#this planet? important

[dianasprnce]

I would’ve helped you. If you needed someone, you could’ve picked me.

[harbingerofsoup]

there’s death of the author and then there’s whatever the fuck is up with danny phantom

[varilien]

you know me, in the way that matters most.

[spirk-trek]

"I will need a Vulcan desert soft suit and boots, and a small selection of streetwear circa 8877 Vulcan years. The carry bag should be of the same period."

Star Trek the Animated Series | S1E2

[andr0nap]

ROAD TRIP 🚍❄️

[em-bandaid-boy]

could you draw Cyn?

THE SOLVER OF THE ABSOLUTE FABRIC, THE VOID, THE EXPONENTIAL END!!

[dragon-subway]

ok but what do you think cemeteries on coruscant are like?

[shadesofmauve]

Mass Effect galaxy map

(For the Rhi Shepard universe)

I've been writing, if by 'writing' one means 'making a new galaxy map to use as a reference, because I'm too picky.'

I copied some symbology from Droot1986's excellent galaxy map. I also used Engorn's map as a reference, but ultimately the clusters and connections are based on the wiki. All systems within a cluster are listed, with inhabited planets in parentheses.

(...yeah, I should probably make a legend, but I only made it for my reference, so).

Features/changes

The relay in the Sol system only connects to Arcturus. This is how it's supposed to work in canon lore; Arcturus is important because it's a gateway system, while Sol is a dead end.

(Also, Sol is now in basically the right place compared to the underlying artist's impression of the milky way. Thank you NASA.)

Batarian's now have some space of their own, because lumping all batarian space into the human Systems Alliance was just BEGGING for a war. Like, WTF. Their government is flat out evil but that doesn't mean we just get to say their planets are ours now.

Combined inner and outer council space because idgaf.

There's a new, boringly named relay between Kite's Nest, Petra, and Exodus, because I needed one in chapter 14.

If a cluster had written lore about where it was in the galaxy, I tried to reflect that — so Styx Theta, Hawking Eta, and the Pangea Expanse are all close to the galactic core, Sentry Omega is on a political border, etc. Otherwise, I adjusted location to make the relay routes clearer. (Also I wanted the giant hub that is Omega to be almost opposite the Serpent Nebula and the Citadel)..

I imagine that there are actually a LOT more mapped clusters in Council Space than we see; they were just never relevant to the game. If not, the vaunted 'all relays lead to the Citadel' reaper web is just flat out wrong. Omega has more connections, and quite a few other clusters have as many. If there are more inhabited clusters in Citadel Space it also makes the veritable explosion of humanity look a little less ridiculous. (Seriously, humans have been on the galactic scene for thirty years. LOOK at how far we've gone. Council races are right to be freakin' terrified, the Sol system was like one of those plants with exploding seed pods where you bump it and POOF now they're EVERYWHERE). So let's assume the rest of the galaxy is as cluttered as Systems Alliance space, it's just not been relevant to our anthropocentric bag of dicks worldview.

Anyway. What the fuck is even up with the Attican Traverse?

[peace-hunter]

ok so i'm still a bit shaky on it but i would loooooove for orion's character arc in the baby prime orion au to be actually about learning that he's not. inherently special. which i know it sounds backwards because this au makes him primus' specialest little guy but hear me out.

in this au when optimus is born he is his siblings' miracle child, their little blessing, the most precious gift they could've gotten.

they love him so much that even when they die and orion grows up and forgets them, he still knows what being treasured and loved beyond measure feels like.

and part of the reason he believes that the system is wrong to treat cogless bots as lesser is that he cannot accept that he is as worthless as the world wants him to believe when someone once loved him like that.

it's a very... self-centered point of view even if it does come from a place of genuine love. he was loved, he was worth something to someone once, so if the world tells him he's worthless then the world must simply be wrong.

and don't get me wrong he still genuinely does believe others also deserve the choice to decide for themselves what they want to be, that they also deserve to be treated with the same respect and dignity that cogged bots do, he still wants to make things better for everyone.

but a good part of it is because he thinks he deserves better. because he knows he was once loved enough for someone to want to give him the moon and stars if he'd asked for them. and he's still chasing that feeling, even though he has long forgotten where he got it from in the first place.

so when he finds out he's the lost little prime, as much of a shock as it is, it is also sort of vindicating. it's a little bit like "oh. so that's why i always felt especial different".

he thinks that him being a prime is the reason for why he always aspired to be more, for why he always believed he deserved better. he thinks being a prime is what makes him worth loving more than he'd been told.

except that... well, he's obviously wrong. him believing he deserved better, that he was worth more than the system wanted him to believe, had very little to do with him being a prime and everything to do with his siblings loving him so very much he could never forget it even as he forgot them.

the reason he always felt there was something utterly wrong with the way they were treated and had the courage to constantly speak up against it when everyone else around him didn't was not because he had some divinely given wisdom or that he was inherently better than them and could feel it.

it was simply that he, unlike the rest of the miners, had someone to instill in him how loved and valuable he truly was. he had someone to let him know he deserved to be treated with kindness and dignity. he had that privilege even if it was taken away from him.

so. the second half of his arc would be him realizing all of this and taking upon himself to be that someone to everyone else. to be to others what his siblings were to him. that gentle voice that says "you deserve to be cared for, you deserve kindness, you deserve better".

i don't know i'm still working on it akjshdjka

[rosemilo]

"I always think Ape better than human. I see now how much like them we are" - Caesar

This is IMPORTANT

[ohymnia]

wow the way the world revolves around him......... wild

[searchingforserendipity25]

fascinated by the possibility of a surge of augment panic in the news and in screening texts (jack makes the news?) causing julian not to follow a medical or starfleet career.

a couple of suspected or confirmed augments are identified in positions of influence, federation representatives and famous athletes and maybe, yes, a successful researcher or two.

there are breaking news cases; there are trials, charges of treason and fraud mostly. desperate chases, family turning in family. self-administered falls from the great heights of government buildings. suspicious deaths in custody.

julian bashir keeps going to school. julian bashir fails a number of assignments, drops out of spring ball and manages to get mild but persistent bad habits at tennis thing after another. perhaps a little too fast, and even that could be suspicious, but the bashirs for once all agree - it would be more suspicious to move planets now.

too many burned trails, too many burned bridges. it is a momentous time for him, a terrible time.

he still leaves home as soon as possible. leaves earth as soon as possible; that's where most augments have been found, and where suspicion is highest, prejudice strongest. better to stick to outer space, the frontier. better not to stick out. find something discreet to do, low-profile.

unexceptional. that is the word, always.

mr. bashir, federaji civilian, makes his way to the bajoran station of deep space nine. technically not federation territory; a liminal place, and not an easy one to make a living. and it's no illegal, in bajoran space, for augmented individuals to start a business, hold a lease, own property.

bashir's books and holos appears one day to the next. a small place, tucked in between the tailor's and the klingon eatery. rows of bajoran scrolls and andorians carved tables and trill holopuzzles, old hardback books. lines and lines of isolinear rods, nestled carefully by genre.

some of them not quite permitted in every corner of the quadrant, but goodness, what's life without a little bit of censured literature?

he's fond of the censured authors, mr. bashir. a sentimental man, mr. bashir, head half-caught in the clouds most of the time. whoever decides to travel the quadrant collecting books, really? the federation must be truly a great boring idyll, if its people are so desperate for escapism as that.

sisko looks into it; odo looks into it. there's not much to see. well, nothing bad, really; probably starfleet can turn a blind eye, if any dissident speeches make their way beneath the counter, as long as they're cardassian and romulan and klingon dissident texts.

but mostly his is only a narrow shop, a place for the open-minded with a few attempts at soirées every once in a while - a recital by a resistance poet here, a book signing there.

there's a book club, as well, which takes some time to find its feet but becomes a station staple once lieutenant dax decides to befriend him.

well. two book clubs, really. but whatever goes on at lunch between storefront neighbors with a passion for the literary is really no one's business, is it?

[what-is-love-babey-dont-hurt-me]

Currently designing this sopping wet cat of a dinosaur ✨🪞🧿

[mortemilla]

odo sketches

[incorrect-green-lantern-quotes]

Heroes in Crisis was a fucking shitshow that managed to mischaracterize just about everyone involved, so I'm glad that the Green Lanterns were virtually uninvolved. Honestly I have a headcanon that their brief confession panels were a result of them being forced to show up for at least one session bc they’re high-profile Justice Leaguers who have to set a good example for the hero community.

Like, these two had to have been taking the piss here. Hal knows what will is, it's what's allowing him to keep a straight face as he spouts this BS. Kyle's definitely trying not to bust out laughing and had to make his mask bigger to not get caught.

Guy knows that most of the other heroes think he’s an insecure meathead so he just phones in a performance that plays up that angle. Jessica's the only one who's even kind of taking any of this seriously.

[glimblshanks]

Mariner's story line this episode being about her seeking out domesticity and community was fascinating to me. Especially considering she starts the episode by complaining that she'd rather go to a (presumably fairly regular) Taquito Night with her shipmates than go on an undercover mission that's objectively pretty exciting and unusual compared to what the Cerritos normally does.

I've said before that Mariner gives "homebody who's idea of home just happens to be high energy space adventure", but damn this episode really leaned into that in ways previous episodes haven't.