, and that door was unguarded. As it turns out, it didn’t need a guard because the lock on it involved some dark Drow magic that I had no idea how to hack through. So, we would have to go through the front door, and that would involve beating up a guard and walking through some hallways.

The front door was guarded by a single Drow, who fell quickly to the fists of Sixer and our Orcs, and the hallway was clear so we had no trouble getting to the elevator. I was still sour about failing to get past that first door, so I hurried everyone along and slammed the button to take us down.

The warehouse was packed with rows and rows of loosely-piled crates. As we stepped out of the elevator, we were greeted by some sort of sulfur-smelling flying imp thing. Vemir fed it a line about us being newly hired help, and it vanished without giving us any more trouble. I, still grouchy, proceeded to stalk through the aisles with reckless determination to get things back on track, and stumbled right into a magical trap that wrapped me up in shadowy tentacles and slammed me around.

It was at this point that I realized I had completely forgotten to figure out where Violet’s gang was before dragging everyone down into the warehouse.

With the grouchiness thoroughly beaten out of me and resigned to the fact that this probably wasn’t going to go smoothly anyway, I decided to just wire the entire ceiling to blow and take down the entire building, just to be sure. These Drow deserved nothing less for making me come to their planet to do extra work just to pick up weapons the Starfinders had bought fair and square.

It turns out we weren’t alone in the warehouse. Triggering the trap had caught the attention of a few Orcs who were overseeing a forklift robot several aisles down. One of those Orcs had been heavily modified with far too many tentacles (assuming there’s a normal number of tentacles for an Orc to have). Between my friends, Toosie, and our own Orcs, I didn’t think my own efforts were needed in the fight, so I resolved to sneak around and check out the forklift bot. As the team dispatched the first Orc with ease, I tried and failed to climb on top of one of the crate stacks and opted to just squeeze through it rather than run all the way to the end and around to the forklift. When I emerged into the next aisle, I saw 6 and Vemir shooting and slashing the tentacle-infested Orc while Toosie traded light blows with the remaining normal Orc. Our own Orcs were busy trying to get to good positions, and one spotted another of the traps like the one I’d set off. Tentacle-orc was thrashing about, and despite all the damage it took it just wouldn’t stop moving. Intrigued, I ran over to see if my decoupler pistol would do the job that knives and cryo-guns couldn’t. Short answer: no, it couldn’t.

One of our Orcs managed to get up on some crates and shot Toosie’s opponent through the head, and about the same time the tentacle-Orc, which was more goo than living creature now, made one last attack that knocked me and Vemir for a loop and then evaporated.

With that problem resolved, we went over to the forklift robot – Toosie in the lead in case of any more traps we couldn’t spot – and checked its load. The box it had been moving was full of weapons with Starfinder insignias roughly scratched out. So, hey, target acquired. As I was instructing the robot to move the box to the elevator, everyone split up to start setting up the bombs. Sixer triggered another trap in the process, but he took it like a champ. Vemir walked by a comm unit just as it turned on to broadcast the voice of Violet Zeizerer asking what all the noise was about. Vemir had one of the Orcs try to bluff that the forklift had just dropped its load, but Violet wasn’t fooled. Turns out he actually knows the voices of the Orcs that work for him.

In what would turn out to be a less than wise move, we tried to intimidate Violet into letting us just walk out by alerting him to the bombs we’d set up. The guy decided to send goons down anyway and get himself out of the building while we were occupied. I set the forklift robot into motion and we all hustled to get good positions before the elevator arrived. There were four Orcs and two Drow inside. Vemir and 6 opened fire to mixed results, and then the enemy Orcs piled out and engaged our trio. One of the enemy Orcs got the bright idea of climbing up the nearest stack of crates to remove the bomb that was stuck to the ceiling there. Using its hammer. The resulting explosion reduced the Orc to chunky salsa and collapsed some of the ceiling. The Drow team were not deterred by this; one of the Drow lobbed a grenade that killed one of our Orcs and harmed one his own and his buddy. I stepped out my cover and shot my laspistol at the grenade-thrower.

As Vemir moved in front of me to line up a shot, one of our Orcs bashed in the skull of one of the Drow’s Orcs, bringing the Orcish numbers back into balance again, while our other one shot grenade-Drow square in the chest with its cryo-pistol to great effect. The Drow who had been hit by the grenade tried to punch 6 and broke his hand, then stumbled backward into one of our Orcs, who’s gun went off right into the Drow’s spine. It would have been awesome if I could have seen that first hand, but Vemir was blocking my view. As Vemir related the sequence of events to me, laughing, the remaining Drow and one of the enemy Orcs took advantage of his distraction to hit with him a one-two blast of sonic and cryo guns. Vemir was hurting bad and wisely withdrew into cover to drink several healing serums while Toosie and I advanced to finish the fight.

Sixer engaged one of the remaining Orcs with his word, and the Orc responded by trying to shoot him. By luck, the bullet ricocheted right back into the Orc’s head, taking another enemy out of the fight.

I was starting to think 6 had suddenly become some sort of android demi-god the way things kept going perfectly his way.

The forklift robot was approaching the elevator at this point, dragging the mushed remains of our earlier fight along with it, and our current fight was pushing back into the elevator. Things were about to get a bit tight.

As the forklift loomed ever closer, 6 and the remaining Drow entered the elevator and struggled over the buttons while also trying to kill one another. Toosie and our Orcs pushed the remaining enemy Orc into the forklift’s path by accident while I missed my shots repeatedly. Our Orcs cleared out of the forklift’s path in time, while Toosie had to dodge away at the last second. The enemy Orc didn’t get away in time. 6 and the Drow were unaware of their impending death by forklift, so I told our Orcs to rush in and pull the Android out. They couldn’t shift 6, but their effort alerted him enough to avoid being completely crushed as the forklift, undeterred by all the viscera, dutifully completed it route. The Drow and one of our Orcs were utterly squashed, 6 was pinned painfully against the wall, and the last of our faithful Orc thugs managed to get out of the situation mostly unharmed.

Violet had apparently been watching the show via some remote security feed, as while were riding the elevator up he commed to inform us he was long gone and that Drows never forget.

So that’s another enemy that may show up again later.

Once we were clear of the building, I triggered the detonator. The blast erupted through the middle of the club, and then the whole structure collapsed inward into the warehouse below. It was a wondrous sight, but a small part of me was disappointed that the building had been fully vacated first. The point had been to take out Violet in dramatic fashion and maybe earn some points with Seobarn. Still, we had what we’d came for and just enough time left in our diplomatic immunity to get to the spaceport and away with minimal questioning by the authorities.

On the journey to the spaceport, 6 and Vemir got it into their heads to bring the surviving Orc back with us rather than return him to Apostae’s slave market. The Orc was quite reluctant to accept the proposition, having been raised in the system and quite well trained, but eventually my buddies brought him around. I stayed out of the whole argument since I honestly didn’t care one way or another.

The return trip and reporting to the bosses went off without much of note. Zigvigix was willing to take our Orc on as an Exo-guardian recruit and was glad to finally have some actual weapons for his teams. Niaj gave us a basic congratulatory debrief, and we went off for post-mission drinks. At the bar, a Drow approached us and gave us a card. Inside was fifty credits and a note from Violet reminding us that he was still out there and that we were on his list.

Drow are weird.

#ski'tar #Starfinder #Vulpin plays

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chroniclesofmomo · 5 years ago

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The Color of Your Eyes (Bakudeku fic)

Blind!Katsuki

Babysitter/assistant!Deku

No quirks in this AU

Chapter 1: The meeting

Sum's bark alerted Katsuki when he was distracted, he quickly dried up any possible traces of sentimental weakness among his bitter tears. Katsuki put the chair back in place as he heard a familiar sound approaching the front door. A jingle of keys followed by a few whistles from one of the songs of the moment. The kind of songs that were heard every morning on the radio. Sum got up after acknowledging his smell and came over to receive him. The door closed and the smell of Kirishima’s cologne flooded his nostrils at the same time as a little bark of joy from Sum greeted him enthusiastically.

"Silence, Sum." He ordered in a low voice. He didn't need to raise his voice to make Sum obey him, he was an excellent guide dog.

"What the hell happened here?” Kirishima exclaimed. "Can you tell me what you've done to leave the house in this state?”

"Good morning you too, shitty hair”

"Good morning? It looks like it hasn't been daylight here for an eternity!”Katsuki smiled after his comment.

“Kirishima calm down and shut the fuck up, I have a headache” Katsuki lied, he just didn’t want to hear his friends scolding him again.

"Calm down? Bakugo, grow up and do something with your life!” The read-haired man yelled at him as he opened the sliding doors leading to the garden, letting in some light from the outside.

He could not perceive the light but the heat caused by the sun's rays on his cheeks. A pleasant breeze hit his face and Katsuki instantly took a hand to his eyes, checking that the sunglasses which covered his eyes were still in place. He never took them off in front of anyone, bot even in from of his only friend.

"What are these crystals? Damn it you drank again?” Kirishima sounded very disappointed.

“I thought you’d guess it without me having to tell you.”

“Stop with your teasing. I’m not in a good mood today, Bakugo. I've been telling you for years that this lifestyle is going to kill you”. Kirishima seemed really desperate to get a reaction from Katsuki, a reaction he didn't intend to give him. "Every week I have the same fight with you.”

"Just don’ start with the same stupid fight every week" The red haired’s feet moved around the room, nervous and desperate due to his friend’s behavior. Making Kirishima angry from time to time was fun to kill time, or at least that was what Katsuki thought.

"You've smoked again, didn’t you”

"Really? What makes you think that?” Katsuki asked sarcastically as he pulled a pack of tobacco out of his pants pocket.

"The unpleasant smell of this place says that, asshole. My socks smell better than this fucking house.”

Kirishima took the bags he was carrying in the kitchen and went back to make the living room a little decent after the mess Katsuki had made after all these days he was locked up here.

He took Katsuki’s cigarette off and threw it in the bin. "While I'm in here smoking is not allowed, bro"

"Your breath smells like coffee and your clothes smell like expensive perfume. I guess you put on your usual shirt to impress the coffee shop customers.” Katsuki touched Kirishima’s face gently, recognizing his factions. “Freshly shaved, shitty hair on point...having couple problems again, Kirishima?”

"Shut up.” He growled, Katsuki smiled.

"Oh, well. It seems that I was right.”

Kirishima hated when Katsuki did that, guess his personal problems and laugh of him. Thanks to his blindness, Katsuki cod realize countless important details normal people couldn’t.

"Spit it out, come on.” Katsuki worrying about his friend? Probably.

"Will you stop doing that someday? He pleaded.

"I could tell you yes, but you took my cigarette. So it's not going to happen at the moment.”

“By the way did you forget which day is today?” Kirishima raised an eyebrow.

"One day of the week.”

“Yeah, freaking genius. Thursday, it's Thursday. How could you remember if you live in a house that looks like a prehistory cavern? You're just missing the paintings on the walls, because it has the smell of cave and shit already.

"You forget this is my house, and here I can do whatever I want.” That was an statement Katsuki repeated so many times.

"And I think you forgot that you should take advantage of those twenty-six years that you have and make some profit with it. “

Katsuki hated losing in anything.m, this argument with Kirishima was no exception. The red haired started college two years ago, but he didn’t had enough money to pay his apartment fees. Due to this, he took a free year to find a job to save up some of it. He had recently started working at the Poirot cafeteria, which he said attracted many people but the salary was not to that much. At least he could survive until the next month.

A few minutes later, Kirishima finished putting all the food he brought from the super, in the fridge. He was a bit exhausted, Katsuki seemed to never want to face his problems. Kirishima was actually sad for his friend. Their argument were worst every week.

"Spit it out, damn it.” The blonde one ordered.

"Why..." Kirishima hesitated a bit. "Why didn't you go to Todoroki’s office this morning? And don't give me the excuse that you couldn't have gone by yourself, because perfectly a taxi could have left you at the door like other times.”

"For what?” Katsuki rested his head on his hand. “They're not going to tell me anything I don't already know. “

"We've talked about it. If you follow the experimental treatment...—“Katsuki didn’t let him finish the sentence.

“Do you really think that one day I'll have all the money to be able to operate my eyes? It's a lost cause, shitty hair.”

"Don't you want to see again?“ Kirishima asked in despair with pain in his voice.

Pain emerged from Katsuki’s chest and felt like being stabbed by three knives.

How could he not want to recover his sight? Of course he wanted to. But if in so many years nothing had worked, what was I going to make it happen now? In some way, he was afraid of regaining his sight in spite of everything, seeing reality again after so many years in the dark caused him some kind of terror.

"Be realistic. All I can do in the hospital is take up the space that other people more serious than me need it.” Katsuki felt the need of getting away from that room and change the subject as soon as possible.

"Don't go, I'm not done talking to you. You know someone called me the other day? Someone you've known for a long time.”

"Who?” Katsuki didn’t seem to care for the conversation until Kirishima pronounced his name.

"Dabi.”

Katsuki choke on his own breath. When had shitty hair talked to that burnt chicken bastard?

"Are you kidding me? When did you see him? How did he contact you?” the blonde went back into the kitchen and from his heart beats he noticed that just to think about that subject made him nervous .

“Calm down, bro. Why are you so nervous?” Kirishima had him on the place he wanted, damn it.

“He is a fucking dick and asshole.” Kirishima raised his eyebrows.

“Just like you, right?”

The situation just took on a seriousness that Kirishima didn't seem to be aware of. Only a few people knew why Katsuki was blind, only certain people he wished not to be able to remember. And Dabi, that scum, was one of those.

“He told me you had an unfinished business and that wanted to meet you one day.” Katsuki shuddered.

"Let him die in hell. I’m not gonna see him. We can't hang out with that scum after all this time. You have no idea who that person is.”

“Well, I think I'll find out soon enough.” Kirishima’s words meant exactly what Katsuki feared the most. "We'll see him in an hour.” Three statements went through Katsuki’s head:

The first one: If Dabi and him met, he could be certified as dead in less than an hour. The second: he was going to fucking kill Kirishima if they both came home from the first one alive.

And the last o e: If Katsuki’s past and the reason why he went blind was brought to light, Kirishima and him were going to be in real trouble. And he'd probably hate him forever. More than he did now. Revealing his past wasn't a risk Katsuki was willing to take, just thinking about it made him start ti feel sick. Fucking shitty hair and his stupid ideas.

#deku #midoriya izuku #my hero academia #bakugo katsuki #todoroki #tododeku #bnha #boku no hero academia #bakudeku #incorrect bnha quotes #fanfic #fic #mha deku #dabi #shigaraki #blind #alternative universe #bnha manga #shoto todoroki

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roseymoseyberry · 7 years ago

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Early (one-shot)

Don’t mind me sliding in here with this commission for @scraplet! They asked for Megatron/Minimus goodness and how could I say no?? Love these bots and had a blast with this commission.

Link to AO3 will be here once I get it up there later tonight or tomorrow.

Title: Early

Series: MTMTE

Ship: Megatron/Minimus

Rating/warnings: R for that Robofucking. Aka sticky interfacing and fluff happening on several surfaces in Megatron’s habsuite.

When Minimus was on shift, he didn’t look forward to the end of it. There was no point – thinking about how much time was left didn’t make it pass any faster, and in fact just led to being less productive while waiting that same amount of time. It was a useless mental exercise that resulted in subpar work.

It didn’t escape him that until recently that had been an easy philosophy to follow since work was, in fact, the highlight of Ultra Magnus’s day. When it was over he was left with spare time that he had no one to share it with. Or, at least, no one that he felt comfortable reaching out to in that manner.

But, for better or worse, his time on the Lost Light had changed that.

Minimus was actually able to exist outside of Ultra Magnus. Minimus had friends and companions. Minimus could have, Primus save him, fun.

And at that moment, Minimus was checking his chronometer for the third time in practically as many minutes, holding back an exasperated ex-vent.

It was a matter of minutes, certainly, but that was no excuse for his behavior. There was plenty that Minimus could finish up in that amount of time, signatures he could add to requests from crewmembers, stamps of rejection on others, that much less work for the next day—

But all that Minimus could think about was the mech waiting for him. It had been—Primus, he didn’t like to do that particular math, but it had been well over a month since Megatron and he had been able to spend any extended period of time together that wasn’t spent recharging. While there was a spark-deep comfort he would have never guessed could be found curled up in Megatron’s arms while recharging, it wasn’t quite enough at times when Minimus knew what other highly pleasurable experiences that same frame could give him.

Minimus had a lover now and it had turned his world upside down, and as he checked his chronometer yet again he wondered, for the first time in his functioning, if he couldn’t just leave his shift early.

“You’re early,” was Megatron’s comment as he opened his habsuite door. It wasn’t accusatory or judgmental – truthfully, the captain just looked surprised.

Minimus still felt his spark pulse a little faster though as he nodded.

“I left my shift early.”

“Oh?” It was subtle, so much so that Minimus wouldn’t have noticed if his field hadn’t been reaching for Megatron’s, but Megatron’s field flickered with warmth. “Run out of work to be done for the day?”

“No,” Minimus admitted and Megatron’s lips started to lift at the corners. “Rather, I decided it would be best to finish those tasks at a later date when I wasn’t so distracted.”

“Distracted, you say?”

Minimus’s frame warmed with the timbre of Megatron’s rumbling voice and the way those optics were practically devouring him on the spot. How the captain managed to make him feel so desirable was a mystery to Minimus, but Primus how it worked. Were it not for millions of years of memories to insist otherwise, Minimus could have sworn that they were a couple of newly forged mecha with the way his spark fluttered in its casing.

“Indeed. Perhaps you could assist me with that?” A terrible line that Minimus would have regretted immediately if Megatron hadn’t in turn held out his servo to Minimus.

“With pleasure.”

Minimus laid his servo in Megatron’s and let himself be led inside. It was only a couple of steps and the sliding shut of the door before all of Minimus’s thoughts melted away as his frame was easily lifted, his arms already reaching to wrap around Megatron’s shoulders while the captain laid claim to his lips. For all that he once was, no one would know it from the way that Megatron kissed. It was the kind of kiss one would read about in silly romance stories -- just the soft press of lips at first, firm but patient as they molded with Minimus's. It was only as Megatron got Minimus settled in his grip, one arm slung under the smaller mech's aft and the other bracing up his back so his servo could cradle the back of Minimus's neck, that his glossa finally slipped from between his lips, more a question than demand.

Minimus moaned his relinquishment as he gladly let his captain lick into mouth.

His back gently hit the back of the closed door, Megatron's arm slipping out from behind him once Minimus's weight was stable against the surface.

Where Minimus had expected the slow build to continue, however, he instead found his frame jostled as now both large servos were under his aft. Megatron's impossibly powerful frame lifted him with ease until his legs, which had been hooked around Megatron's waist, now settled atop his shoulders.

"Megatron!" Minimus gasped, both surprised and scandalized as Megatron's digits splayed across his aft to hold and caress and his lips immediately found their way against Minimus's array cover. Megatron chuckled and the ex-vent brushing against Minimus's rapidly warming metal had him shuddering in turn.

"You're not the only one who's been distracted today. I've been counting the hours until this moment, and then the minutes," Megatron purred, the rumbling of his vocalizer tickling the sensitive cover. "I would have resorted to counting the seconds if you had not arrived early."

"You're exaggerating," Minimus insisted, even as his legs curled around the armor of Megatron's shoulders, one shin lifting to nudge his helm closer. Impatience must have been contagious as Minimus allowed his panels to shift away without the lingering foreplay they usually engaged in. Megatron hummed his pleasure to be allowed in so easily, dipping forward to drag his glossa along the seam of Minimus's valve. Minimus's helm fell back against the door with a thunk and a soft groan.

Primus, it had been far, far too long since Minimus had had the time to indulge himself in Megatron's ministrations.

"I assure you it's no exaggeration." Megatron's ex-vent felt cool against Minimus's moist valve, and he had to admit that not all of the slickness was from Megatron's glossa and lips. "And that's without speaking to how I have had the delight of having the Minimus Ambus leave his shift early to be in my arms. If you weren't interested in my impatience, you shouldn't have fanned the flames."

Megatron retained his collected exterior, but his field further unfurled around Minimus to reveal the roiling longing hidden behind pretty words, the sheer unfettered need Megatron held for his little lover.

Minimus would swear his spark was becoming swollen with arousal and affection as his back arched and his hips pressed into Megatron’s eager mouth.

Despite the impatience Minimus could feel pressing into his field, Megatron kissed his valve like he had Minimus’s lips. Soft but firm kisses rained across the sensitive protoform, taking his anterior node between gentle lips but only long enough for Megatron to flick his glossa against it before moving on to do the same along one valve lip and then the other. It was stimulating and frustrating all at once as Minimus’s need soared. His array had been neglected for too long and was eagerly building charge now, especially with Megatron’s lust twisting with his own, but it simply wasn’t enough. Megatron’s treatment was too soft, not going anywhere even as Minimus squirmed in the hold of his captain’s large servos.

Minimus’s thighs tightened around Megatron’s shoulders as he groaned deeply, his servos that had found themselves on Megatron’s helm originally for stability now grasping tightly and trying to pull him in closer, harder—

“Now you’re testing my patience.”

And instead of the snicker that Minimus had expected in response to that, Megatron’s cooling fans roared to life and he hummed pleasantly. His field spiked.

“We wouldn’t want that.”

Any retort that Minimus might have had was lost in long string of gasping moans as Megatron buried his face into his valve, his thick glossa delving past caliper rings to taste him deeply while his nose pressed against the pulsing anterior node. With long strokes to find inner nodes, Megatron had Minimus writhing against the wall, hips jerking forward to take more and deeper and finally chase his charge to its final destination. All that kept Minimus from dislodging himself from his perch were Megatron's large servos and broad shoulders. For all the distance that lay between Minimus and the floor, Minimus felt utterly safe as Megatron all but devoured his anterior node and left him trembling as overload grasped him by the spark and tore through his frame.

The flat of Megatron's glossa gave a last few long strokes as Minimus came down from the high. There was no mistaking the pleased hum of the captain's systems or how his fans roared with his still unaddressed arousal.

Minimus lessened his grip on Megatron's helm, instead simply stroking it.

"Did that scratch your itch?" Megatron asked as with one last flick against Minimus's now oversensitive node he moved Minimus's frame to be held against his chest, legs back around his hips and Minimus's mouth hovering in front of his own.

It had never been a secret that Megatron was a gorgeous mech, even if it had once been considered an unfortunate truth that went unspoken among the Autobots. But now, with Minimus's lubricants staining the lower half of his face, lips glistening as they quirked, his optics bright with desire completely and utterly focused on Minimus--

Minimus grabbed Megatron's helm and pulled him in for a kiss, sweeping his glossa into his captain's mouth to taste them both.

"It will take more than that," Minimus admitted to the swirling delight of Megatron's field. For all that relief flooded Minimus's frame, it didn't wipe out the need that still ached in his frame and spark in equal measure. If anything it only keyed Minimus up more and had his hips rocking against Megatron's abdominal plating.

"Well, I aim to please."

Megatron moved from the door, though he didn't get far before settling his aft down on his desk, allowing Minimus to straddle his lap. The captain's thighs were wide which meant that Minimus's legs had to spread all the wider for them, but the stretch was long missed as Minimus settled, his servos grasping onto Megatron's thighs to keep himself from pawing at Megatron's still closed panel.

Minimus shuddered as his field gave his longing away and Megatron's spike quickly pressurized into view.

The longing was so strong in fact that when Megatron reached his servo down to curl his digits into Minimus's valve, Minimus gently but assuredly pushed the servo away with a shake of his helm.

"I can't wait, so just-- I'll be careful, I promise," Minimus murmured when Megatron looked ready to protest. “After all, it wouldn’t be prudent to start the one night we’ve finally managed to schedule together by injuring myself.”

And, of all things, Megatron laughed. It was quiet and rumbled deep in his chassis and for a short moment his face looked millions of years younger.

“You never cease to amaze, Mini--”

Minimus had to kiss him. Had to grab Megatron by the sides of his helm and pull him down just to feel his ex-vent, to taste him again. Had to feel the gentle vibrations of laughter against his lips while his hips tilted so his valve slid along Megatron’s spike.

Megatron’s hold on Minimus’s hips tightened as the smaller mech pressed down, slowly taking the head his captain’s spike into his frame, his calipers parting easily for his lover. Minimus shuddered and moaned into Megatron’s mouth, and his digits hooked Megatron so he couldn’t move away from their kiss. And just like that – his lover’s lips against his own in a hurried kiss – Minimus slowly lifted and dropped his hips, fragging himself open on Megatron’s spike.

A nearly inaudible whine escaped Minimus as he dropped far enough down that their lips simply could not meet anymore, the extent of their flexibility exceeded. He imagined that Megatron must have heard it though since his servo found Minimus’s helm, first stroking along his facial insignia a few times before tracing his kiss-swollen lips.

“You’re going to be the death of me,” Megatron growled as his field whipped around his frame with desperation. His thumb pushed between Minimus’s lips while his other servo still gripped Minimus’s hip – he did not pull Minimus down harder or faster, just tracking his progress, waiting to bottom out and finally lose himself in Minimus’s heat. Megatron’s optics burned blindingly bright. “And I could not be more honored.”

With a shuddering ex-vent, Minimus sunk down and felt impossibly full as his array was finally flush with Megatron’s. The spike was hot inside him, sparking charge across Minimus’s internal nodes and sending pleasure rushing up his back to settle in his spark. His glossa was lax under Megatron’s thumb, but as the overwhelming fullness settled, Minimus managed to close his mouth and suckle the digit briefly.

Megatron twitched inside him and charge crackled between them.

Minimus pulled his mouth back and his valve fluttered around Megatron’s spike enticingly.

“I missed you,” Minimus admitted, afraid for a moment that it was too quiet to be heard over their combined cooling fans. But Megatron’s optics flared and his servos stroked Minimus’s frame.

“As have I.”

Minimus grasped Megatron’s shoulders to pull himself up enough that he could drop down again, groaning as intense pleasure washed over him.

“Then overload in me.”

Megatron’s field snapped and crackled with sharp bursts as he finally moved. His servos covered Minimus’s back as the smaller mech was lifted again, shaking and gasping as the movement settled nearly his whole weight down on Megatron’s spike which jostled inside him as Megatron took three long strides to the berth.

Minimus’s back was laid gently on the berth padding and then Megatron moved.

One large servo still held Minimus’s hip, though now it was to keep him in place as larger and more powerful hips rolled against him, pulling a grunt or a moan or a gasped “Megatron--!” with each frame-rattling thrust. The other servo pressed one of Minimus’s back against the berth above his helm, thick digits interlacing with his thin ones, squeezing as Megatron’s field wrapped Minimus up in sheer affection.

Minimus was completely surrounded and filled with Megatron and it felt comforting and freeing and fun—

With a roar of his engine, Megatron grasped Minimus tight and grunted his name as overload rolled through his powerful frame. Transfluid overfilled Minimus’s valve, spilling out and down his aft while arcs of charge snapped between thick warbuild armor and sturdy loadbearer plating. Data from sensory nodes overwhelmed with the physical pleasure of calipers tightening around the spike pushing them open was twisting with the powerful charge of Megatron’s overload where it sank into Minimus’s lines, and when they swarmed Minimus’s spark he felt his systems crackle with circuit-shorting bliss.

The overload didn’t knock Minimus out but it was a near thing as his processor spun. The best Minimus could manage was to tighten his digits around Megatron’s and reach up towards his face as satisfaction washed over him.

Minimus frowned at the sudden emptiness of his valve but it disappeared as Megatron’s kissed him. The large mech had his other arm braced next to Minimus to keep his mass from crushing Minimus and it warmed his spark.

Megatron hummed a pleased note.

“Would it make me a terrible captain if I said you should leave your shift early more often?” he teased, voice gruff with the lingering charge. Minimus huffed as amused ex-vent as Megatron lips lazily trailed across his facial insignia.

“Absolutely,” Minimus stated. Megatron chuckled and Minimus’s spark swelled with unspoken emotions. “But I will still take it under advisement.”

“That’s acceptable. For the time being though, shall we move this to the bath?”

Minimus’s processor quietly observed that the minutes of work he lost by leaving early were being replaced by minutes spent relaxing in a bath with Megatron, and he smiled softly to himself as he nodded.

#MegaMims #fanfiction

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a-nerds-ponderings-blog · 8 years ago

Photo

SuperHero Low-Down

April 23 – May 7

SUPERGIRL

Season 2: Episode 18 – Ace Reporter

Lena’s ex-boyfriend, Jack Spheer, comes to National City to unveil his big breakthrough in nano-technology, which has the potential to eradicate all diseases. Lena asks Kara to attend Jack’s conference with her for support. When Kara sees Snapper in attendance she’s inspired to tap back into her reporter skills and questions Jack on his discovery, which ultimately leads to a bigger investigation that puts everyone in danger.

So, who else had a hard time seeing Jack Spheer as anyone except for Ravi from IZombie? The actor did well at playing a character we were uncertain of. His confidence and suave behavior with Lena, suggested that he may have been the villain. But in episodes such as this, we all know there is a twist involved. Apart from the cameo from our favourite ME from IZombie, this episode was one of Kara getting her old job back, and the audience learning that there is always more than meets the eyes of a perfect miracle cure. It makes you wonder what kinds of things are being hidden in other medical breakthroughs. Though I doubt that we need to worry too much about nano-bots. And we have some foreshadowing at the end of the episode that makes us eager for next week’s episode.

Season 2: Episode 19 – Alex

Alex is kidnapped and the kidnapper threatens to kill her unless Supergirl releases a notorious criminal from prison. Supergirl and Maggie have always had different approaches to apprehending criminals but this time they must work together to save Alex. Meanwhile, Rhea has an interesting proposal for Lena.

Was this really an episode of “who loves Alex more” situation? And then realizing they needed to work together in order to save Alex? Really that’s what happened in this episode in a nutshell. Alex getting kidnapped was interesting, but we all knew she would survive. We knew that Kara going off to save her was going to backfire and that Maggie was going to be right. And then Maggie doing something reckless was going to blow up in her face. This was a very predictable episode. I wish they had spent more time developing the story between Lena and Rhea. It looked like foreshadowing, but it would have been interesting to see a bit more development on that story line. Hopefully we see more of that next week.

NEXT WEEK

Season 2: Episode 20 – City of Lost Children

When an alien attacks National City, Supergirl and the DEO learn the alien is a Phorian, an otherwise peaceful race with telekinetic powers. Guardian gets a lead on the Phorian’s address but instead of finding the culprit, he finds a very scared boy named Marcus. Marcus will only trust James so it is up to Guardian to stop the attacks on the city. Rhea’s plan escalates.

THE FLASH

Season 3: Episode 19 – The Once and Future Flash

Barry travels to the future to find out Savitar’s still unknown identity in the hopes of saving Iris. Upon his arrival in 2024, Barry encounters future versions of his Team Flash friends, who, following the death of Iris, have become very different people, profoundly impacted by their showdown with Savitar. It will be up to Barry to infuse a sense of hope back into the team, as he proves to be the hero his future friends have been waiting for. Meanwhile, back in 2017, the hunt for Killer Frost continues.

It was really interesting to see 2024, and the different directions the team had gone in after Iris’ death. This episode was pretty much filler, but it was a good filler episode, so we can forgive the story for that. Barry takes all that time and effort to go into the future, just to discover that Killer Frost is going to team up with Savitar and that even in the future, Barry did not know who he was. But it was interesting to see the future characters, and we got a lead on another person who could help trap Savitar in the speed force. The one issue with this episode was Barry’s staying in the future to set things right with the team. It made no sense that he did this. If he was going to go back and save Iris, thus defeating that timeline, why bother setting things right anyways? The reason why the team broke up and everyone went to do their own depressing things, was because Barry failed in saving Iris, and so, if he alters the timeline, none of these events would have happened. It could be argued that what if Barry doesn’t save Iris, now he actually saved the future timeline, but it felt like a filler episode.

Season 3: Episode 20 – I Know Who You Are

Barry and the team meet Tracy Brand, a scientist, who may be the key to stopping Savitar. Unfortunately, Killer Frost is also after Tracy so Team Flash must battle their old friend, which proves to be particularly difficult for Cisco. Joe and Cecile’s relationship takes a big turn.

Really? That’s who Savitar is? We have had hints all season long but … really? The twisted part of the story with Tracy Brand was interesting. They had the name of the person who could help them… only she hasn’t discovered how to help them. H.R.’s rapport with her was certainly a bit of comic relief. It was good to have that because we had to watch the heart breaking moments of Cisco trying and failing to fight his best friend. How difficult could that be, fighting your best friend. You know that you have to do the right thing, but that could mean killing them? Our hearts go out to Cisco this week.

NEXT WEEK

Season 3: Episode 21 – Cause and Effect

Barry takes drastic measures to stop Savitar. Meanwhile, H.R. continues to push Tracy Brand to design the trap for Savitar and Killer Frost returns with an interesting proposal.

ARROW

Season 5: Episode 19 – Dangerous Liaisons

Oliver, Team Arrow, ARGUS and the SCPD kick off a citywide manhunt for Adrian Chase. Helix tells Felicity they have a way to find Chase but they will need something big, and illegal, from her in return.

Wow talk about crossing lines in this episode. There was actually a point in time when Team Arrow was about to face off against Felicity and Helix. And with the lengths that ARGUS was willing to go, it seems like nothing had changed wince Amanda Waller was head of the organization. This was a very action-packed episode, and had us all on the edge of our seats, and let us all wait for the aftermath of everyone’s decisions. It was difficult to see Felicity basically get told by Oliver that he could not forgive her for this… or Diggle saying the same thing to his wife. But it seems that Helix saved Felicity from her own darkness, seeing her too close to Team Arrow, and asking her to leave. This was probably the best thing that could happen to her. Talk about getting in over her head.

Season 5: Episode 20 – Underneath

Things get intense when Oliver and Felicity are trapped in the bunker together. Meanwhile, Lyla and Diggle deal with their marital issues.

It seems this episode was about trust issues. Lyla and Diggle were talking about trusting one another with their secrets and trusting that they can make the right decision when the time came. Felicity and Oliver’s being trapped in the bunker allowed them to sort out their issues both as a couple, and as partners on the team. It was heartbreaking to watch Oliver break down and tell Felicity about Chase’s torture and what he learned about himself. It also taught Felicity about who she wanted to be, or rather, who she did not want to be. We learn that Oliver does in fact trust her, and who knows, this could lead to Olicity again, or it could give both characters a chance to grow on their own. This would have been considered a filler episode, as everything was contained in one episode, and got wrapped up nicely at the end. But it was an entertaining one at that.

NEXT WEEK

Season 5: Episode 21 – Honor Thy Fathers

Oliver returns to the mayor’s office and faces one of his most pressing issues yet – the forced release of dozens of violent criminals prosecuted by Adrian Chase. Meanwhile, a crate is delivered to Oliver’s office containing a mysterious corpse encased in concrete.

Until Next time...

Thanks for watching

#supergirl #the flash #arrow spoilers #dc comics #nerd #weekly review

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lovenerdthings-blog · 8 years ago

Photo

SUPERHERO LOW-DOWN

April 23 – May 7

SUPERGIRL

Season 2: Episode 18 – Ace Reporter

Season 2: Episode 19 – Alex

NEXT WEEK

Season 2: Episode 20 – City of Lost Children

THE FLASH

Season 3: Episode 19 – The Once and Future Flash

Season 3: Episode 20 – I Know Who You Are

NEXT WEEK

Season 3: Episode 21 – Cause and Effect

Barry takes drastic measures to stop Savitar. Meanwhile, H.R. continues to push Tracy Brand to design the trap for Savitar and Killer Frost returns with an interesting proposal.

ARROW

Season 5: Episode 19 – Dangerous Liaisons

Season 5: Episode 20 – Underneath

Things get intense when Oliver and Felicity are trapped in the bunker together. Meanwhile, Lyla and Diggle deal with their marital issues.

NEXT WEEK

Season 5: Episode 21 – Honor Thy Fathers

Until next time

Thanks for watching

#supergirl #the flash #arrow #dc comics #weekly review

0 notes

tripstations · 5 years ago

Text

Travel influencers: The good, the bad and the downright ugly

(CNN) — Amy Seder isn’t used to having the door slammed in her face. Her artfully posed Instagram posts of a glamorous life led in glamorous destinations has won her an army of online admirers that the travel industry is usually eager to embrace.

But when she recently contacted one hotel in Italy hoping for a free stay in exchange for social media exposure, she was bluntly rejected.

“Blogger infestation. Not interested,” came the curt response.

So-called travel influencers such as Seder make a living by sharing their globetrotting experiences on social media and personal blogs. They get freebies, discounts or payments for promoting places, products and experiences via their accounts.

The past few years have seen a relative explosion in the number of people apparently carving careers via this route. The many travelers who now plan their vacations based on what they’ve seen on social media make it a viable proposition.

But it’s a trend that, as Seder found, may now have reached saturation point with some hotels and other travel industry organizations growing weary of the demands placed on them by influencers and becoming increasingly doubtful of the commercial benefits.

Inspirational or loathsome?

Partly to blame for the disillusionment are a slew of recent headlines about entitled and inappropriate behavior that have exposed the fine line between inspiring the online community and incurring its unbridled wrath.

Gianluca Casaccia, a beach club owner in the Philippines, took to Facebook in April to tear into “freeloaders” he said were plaguing his establishment with requests for gratis food, drinks and accommodation.In another case, a Czech couple traveling in Bali drew ire after apparently splashing themselves with holy water at a temple and posting images of it to an Instagram account with tens of thousands of followers.

These incidents, while unrepresentative of the many influencers who steer clear of controversy, have helped shine a spotlight on a side of the travel industry of which many people were perhaps were unaware, highlighting some of the hard-nosed reality beneath the surface of the soft-focused dreamscapes on Instagram.

They also raise questions about the sustainability of the agreements between influencers and the travel industry and the lifestyles they support in a rapidly changing industry environment.

While travel blogging is a relatively young phenomenon, it has already evolved into a mature and sophisticated business model, with participants on both sides working hard to protect and promote their brands.

A working relationship

Those on the industry side say there’s tangible commercial benefit, provided influencers are carefully vetted.

“If people are actively liking and commenting on influencers’ posts, it shows they’re getting inspired by the destination,” Keiko Mastura, PR specialist at the Japan National Tourism Organization, tells CNN Travel.

“We monitor comments and note when users tag other accounts or comment about the destination, suggesting they’re adding it to their virtual travel bucket lists. Someone is influential if they have above a 3.5% engagement rate.”

For some tourism outlets, bloggers offer a way to promote products that might be overlooked by more conventional channels. Even those with just 40,000 followers can make a difference.

Kimron Corion, communications manager of Grenada’s Tourism Authority, says his organization has “had a lot of success engaging with micro-influencers who exposed some of our more niche offerings effectively.”

Such engagement doesn’t come cheap though.

All expenses paid

Trips or freebies often cover luxury experiences, meaning considerable outlay for the hotel or tourism body involved.

A night in the Serenity Club Junior Suite Ocean Front at Haven Resort in Cancun, Mexico, costs between $500 and $900 depending on the season. The Insta-famous Marina Bay Sands in Singapore can be upwards of $720 a night.

That means extra pressure in finding the right influencer to convey the relevant message — particularly when the aim is to deliver real-time social media exposure.

“We analyze each profile to make sure they’re an appropriate fit,” says Florencia Grossi, director of international promotion for Visit Argentina. “We look for content with dynamic and interesting stories that invites followers to live the experience.”

One challenge is weeding out genuine influencers from the fake, a job that’s typically done by manually scrutinizing audience feedback for responses that betray automated followers. Bogus bloggers are another reason the market is becoming increasingly wary.

“If comments are just emojis or slightly out of context, it indicates a bot,” says Anne Pedersen, the head of French travel website Atout France’s public relations. “If the comments all come from the same country, they could be fake accounts.”

While some businesses and organizations may be turning their back on influencers, many still find it profitable to engage.

Seder — who fell into influencing after she and fiance Brandon Burkley quit their jobs in New York to travel full time — soon found an alternative Italian venue willing to strike a deal, despite their rejection from the first “blogger infested” hotel.

Such hustles are part and parcel of a profession that, according to those making a living out of it, is much harder work than the sun-kissed Instagram photos would have you believe.

The most successful influencers spend the majority of their time working to grow their audience and develop content — often with a team of dedicated employees.

They also spend a fair amount of time looking for handouts in exchange for Instagram posts, branded tweets, YouTube videos and more.

Posts are typically valued — depending on audience location — at about $1,000 for every 100,000 followers. Some top-tier travel influencers are also paid a per diem or per deliverable rate.

Seder makes money working with tourism brands that pay for sponsored Instagram and blog posts. Additional earnings come from her professional photography and affiliate marketing.

She says her workis often made trickier by the fact that influencers are often lumped in with traditional travel journalists on regimented press trips that fail to take into account their need to constantly connect with their audience.

“There have been times where I was forced to get up in the middle of the night to meet my contracted deliverables because there was absolutely no time to do it during the day,” she says.

“The best press trips are those with a good balance of activities and shooting time, a mix of famous and local authentic destinations, and arrangements with popular sites before or after hours, to avoid crowds.”

Valeria Hinojosa, a Bolivian private banker turned influencer with 129,000 Instagram followers, specializes in promoting eco hotels around the world, for which she charges upwards of $3,000.

“My goal is to show that every destination has a story,” she says. “From sustainable hotels, the kindness of the locals, the exotic taste and aroma of food, and the connection with nature.”

Hinojosa says she doesn’t get too hung up on audience numbers.

“If I reach my readers’ souls through my words, then I’ve succeeded,” she says. “The overflow of love I receive from the people who follow me and the brands I work with is a good measurement.”

San Francisco-based Dimag Ozgum (539,000 followers) says he measures his impact by how frequently his photos get replicated and how many Instagrammers use his community hashtag, #VacationWolf.

“After we visit a region and share it, a massive amount of influencers get influenced and end up traveling there,” he says.

Walter DeMirci, USA country manager for the Qatar National Tourism Council, recognizes the limitations of using influencers, even if his organization is still willing to make use of them.

“While creating beautiful content is part of the requirement, having a successful partnership also means creating an organic brand ambassador that will share their positive experience with friends and families outside of social media,” he says.

In other words, tourism boards try to identify good influencers who will create educational posts about their destinations that will then inspire travelers to book a trip.

Value proposition

This is where things can get tricky. Not all influencers are necessarily interested in what value their posts lend their audience, leading to scenes like the Bali temple incident or outbursts like those of the Philippines club owner.

Los Angeles ice cream truck owner Joe Nicchi is another who lost his cool with constant requests for handouts. Earlier this year he announced he intended to charge influencers double.

Tourism reps, meanwhile, recount dealing with tantrums when demands weren’t met.

“One of our executives had an encounter with an influencer who said he ‘doesn’t f——- pay for anything, ever’ after she informed him that some of his meals weren’t going to be covered,” says Grenada Tourism Authority’s Corion.

Many luxury properties in the Maldives have terminated their influencer marketing programs after getting countless requests from fraudulent influencers.

For well-intentioned influencers such as Emilie Ristevski, who has over one million followers on Instagram, the rise in irresponsible “influencers” is frustrating.

“It’s disappointing to hear this is happening, it has extremely negative effects on the industry,” she says. “It’s a shame to see self-entitlement and unethical work practices be a recurring theme for some influencers.”

When the influencer and a tourism board mesh, the results can be tourism marketing gold. Influencers bring new perspectives to destinations and reach a broad, international audience.

Qatar’s DeMirci says influencers have been an asset in promoting his destination.

“With social media on the rise with regards to planning travel, we’re tapping into influencer partnerships which allows us to showcase Qatar from a variety of perspectives,” he says.

And, says Ristevski, in an age of runaway mass tourism, where travelers are often accused of harming the places they’re visiting by turning out in such large numbers, influencers can be a force for good, particularly when promoting lesser known destinations.

“Bringing sustainable tourism into remote areas supports smaller communities and their livelihoods,” she adds, “along with helping to compensate overtourism due to photographic locations.”

The post Travel influencers: The good, the bad and the downright ugly appeared first on Tripstations.

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