#this probably won't have any notes so

[machonnes]

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (2022-) — 1.05 "A Vile Hunger for Your Hammering Heart"

[raifuujin]

It's been more than 20 years and for some reason I feel that Gosho hasn't given Kaiao any development, how can more than 20 years pass and Aoko dynamics, relationship and feelings remain the same? At this point I feel like Gosho is just going to make them date because "they already liked each other" they remain in the same status quo

Hey, if we go by DC romance progress, they've been going too fast. We've already had suspicion of identity chapters, and that didn't happen until more than 400 chapters in DC. /j

Since heists have taken over any character development recently, I don't even know if Kaito and Aoko will even get any romantic progress. Maybe the actual identity confrontation will happen down the line, since that's thief drama, but atm, it really wouldn't surprise me if they only ask each other on a real date at the very end of the manga.

Like. I'm sure Gosho would love to make MK a love drama as well, but he writes MK so rarely, and usually as hype for something Kid related in other media. So the MK stories tend to be heavy on drama that can only take place at Kid heists. (To the point that the new chapters just. Use Kid as the plot device to show off a new character. Even Hakuba's never gotten so much 'look at this character being a detective' treatment in MK.)

-sighs- I just feel bad for MK as a series at this point. I like the characters, I like the general story idea, but. It's been going down a very steep hill with Gosho wanting things exciting, but not wanting any real progress in. Anything. But unlike old MK, the new stories aren't even nice standalone setpieces of story, they're... mundane. They could be high stakes, if you purely look at the scenarios on paper, but. We all know nothing's gonna happen to Kid. Nothing even happens to him when the actual bad guys show up, much less one-time antagonists.

We need actual character focus and development, not heist drama. Badly. Not even romance, though that'd be a nice change. Just any character expansion of our limited cast of characters. Gosho wants big, all the time, meaningless big stuff, when small would be so nice.

[mad-hunts]

JACK MATHIS, THE CONTORTIONIST — expert thief and fauceur of the mathis family.

[metanarrates]

hi. i'm a little bit drunk on wine, but please don't mind me. i found your post in the wild about orv and how it portrays the passive suicidality and i kept thinking about it. i don't really remember the exact chapter, but near the start of the book, when kdj teaches sys to subjugate the beasts and she says, self depracting, how she has no talent for it, and then kdj's inner monologue which goes something like 'if she's not talented, i should just kill myself'. i seriously didn't think nothing of it when i first read it! and that appeared again. and then the deaths happened, his backstory was revealed, the whole OD arc... and i kept thinking about that one throwaway line in the first chapters. GOD

orv does this very neat trick where it reveals kim dokja's suicidality through a slow drip feed. that throwaway line near the start of the novel. a single death or even a handful of deaths. him saying that the novel helped him survive. those are easy to not notice. but as he dies again and again and you learn more and more about him... yeah. it's not a realization that hits you all at once. when you learn that he's attempted suicide in the past, it slots perfectly into the puzzle you've already assembled of him at that point. a man who considers his own death an acceptable solution to most problems is one who has DEFINITELY tried to kill himself before

[triangle-strategy-notes]

Quahaug Concept Art

Quahaug's concept/reference art! Translation notes and image id under the cut.

Translation notes:

"OP sort of powerset" was literally translated as something like "cheat-like." I feel like OP is the more common English term for that sort of thing, so that's what I used, but some of the meaning was probably lost there.

"Older-tween-ish" was specifically a reference to a particular middle school year for children who are about 12-13 years old. Since grades and names of grades vary a lot from country to country, I just went with "older tween."

ID:

[Image id: Several images displaying different parts of 2 pages of the Triangle Strategy artbook, with both the original Japanese as well as versions with English translations. There are several disclaimers noting that the translator doesn't speak Japanese, and that there are likely many mistakes.

On one page, there is a large colored version of Quahaug's canon portrait, along with a smaller, uncolored version. There is an illustrator's note at the bottom that translates to read, "'Manipulating time' is an OP sort of powerset, so though he looks like a child, I aimed to create a look for him that conveyed a sense of unknowable power. (Tatsuaki Urushibara)".

On the second page, there are many drawings of Quahaug, including a closer bust-up portrait in which he's compared to Lyla, with an arrow and label reading, "Mother." There's also several notes that explain the construction of his costume. The costume is labeled as a Greek "phelonion" (a priest's outfit with no real sleeves, just draping fabric). There is a small drawing of this version, with an arrow leading to another drawing that does have sleeves, with the note, "If you can't display this in pixels, use this one." There are several notes that explain how this draping cloth should be considered his everyday clothes, while the ceremonial decoration that goes around his neck is placed over it. There is a close up of the ceremonial dressing's fastenings underneath the metal decoration. Some more notes highlight details on his staff, emphasizing the hourglass on top and the small wheel to the side that can be turned to flip the hourglass. A larger piece of text underneath one fullbody drawing reads, "Character Who Manipulates Time."

On the second half of the second page, there are drawings of some beta designs for Quahaug. He looks much more punk-ish. On one bust-up portrait, there are the captions, "The burden of the time demon caused some of his hair to go gray…." and "All-natural highlighted tips." On the same portrait, he is snapping his fingers, and there's a note that reads, "Manipulating time is as easy as snapping your fingers. You just have to want it or whatever." A speech bubble near his head reads, "I don't think of Anna as a mother." A caption pointing to some green markings on his arm reads, "Demonic time seal on body." In a fullbody drawing of his beta design (which is made up mostly of chains that barely cover him as well as a long roughed-up cloak, there is the note, "Almost naked cloak."

At the bottom of the second page, there is another note that reads, "Initially when we hadn't quite figured out the setting, we had an idea for a more older-tween-ish character as displayed here, but after discussing it with the producers and Mr. Ikushima, we went with his current form. As a boy who manipulates time, I placed an hourglass at the tip of his staff, and his face resembles that of his mother, Lyla. (Tatsuaki Irushibara)". /end id]

[minecraftbookshelf]

Important Housekeeping Announcement for the AU In Which All The Marriages Are Arranged

Honestly I'm structuring this more as a letter because I'm a bit emotional about this entire situation.

With the current state of AI scraping the internet and stealing art and stories right and left, I have locked my AO3 to AO3 users only.

Yes, AO3 has already been scraped, but chances are high they will continue scraping and any level of protection available is something I want to take advantage of. I'd been putting it off because I had over 100 works and that was just...a lot. But I figured out how to lock them all at once so that's done now.

Given The State of Things, I honestly don't really trust that tumblr also will not/has not already been scraped so the chances not zero that I am not going to post the full fics on here, just links to the AO3 posts. I will keep posting snippets on here bc i crave validation, but the actual, full form fics themselves might be just on AO3. I really don’t know.

I hate doing this because I really want to keep my stories as accessible to as many people as possible and some of my earliest fandom memories are of so many fics I was following and loved disappearing, either deleted or friend locked, as Livejournal went dark in the aftermath of Strikethrough.

I really do encourage everyone who doesn't have an AO3 account to get one if you can. It is invite only but the waiting list does move at a fairly decent pace and if you know someone who does have an account already they might still have invites they can give you.

I've been on AO3 for a long time and am perfectly willing to answer any questions at all, about functionality or the controversies surrounding it. Both my DMs and my askbox (here and my main) are open, including for anonymous messages (though sending an anon message is risky because I am incredibly adhd and sometimes it takes me a bit to actually answer asks and you won't get an alert when I answer an anonymous one you sent, if you have a question you don't want your name on publicly, you can send a dm or just tell me in the ask you would rather stay anonymous and i can make a fresh post without your url on it or answer the ask privately as you are comfortable with.)

I know the mcyt fan community in general skews young, though I'm not sure about the demographics of my little corner here specifically, I myself am ~30 (which is still young in fandom in general) and I have seen destruction of fandom spaces before. We have survived it, we will continue to, but some things; art, fic, original stories, will be lost forever. AO3 is one of if not the most secure place to share your fic. It is an archive designed to last.

I'm getting rambly so I'll sign off here, thanks for reading.

[forcebookish]

feel like i'm being gaslighted by the ofs fandom like where are all these wild think pieces coming from we can't possibly be watching the same ONE EPISODE of the same drama

anyway,

[professionallydorkish]

OK (lots of) thoughts about tf Rise of the Beasts (spoilers below)

I'm just gonna put these thoughts as bullet points bc there's no real rhyme or reason to the flow of these thoughts . THAT SAID I watched the movie Friday night and have been stewing on some things, and reading some other people's thoughts, so thought I'd throw my own together here

OVERALL I thought it was a fun movie, and mostly good - like, I'd go back to watch it maybe 1-2 more times at the theatre. On discount ticket days or smth. That said, unpopular opinion, I don't think it was AS GOOD as people have been hyping it up to be (but I really WANTED it to be that good)

And like, I can probably tell y'all now that the things bugging me are probably nitpicky, but were bothering all the same. For instance,

Mirage - I *adored* him as a character. He was SO SWEET and fun and has SUCH FUN RELATIONS with the humans, and it's extremely enjoyable to see other Autobots forming those human relations outside of Bumblebee. BUT. Why... Mirage? There are DOZENS of other characters that could have fit this bill without having to give a total personality change to an existing character (thinking of Smokescreen, Jazz, Tracks, Hot Rod, either of the Lambo twins, even Blurr ... all of these characters can fit a youthful / pranking / kind of reckless speedster profile that cares about their appearance and is slightly anti-authority but heart of gold enough to go against Prime's wishes in a charming way). It's not *bad* to see Mirage like this, but again .... it just threw me a little bit. It also makes me curious as to what this means for characterization in the future. Again, I really liked him, thought he was super sweet, and obviously his abilities were super cool to see on screen!

I'm also extremely conflicted on having Unicron & co as the big bads for this movie. I've seen some mixed opinions on this as well, and generally agree that having Unicron as a looming presence and not actually destroyed at the end of the film was handled well. HOWEVER - and this is probably coming form my own wishes, seeing as it was called Rise of the Beasts, and REALLY just wanting to see more Beast Wars characters - I think they could've gone a different route with the antagonists that wouldn't have felt so grand life and death

Actually, tangent here, I think that was one of the things that actually had me feeling disappointed with the movie. I think I went in with expectations and standards close to what I felt after watching the Bumblebee movie for the first time. And the conflict in Bumblebee isn't some grand end-of-world threat (as seen on the screen - sure it's a looming possibility etc etc but), it's a small cast and a very personal conflict in that sense. ROTB returns to having huge stakes, larger cast of characters that can't ALL get a chance to shine, but imo not a large enough cast to take on a threat like UNICRON

So like. I'm glad that it wasn't directly Unicron, and instead got to see his power play out through Scourge and his team.

But still, I think it would've been cool to have our antagonists be those from Beast Wars as well (although I admit that I'm not super familiar with the series both tv & comics but STILL. I think it would've been cool to see Dinobot and Inferno and shit). I think this would've been SUPER COOL to see the Maximals shine even more!!

They all had such cool designs, and I really loved Primal & Air Razor. I wish we could've had more of Cheetor and Rhinox ;-;

I was actually annoyed with the resolution of the warp bridge explosion to send Unicron back 😭 particularly since it was ESTABLISHED that an explosion would have the FORCE OF A SUPERNOVA -- a fucking SUPERNOVA MY FRIENDS Earth should be PERISHED in an explosion like that!! The opening of the bridge portal to Unicron could explain SOME of the force being applied back through the opening but for the Earth to not really experience any of the damage, AND FURTHERMORE FOR NO GRAVE INJURIES TO COME TO PRIME, PRIMAL, OR NOAH/MIRAGE IN SUCH CLOSE PROXIMITY....

Just. If you're GOING to prop up something as a danger, and have an action posed as a non-viable solution to the problem (and have a good alternative ie. the passcode!), but then ultimately have to go back to explosion -- it should be held up as impactful as stated!! Like listen I KNOW we go into movies with the expectation that our friends on screen will be okay BUT OPTIMUS SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GET OUT OF THAT THAT EASILY. It also, imo, feels like it weakens Primal's oath to him in his sacrifice.

Also side note I actually did quite like the humans & the interpersonal relations happening - between Noah, his brother, Elena, and with the bots - I wish there was a bit more of it even! In concept, ex-military man who values family over the country & archeologist intern, BOTH POC, are FASCINATING CHARACTERS TO HAVE AND PLAY WITH. I think there's a lot of potential.

ALL OF THIS ASIDE. I thought it was a fun movie, I'm hopeful for what the franchise will bring. I'd REALLY LIKE for Travis Knight & Studio & Bee movie writers to come back on future movies (getting to the credits of this film and realizing it was Bay, Spielberg, and NOT writers from the Bee movie actually felt like that explained a LOT for where my disappointment and story inconsistencies were coming from)

[izzyspussy]

is it a h4rry p0tter url or just someone with bad taste in names

[arolesbianism]

So I may or may not have spent a good chunk of my day trying to learn how to look into onis code and while I may not have yet succeeded I will likely keep fucking around with shit tomorrow and if I manage to succeed it'll spell great doom for my sanity as oni becomes the interest I've officially poured the most effort into analyzing

[mymarifae]

why don't you like blade :(

oh i don't dislike him! i just don't care. totally different thing

everything i've seen of him in game so far PLUS alllllllll those leaks hasn't been enough. like. as of Right Now there's nothing for me to latch onto and pick at. the whole "dan heng's past life's ex-husband/fiance" may be enough for some people but i just do not gaf 😭 i need. to see quite a bit more of him before i can even start getting into the territory of actual like/dislike

[born-to-lose]

According to 6 different serious health/psychology pages I have BPD, do you think that means I should see a therapist?

[crystal-verse]

@wanderer-of-light please know that every time i see your nice tags i go "!!!" and gain +4 spoons for art. take this quick doodle of vastha and k'pheli, because i like to think they'd be friends and also i am shy but am willing to Art

[potatoesandsunshine]

so maybe they got me. maybe they did. 

[necrothezma]

I know I shouldn't give these kinds of people the time of day or any attention but I'm just like ... How do you think like. How do you think like this. what is your thought process of " it's a fictional character so they can't be a child or teenager " like ??? I think they're just trying to defend ns//fw of children because hurr duhh uhhh durr fiction doesn't affect reality I can draw horribly disgusting things of a 14 year old character because it doesn't hurt anyone it's not a REAAL child !!1!!

[robotsprinkles]

dumb idea I'm sure someone's already posted somewhere or even here on tumblr (and might already have been made): armored core type game except instead of your mech being automatically repaired to full health/functionality after each mission at the cost of currency, you need to repair your mech yourself in the garage/hangar or hire a mechanic to do it for you

but all the big corporations who make the parts for your mech are like if apple, john deere, dell/alienware, tesla, ferrari, etc made mechs

so you either need to pay exorbitant amounts for repairs (provided by the corporation), buy the necessary subcomponents from the black market (either at inflated prices or risking that the parts don't work or aren't authentic), steal them from the factories or cargo ships, or use third-party components that result in impaired functionality

and if you do any parts modding or tuning (or just use parts from different corporations) the corporation whose parts you modded/used sends mercenaries or retrieval teams that repossess those parts and also just steal a bunch of your money

also some companies will charge you a subscription to use features like full auto fire on weapons and stabilisers for the actual mech