#trying to come up with more Alien Looking mechs designs

[cicada-candy]

With Four Minutes to spare Happy Fuck You And Your Train Friday have a marius + octokitten doodle :]

[flameofthescorpion]

And so Icarus fell into the ocean

WARNING: Plays after the events of Transformers One, spoilers Ahead! Please watch the movie first before reading this all!

Canon-divergance!

also warning, both characters are assholes --------0--------

Sentinel laid on the cold floor of Iacon’s metal surface, his final resting place as his fading spark watched with his weakening senses as D-16, or rather Megatron, was banished from the once Grand City temporarily turned battleground. As his thoughts started to blur, as his hatred for the new Prime started to fade and go numb. The new glows of blue hues started to blur and dance in his remaining vision; he felt a presence, as if Death himself had decided to claim his very spark instead of letting it simply fade.

He could not hear the sound of pedes heading into his direction. He could feel it. Feel as the ground next to him aggressively shifted as the figure came closer, as if it was trying to avoid the mech without much success, the air filled with electrical tension to the point Sentinels frame lightly prickled.

“It's a shame really.”

Sentinel heard a gruff, dull and nearly drowned out voice next to his dying body, his auditory receptors barely able to differentiate clear words from white noise. Yet he could make out the disappointment in the bot's tone, not melancholy for his fate, no, closer to simple disappointment and even boredom. For the mech, it seems almost like some sort of entertainment value had been lost. ”I really thought you would have lasted longer. The great Sentinel Prime himself. You may have been a sleazy traitor but being beaten by a bunch of miners. a group of bots BENEATH your greatness? Tsk tsk tsk.”

Sentinel slowly saw as the bot walked into his vision. Due to laying on the floor, currently bleeding dry, he could only look at the bot's pedes as they seemed to circle him, analyze him. He could not tell much about the bot, his voice was alien and his frame seemed to have a golden color, similar to Sentinel’s wings in tone. “But I could help you turn the tables, I could give you everything back you once loved. everything you have lost and so much more, and unlike the quintessons I do not want to be compensated in precious Energon, oh no no, i just want you to complete a few…errands for me, errands where I am sure we can come to a mutual understanding. For example, we both want Optimus Prime dead, no?”

The false Prime didn't know what was worse, the constant pacing, or the fact that the bot was speaking in such an indifferent tone, as if he wasn't talking to a bot about to die. Save him? How was that supposed to work? Something did not add up, yet the promise of getting everything back was so luring. “A great Prime such as yourself does not deserve such a fate. What does it matter? You did some shady deals, you had kept us safe after all, even if it came at a price, that is what no one else understands. You are our true savior yet these fools were so blinded by Primus and his choice of messiah that they do not realize. You and me. How about we make them realize?”

Sentinel debated mentally with what strength he had left, already seeming to the point of numbing sensations and desperate thinking that he didn't even know how the figure hissed out Primus’ designation like it was a toxic poison. He would have everything back? everything? He did not even have to try to speak out that a deal was a deal before the bot spoke up again. “Save your words, I know the answer.”

Was all Sentinel could make out before passing out from having lost too much of his own life force, thinking this was all going to slow, nothing was going to matter anymore and that he simply wouldn't activate again.

However fate had other plans as he came back online in what seemed to be an abandoned medical office, the air stagnant and the silence deafening. He slowly sat back up from the medical berth he was resting on.

Observing his own self he could see how his colors seemed to have significantly darkened, his once deep and rich blue resembling more the tones of gray or black with blue tints. His wings seemed to be intact for the most part only to have become jagged and blackened, a far cry from the gold they once were. Even his optics have become “stained” as his reflection showed them how they have become the colors of a golden flame. Yet the most concerning detail was his torso, large scarring seen on the ripping seams, making him believe he was simply just welded back together instead of having had any qualified medic look at him. Going over those scars however he could tell everything worked like it was supposed to. 

“Active?”

Sentinel recognized that voice, instantly tensing. Turning around to finally analyze the bot who had helped him for no reason it seemed. He was definitely right with his prior thoughts of the bot being mostly golden coloured, yet some details seemed so…wrong. Optics such a deep purple that it seemed almost unreal to look at them, and a wolfish grin revealing plenty of sharp teeth, especially the canines which were more fangs than anything. Sentinel could make out Alt mode details on the bot, they were cogged, but yet he had never seen this individual before. Someone completely new. They had wings, that must mean the bot was some sort of aerial cybertronian. In a way it was almost like looking into some kind of twisted mirror image of himself, it was uncanny to say the least.

“You owe me an explanation.”

Sentinel huffed out in slight irritation, he was in no mood to put up an act after nearly dieing

“Who are you, why are you helping me?” He added, as he kept a steady position, he couldn't let the bot know that he was somewhat intimidated by their appearance after all, he? of all bots? intimidated? No. At least he shall not show that he is.

“A mere fan of your work, an admirer. a fan you could say.” The figure spoke again as they walked out of the shadows, their facial plates were white similar to Sentinels which only further intensified their purple optics that had locked onto the false Prime. “My name is not noteworthy. I doubt it is of any importance for someone like you.”

The bot replied, their words composed and tone showing indifference.

“I would like to know the name of the bot who is going to be my business partner.” Sentinel doubled down. Finding it suspicious how his new partner was not willing to even give out their designation. “Tsk. See it this way. If you get caught, you can't say it was me who helped you because you can't refer to me, I won't suffer just because you made a mistake. it is a mere safety net for me.”

The same way Sentinel doubled down, so did the other individual in the room. While Sentinel held his ground, the other bot was starting to get a rather annoyed attitude, clearly not enjoying being talked to like that. Sentinel was still before finally dropping the matter, cutting the clear tension in the room. The golden bot seemed to mirror his action, demeanor switching back to indifference as they took a big vent in “Do we not have more urgent matters to address?” Sentinel hated how the other seemed to try taking the lead in this all. HE was the Prime, HE was entitled to be in the higher position of the two, yet he was smarter than go against someone who clearly had just welded him back together. The air still thick he relented and accepted the fact that the other would have the lead for now, but his time would come.

“Listen to me, Sentinel. I don't see why you should do any errands for me NOW. we have time with everyone figuring out how to lead things without you.” Sentinel perked up as the other bot essentially started to circle him again.

“You told me I would get everything back.”

Sentinel stated matter of fact, he wanted to see what hook this…creature had in its deals.

“Patience, patience. With time. It's not instantaneous. Why not start off small with that task? Who was at fault for this all?”

The figure questioned as they grabbed one of his servos, urging him to leave the empty medical bay with them.

“Optimus Prime and Megatron.”

Sentinel scoffed out, as if the answer was obvious. “Was that REALLY where things got out of servo? Was it?”

The individual questioned, leading them out to the abandoned halls, the debris in the dusty walls showing how long this station had really been abandoned as he began to think. “If Darkwing just would have done his task correctly then.-” “None of this would have happened.”

The figure completed the sentence for him as they let go of his servo. Leaving him on his own for now. “Tell you what. Why don't you go your own path for a while, and I will just call you once it's time to hold up your side of the deal, yes?”They did not give Sentinel the entitlement to even answer as they walked off and disappeared behind a corner. Sentinel picked up the pace, in confusion before turning the corner and seeing no sight of them. What is this thing? Not a Cybertronian that was clear, and that worried him. However, this entity was right, he had an open bill, and he would destroy anyone in his way, they betrayed him, they all did.

Wandering the silent halls he began to think, to plan. He could not just run into danger afterall, Darkwing wasn't an issue however someone in the possession of the matrix of leadership very much is and that isn't if the Quintessons haven't already noticed some things off and started the war all over again. However he found solace in the fact that Optimus and Megatron have been separated and thus he wouldn't have to face them at once, Optimus’ little friends however were another thing, afterall Optimus did not achieve all of this by himself, they managed to turn everyone against him. He paced angrily, no no, Optimus shouldn't be on his mind, he should keep his mind on the next step instead, and that is Darkwing. If Darkwing would have just appropriately gotten rid of him like he insinuated, then none of this would have happened in the first place and Darkwing was much easier to beat than his other options as of current since his “guardian angel” will quite clearly not assist him in this. Repositioning his wings he made up his mind, first Darkwing, and then he will plan accordingly to take out his bigger enemies, something in his mind truly just tells him to go ahead and cause as much as chaos as was possible, mayhaps it was revenge, or maybe it was something else, but Sentinel could care less. He was alive. That was good enough for now. 

Darkwing was easy enough to find, due to the new Prime’s rule changes deaths are minimized. All Sentinel had to do was find where Darkwing is holed up and then snuff out his miserable spark for being a failure in his book.

However the problem was that he couldn't get spotted, everyone would probably think he was some sort of horrific demon, well in their defense he did not exactly look the best either. But that was an issue for later, he had one advantage to this situation, they thought he was dead, so if that is the case all he had to do was take out Darkwing without being seen and they would never suspect him. That gave him an idea.

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

Silently he crept through the dark night, trying to remain in the shadows of Iacon, his dark colouration giving him the advantage now that the city was only partially lit up. The false prime had been to 3 holding cells he had knowledge of already, and Darkwing was in none of them, he had around 5 to go and he knew his chances of finding Darkwing would increase each time. He had made up his mind by freeing Darkwing first and once the mech was away enough from society that was when he was going to strike. Just like how he used to do it, he could stage this as a simple accident while Darkwing was breaking out and before anyone would find out what really happened, Sentinel was long gone before they could patrol the city.

As the false Prime checked out the next holding cell he couldn't help but wonder who to next take out. He wouldn't let Megatron and especially Optimus get out of this alive, HE would get the last laugh, he supposed Megatron due to being banished would be a next appropriate target before taking on the new Prime himself, he would claim the Matrix, as he was supposed to claim it first before Primus dared robbing him of his rightful place. The thought of Primus alone gave him a feeling of frustration and even disgust. He WILL get the Matrix of Leadership. HE was the rightful owner!

Sentinel was snapped out of his thoughts when he finally spotted Darkwing from the shadows, now he couldn't let Darkwing see him, or else the fool would shout or scream or whatever to alert the guards either on purpose or on accident. So he waited…and waited and waited.

Waiting until Darkwing went to recharge before fiddling with the Lock, now having claws made that very difficult and it felt like an eternity before he managed to unlock the cell. Slowly approaching he attempted to wake Darkwing, slowly shaking him as to not immediately startle him online, afterall Sentinel needed a while to back up. Slowly noticing Darkwing coming online, the false Prime ran off, leaving the door wide open so Darkwing gets the point and once again waiting in the safety of the darkness he had gotten so used to.

At first Darkwing seemed unsure, looking around for any present guards who seemed suspiciously absent, which was Sentinels doing, they weren't dead to say just…out of service for a while. Yet Darkwing didn't seem to know that.

Darkwing eventually took the opportunity, foolishly sneaking off while the guards were still out like a light, not knowing he was running right into his death.

Sentinel took up the chase, just far away enough to not be on Darkwings radar until they were far away enough from the facility before catching up to Darkwing and giving him a swift end by piercing his spark with what seemed to be built in blades on his forearms…since when?- Does not matter. His “guardian angel” must have had something to do with this.

A shame really, Sentinel would have loved if Darkwing would have at least put up a fight but it'll do. As he positioned Darkwing to make it look like his death was a simple accident on Darkwings part he felt a prickle in his back struts, electricity gathering in the air, he expected to turn around and be faced by a firearm but instead he was faced by his “angel” once again.

How long had they been following him? Did they see everything? “Who are you?! And this time do not give me a vague answer!” Sentinel demanded as he approached the mech, who slightly backed off, not in any fear, more irritation and bitterness as their facial plates contorted in an expression of unamusement and frustration. Their body language slightly hostile and wings in a defensive position as their purple optics locked onto the false Prime with their teeth nearly beared in snear as they approached him again, seemingly fed up with the attitude they had been given until now. “Someone you really should not have deleted from the archive records, Sentinel.”

[sewerpalette]

Have seen a bunch of people do this again so I thought I’d join in: Human AL-AN redesign from my old version, this is just a base I’ll probably draw more full body shots another time.

I gave him a burn scar over his face as I like to imagine that whilst he wasn’t present during the sea dragon attack he did rush back in, guilt ridden trying to save the seven architects still stuck inside attempting to prevent the outbreak, this is how I believe he got the kharaa and (physically) died before being put in storage, ofcourse he doesn’t have the same body now that he did then, but I’d like to imagine mental scarring remembering of past lives and stuff sticks with them throughout every body they continue to inhabit moving on (unless said memory is scraped by a storage transfer). The burn isn’t from the leviathan directly however it is from the heat in the facility that the leviathan mother caused.

Obviously from a design standpoint this is to mimic his face plate (?? What would you call that?) but yk, I thought making up an in lore reason would be fun.

Lab coat more heavily inspired by those the alterrans wear as most stuff in this universe is funded by alterra anyways so even when working for a different or self owned company there’d still be some similarities.

Hair shaped to resembles his horns obv, was thinking of making it white initially but thought the dark greenish teal with white/grey streaks would allow for more referencing on the glowy bits on his head.

Also i gave him facial hair because I thought it would help with the shape language aswell as making it look more similar to his canon design, I actually always loved the idea of making his head look more like he’s wearing a helmet / full body suit, so in reference to mechs that also share that kinda design aesthetic I gave him kind of a goatee, mustache is curled up to aid the shape of his face.

I also thought about giving him a blackout tattoo on his neck as that is also the darkest part of his design in value on the normal alien version, so that might come up in more doodles another time.

Pin on the lab coat inspired by the head of the precursor statues from BZ.

I think he hides his face in his coat a lot, because one, as he doesn’t make a lot of expressions or speak with his mouth it’s not really that necessary to show it in the first place, might aswell have a bit more protection. And two, kinda to show he’s hiding himself, both on things he’s done in the past, aswell as on what exactly he is to people that aren’t Robin, aswell as a sort of shame that comes from not only being in a human body but also having done something that butterflied into something horrible, I think it made him alot more reserved and fearful if not paranoid of extreme consequences to minor actions.

Made another image of him and Robin but it won’t export so I’ll save it for another post.

Also off topic but I hc him as non-binary aro/ace using he/they/it and still referring to themselves in we form because I think that may be a little comforting and make him feel less lonely.

Also wanted to make an alternate version where the burn is so bad his eyelids and mouth are melted shut, since he doesn’t have facial features in his actual design, in that version he’d speak with a voice box obv, but I haven’t gotten around to drawing that so you’ll have to wait a bit.

If you have any questions just ask me in the comments since I have no idea how to enable the ask me anything thingy on my page.

[ballcrusher74]

Your sona (bigform) looks very cool, reminds me of the silhouette of a dinosaur, what is the critter and what inspired such a cool mech tang?

OK. RAMBLE TIME

My sona (Jawbreaker) is a fucked up star alien thing ! You're gonna get a little more than just what he is and inspirations and I hope you don't mind, I made a whole fucking species just for this guy's backstory LOL Stellarites are shapeshifting, celestial beings created with star energy. Their strength varies, depending on what kind of star their energy was sourced from. Jawbreaker (his actually birth name is unknown and he forgot himself) was created with the energy of a quasi star as an experiment for his overlord, Metsu. He served in their celestial empire as a royal guard, and had a close eye kept on him. He excelled compared to his peers, and was deemed spectacular at his work- the only downside was his short temper. He was constantly consulted about his attitude, and it only seemed to grow worse. He grows disobedient, to the point where he is sentenced to be shattered for his resources to be recycled. He escapes from his home planet, landing on Earth. He examines life from afar, and takes on a more humanoid form. As he lives out his days on his new home, there's something that he can't avoid now- taxes. So what's a better job to get when you used to be a guard for an intergalactic ruler? Become a hitman! This is where he obtained his helmet and his name. A couple years go by and he's considered a perfect killing machine, being able to leave such little trails behind in his work. Then, he fucks up one day. A single drop of his blood is found at a scene. This results in a huge chase for him, especially because he is extraterrestrial life. He eventually is caught, and used in government experiments. These experiments were based off the mega-structure, dyson spheres, in which they tried to extract energy out of him. He manages to escape this, takes on his current form with a repainted helmet and fresh new look, and is now a party-animal alien out on the run with a bounty on his head. (This is like, a really watered down version of his story cus if I put the whole thing here that shit would go on forever)

Also y'know what, fuck it, here's the full ref sheet + cool guitar item that I keep forgetting I have OOPS

Going onto actually inspirations now, here's a couple !

The general design was just based off of character design aspects that I like a lot. Chunky shoes, shoulder pads, big sleeves, huge zipper- etc, etc.

The hoodie and boxers combo just comes from the fact that that is typically what I roam around in

The star eye was me trying to recycle from my old sona, but the true origin of it was it being a reference to one of my favorite musicians at the time, Grandson ^_^

The half heart locket is for my boyfriend <3

The big ol' eyebrow is just cus I have bushy eyebrows + I love big ass eyebrows

I'm gonna be honest, the hair was when I was trying to make my sona on Roblox but I obviously couldn't have my helmet, so a red base and cyan trihawk came along and it's stuck since then + I FUCKING LOVE MOHAWKS SO BAD

The blood is based off of glowstick liquid . Please trust me when I say to not eat glowsticks they do not taste good .

The colors are also kinda recycled from my old sona, but also because I fucking love red and cyan

The whole alien aspect is taken from the fact my birthday is on the same day as the Area 51 raid LMAO

Exaggerated proportions kinda came from FNF . yeag

THE HELMET . The helmet was a thing I scrapped from a really old oc of mine, which was kinda taken from Jasper (SU) . The addition for the jaw part was inspired by a bear trap

also these two that I use for this blog . They're obviously more jokey looking + I made it so they are both immortal beings that have existed since the dawn of time that just fuck around on Earth but yea it's also just me . but funny looking

I think that is it . yeag

[cipheramnesia]

Vivisection and other mech pilot stories genral world building rambles.

The first question is always, is Vivisection part of the same setting as Genghis Khan And The Wolf Girl? Probably not. It hypothetically can exist as a bolt on. There's lots of reasons why the humans of Vivisection might lack magic or metaphysical technology, and lack various everyday mythic creatures such as in GKW. Those even would fit in with a little of the themes around the setting, but all that would make it functionally a different universe anyway so it's moot.

Then next is why are there mechs? Everything a mech can do, a tank can do better in the real world. But fantasy science world can backwards engineer itself a solution derived from real world industrial equipment. If you look at equipment built for abnormal environments or unusual work, you find components which resemble complex arms like our own. You have treads, yes, but also often independently moving axles with large tires for climbing up or over terrain too variable for treads. Now feed that into humans terraforming planets with more extreme geography, where industrial machines might need to be more versatile (for space travel and weight saving, one more complex mutifunctional machine has some practical value against multiple specialized machines), and something which has legs of sorts, allowing the treads or wheels to spread wider or higher or narrower as needed, and interchangeable or somewhat manually dexterous limbs.

Don't really need to answer why some of them are armed, because this is some version of humanity reflecting the real humanity and you know the current real humanity would insist on sending weapons along. But anyway the neural net thing follows because now you have a kind of tank with one or two arms and four legs, and one pilot has to keep track of it all manually. The first stuff is just really basic, like sticking on some EEG pads and really basic programming to respond to stimuli enough that the pilot can more or less walk automatically and when climbing can focus on one or two legs at a time without falling. Sorta turns the human brain and sense of balance into a fast response gyroscope as it were.

From there we just slap regular tech evolution on the side, the basic af quadruped tanks with neural net balancing get better and more complicated and the interface gets better and more complicated. There's no proper ports here, and this style is what I call the Vertebrate mechs due to much of their designs very dimly resembling animals with spines. The upper limit, in fantasy world where we backwards engineer this shit, comes as mechanical processors and non-invasive neural nets hit a wall, a maximum level of capabilities when it comes to speed and reflexes and dexterity. This is where artificial neuron clusters and partially biobased material starts coming into play, allowing mechs to be lighter and faster and more nimble, and port interfaces are developed to allow nerve to nerve sync, rather than a kinda crude audiovisual EEG control by neural net helmet.

Another reason this gets pushed is when humanity starts trying to terraform worlds where life already exists, and starts a war with an alien race tentatively called Druids. This race utilizes magic, such as through traines spell casters, magical weapons, and they can create armies out of non-engineered environments. While the propaganda machine paints the Druids as the agressors, it's humans that really started it.

So these biomechs are faster and better, and also more difficult to disrupt due to the fly by neural sync. Humans aren't able to utilize magic, but the human psyche is close enough that it can be weaponized, which takes things through to the present in Vivisection. Combat mechs use pilot nightmares, PTSD and other emotions to protect the machines from magic based attacks, and also as a way to break magical barriers against attack. Terraforming and military action have been bundled together so there's plenty of reasons to skirmish.

But why are so many pilots trans? The main reason is the unique disembodiment experienced through the neural connection. The mech itself uses dozens of neural clusters like tiny brains scattered all over, running all its weapons and powerplant and limbs and scanners and defense and so on all at once, about like an alive thing save that it has a fission reactor instead of a heart, and is missing about forty percent of the amount of brain it needs to think. When a pilot plugs in, their entire consciousness doesn't just merge with the mech, its pulled apart into all the components - the pilot goes from an individual to something like a hive mind functioning as a unit. This requires a fairly unique personality, with high levels of flexibility and permeability about the sense of self, and the general mindset associated with gender et al transition has a high crossover with that permeability.

That is, because a trans person already detached from a self concept like gender, they have an easier time being detached from being a human individual. However, because of the sever psychological stress both from the consciousness division and the use of weaponized personal trauma, it's fairly common for most pilots to burn themselves out before any kind of retirement. The current generation of mechs are the Arthropod series, as they tend to resemble insects or sea creatures.

This setting also has no humanoid mechs to speak off. The mechs of Vivisection are meant to evoke disgust, fear, and deliberate terrorism rather than power and skill. They dimly resemble giant insects, but they look sick, unhealthy, layered in complicated armor and biomechanical parts that cradle more conventional weaponry. They literally radiate nightmares that kill and consume their pilots personalities, and when the pilots manage to come back they're treated like shit because everyone knows mech pilots are freaks. The current gen of mechs such as in Vivisection are wildly advanced and very difficult to kill and very fast, but it's all caught up in the service of brutal human colonialism and they destroy everything they touch.

[biomechttrpg]

Little BIOMECH update (:

BIOMECH is very soon leaving pre-alpha, and I am working on some closed alpha test groups! Once I get a beta, I plan on doing something more open. we'll see how that rolls out. In the meantime while I hear back from some test readers, I wanna talk about some inspirations, and some fun things I have come across and been pointed to. I won't count the weird nightmare I had that caused me to start writing this, but it certainly is a thing that inspired the whole project. - First: Alien. I watched the move at an age that was probably too young, but it left such an impression on me and has remained my favorite horror movie for a long, long time (still is). I think my fascination for body horror stems from my exposure to this movie. - Gurren Lagann: It took my friends 3-4 years to finally get me to watch it? I almost bounced off due to the high amount of Weeb Shit (put a shirt on, kid) but it ended up becoming one of my favorites. There are a couple things that are inspired by a fighting spirit and never giving up; BIOMECH may be horror, but it isn't hopeless.

- Metal Gear Solid: While things *are* in an endless war, I do like to think the message in the base writing is anti-war. I could be here for 4 hours talking about MGS; so I will spare you and say that while it is an inspiration, I'm not looking to do a bunch of Kojima level writing. - Star Wars: I grew up watching the tapes my mom and dad had, i can't help loving it, and I bet there are notes of star war in this thing. It is an inescapable pit in my brain. - Bladerunner: This one is not nearly as surface level, and may only really appear in writing about the system/in a game module I want to write. But I really like how the movies explore humanity, a sense of self, and more. I won't go into a ton of detail here yet. Maybe once I showcase a game module for people to run.

Some other mentions!

Warframe! I started playing it again in the past few months, and some ideas run somewhat parallel to things I had planned for BIOMECH. It's been real fun to play it after barely ever touching it.

Anti-capitalism. Capitalism is the bad guy in the writing. Granted, a GM can use the system to make any story they want, but capitalism fuels war in this story. War is a never-ending evil that fills the pockets of the rich and keeps the rest suppressed and fighting each other for their "all-powerful" leaders.

Multiple game systems, but FFG Star Wars and Call of Cthulhu are the most influential on the system I am making. In the end, I am making something I find fun and interesting and following the path I want. But these games have deeply influenced how I formed some of the base designs.

Pacific Rim/Armored Core/Other Big Mech Stuff: I just like big robot, ok?

And more! I'm gonna let people try and pick some out though (: Now, the one I haven't seen. And some alpha readers, friends, and viewers have asked if i was influenced. I have never seen Neon Genesis Evangelion. I now will not be watching it until I am done with the beta, I feel that would be against my interests at this point when it comes to making something that is authentically mine. Anyway, hope this was somewhat interesting to read. More to come!

[forgetmenautical]

Hello! What was your favorite part of Mech Cadets (Netflix)? I enjoyed it so much, I had changed tumblr icon to Buddy and rewatched it twice!

My favorite part of it was the evolving and dynamic relationship of Olivia and Captain Park, Frank standing up for his friends, Maya being relaxed and a teenager around her friends especially Frank, and Dolly Yu keeps on helping Stanford to become a Mech Cadet but still for him since he is still her child! Everyone is supporting and caring about each other and it causes problems, but they never doubted their loves for the people they care for!

Also who are your favorite characters? I saw too much of myself in Stanford doing a Power Ranger pose, Olivia and her father because of their role in the story, and Tanaka cause his designs looks so cool and good for him to punch Aiden Park absolutely deserved that punch

And finally, anything else you want to talk about Mech Cadets?

AHH HI!!!

Presently my favorite part was the scene in episode 4 where Frank gets to fight that baby sharg with his crutches. Holy shit that was so cool!!!!!! And honestly yeah I have to agree with you on their growing dynamic also!! It’s so heartwarming to actually see them, y’know, getting along. Most functional mech pilot team I’ve ever fucking seen. I actually thought i’d really dislike the growing romantic tension between maya and frank, but it’s actually really sweet? Romantic stuff usually isn’t my thing but it’s so nice to see them actually getting along together! I’m also really surprised how much I grew to like Olivia. I just wanna give her a big hug, man. D:

Would you count buddy as a character? I would. I fucking love buddy. I really really wish we got more time with just the robos themselves since it’s shown that they have their own thoughts and feelings outside of what their pilots reflect on them! Aaurgh, I would give anything to have a goofy filler episode focusing on the robo’s instead of the main cast for a moment. I would give anything. Im so serious. Anyway, if you’re only counting human characters, then Frank actually! He’s just such a sweetheart and is always trying to lift everyone else up, and I especially felt that when Stanford was first introduced to the team, since Maya was still a bit abrasive toward him and I’m 90% sure Olivia wanted to actually rip his thoat out lmfao. Tanaka should’ve punched aiden park again btw.

I actually have a lot of thoughts on the robo’s themselves and the fact that they’re their own weird organic alien life. As soon as it was revealed that they’re actually thinking, conscious beings who choose their own pilots I went nuts. That has so many implications! I know it’s not canon but one of my Own thoughts is that they’d have to have actual flesh and bones under there, and the metallic exterior just serves as an exoskeleton. Maybe it serves as a more natural element for them to grow, much like bugs to chitin and us to keratin? It’s so fascinating. I fucking love the robos.

I’m a bit of a weirdo when it comes to fictional biology, sorry. It’s just….so cool…..!!! What is up with these things!! I love them!!

[weaselle]

@neobiohazardus hey, just out of curiosity, how much would you charge to draw this style of drawing for close to 100 mechs for a video game concept i keep trying to kick further toward gamehood?

And do you draw things that aren't robotic, or should i keep looking for someone who wants to draw the other two factions, which are basically fantasy races for one, and aliens for the other

the style you show above simple and small in all the best of ways, and just jumps out at me as perfect for like, concept art to get me one step closer to maybe making a video game one day, and i'd happily pay for it if i can afford your quote

as you can see, my own art skills aren't going to cut it, but should give you an idea of what i wish i could do

The Cyberians are human-minded cyborgs with downloadable/transferable minds and robotic/cybernetic support crews. When a Cyberian is killed, their mind is simply uploaded to their central server and then downloaded into a new body, which is 3D printed with one mineral-matter jet and one organic-matter jet. For a price.

To replicate food, water, and sleep needs while streamlining the player experience for the faster pacing more suitable to a MOBA ARPG with RTS and FPS elements , Player Character Cyborgs require electricity to function, water for power moves (separated into hydrogen and oxygen) mineral matter for ammunition and armor, and hydrocarbons/organic matter for healing (this can be had from many sourcres, such as oil, vegetation, or hunted creatures).

Special abilities are orbital support (like missile/laser strikes or supply drops) which costs money and may require waiting for an available satellite (variable cooldown). Cyberians specialize in kinetic and explosive damage, and maintain a physical damage option for ammunition budgeting and special counters. They can employ laser shields or physical shields; mechs and mega-class Cybernauts (whole other thing) all have at least some metal armor. Their on-world faction center is a couple of large Cyberian Citadels. The Cyberian off-world faction power base is a metropolis on one of the moons that orbit the planet.

player characters are one of three Classes: Rogue, Fighter, Support, and every character of these classes will be one of three Types: Specialist, Purist, or Movement (movement means they specialize in a type of terrain or have movement skills/bonuses like jumpjet, transport objects/personnel, or burrow) and each of these has three Skill Trees to develop

Therefore, the nine player character class types are: Rogue Specialist Rogue Purist Rogue Movement Fighter Specialist Fighter Purist Fighter Movement Support Specialist Support Purist Support Movement

and since each of these has three skill trees to go down (which include water and possibly flying variants) that means concept art for 27 Cyberian Mechs plus another 28 mega-class Cybernauts are on the table, as well as the NPC support classes:

each player has a certain number of points to spend on npc support bots, there are three size classes, each size class costs a different number of points, so a player can have a whole bunch of small support bots, or one of each size, or one big one and a few small ones etc These size classes are, small to large:

Wagon/Sub -support wagons are like small trucks about the size of a bulldog, Subs are small submarines. Wagons come in fighter and support variants, Subs come in support, fighter and worker variants

Humanoid Bot - worker and fighter variants Bot Dog/'Fin - fighter and support variants, wolf and dolphin builds

Mechabot - large robot; Bear, Hulk, Jet Suit, and Orca versions

so, like, close to twenty of these support npc designs and then a few things like signal relay posts and drop ship orbital supports and the rogue classes are typically humanoid cyborgs on robot mounts or vehicles, that adds a few and you'd be looking at something like 85 little robot-y units to draw. Of course, a huge percentage of what you already drew up there is totally useable so you could probably count almost twenty of them as done already.

i have break downs that suggest design, like so

Player Characters

Class: Rogue Type: Movement Body: humanoid cyborg

Skill Trees:

scout - robot horse invisible to enemy radar, weapons moslty long range rifle and dagger, mark enemies on team map ability , calm local creatures ability, smuggler - hover cycle & tow trailer with low altitude flight capabilities and active camouflage, weapons mostly sword & pistol, cache ability, mark loot on team map ability ranger - bear mech, combat bow & physical damage, set traps ability, tame/calm local creatures ability, mark resources on team map ability

Class: Rogue Type: Purist Body: humanoid cyborg

Skill Trees:

thief - special backstab, disarm trap, cache item, pick pocket (take a percentage of a resource from an enemy unnoticed) very short term active camouflage, short term invisible to enemy radar, bonus to sneak spy - disguise self as enemy npc, Mark All on team map, forge authorization, bonuses to sneak and hide agent - disguise, forge authorization, set traps, disarm traps, bonus to hide and crit

Class: Rogue Type: Specialist Body: humanoid cyborg

Skill Trees:

sniper - special rifle, special headshot, bonus to climb, hide and crit assassin - special strike, physical damage, bonus to crit, hide, climb, and sneak special ops - disguise, traps, disarm traps, sabotage enemy functions, forge auth, bonuses to attack speed, crit and sneak

Class: Fighter Type: Movement Body: Mech

Skill Trees:

jet jumper mech - jump-jet and glide, wing mounted large calibre machine guns, mech sword, bomb drop amphibious mech - swim and dive, torpedo launcher, surface to air rocket barrage rocket bank, AOE electric strike (bonus damage and range in water) trident, harpoon, or robot crab claw arm for melee choices digger mech - trench, wall, burrow, dozer shield, laser cutter, explosives

Class: Fighter Type: Purist Body: Mech

Skill Trees:

fighter mech - Left side: large double gun arm with mounted metal round shield on forearm Right side: large melee weapon arm, wrist-mounted small beam energy weapon, shoulder mounted cannon that can be modded for different types of damage. slightly more humanoid mech. tank mech - Left side: giant metal bulldozer-esque shield with room for a teammate or two to take cover behind, shoulder grenade launcher rounds that can either be damaging or can "explode" into stationary temporary energy shield bubbles for allies Right side: choice of slow large gun that can be modded for damage type (plasma gun, explosive rounds, flame thrower, etc) or slow large melee weapon that can be modded for damage type (giant plasma sword, electrified war axe, explosive damage war hammer, etc) wrist mounted small calibre machine gun berserker mech - melee damage specialist, high attack speed, four arms, energy shield, mechsuit possibly designed with living body cybernetic elements

etc etc

oh dang i've gone and put far too much, when i should have simply asked if you do commissions

Every* Type of Mecha

*Not Actually Every Type.

Something I spent WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much time on lol. This is entirely just riffing off of the many 'kinds' or 'tropes' in mecha design I found. Feel free to suggest more of them.

Might make a document providing examples for each one, but idk. I think most of these are pretty self-explanatory.

Tell me your favourites below

[theothin]

So far, I've been tending towards humans and humanoids. Why not change it up a bit?

an alien cat on a distant planet

I decided to try doing both the Artistic and Anime styles this time, since the comparisons have been interesting. Here, all four images present very similar scenes, with the differences mostly coming down to style. All four are wearing what looks like some sort of futuristic collar, while the upper two have it extend down into more of a vest.

Let's give them something to do.

an alien cat hunts alien mice on a distant planet

Only one of the images actually shows the mice, but in all the cases, we get to see the cats actually standing up and moving. The cats themselves look pretty similar to their previous counterparts, but they seem better equipped this time.

What other locations might this planet have?

two alien cats play-fight by a river on a distant planet

All four images have two cats meeting at a river. The top ones don't seem to be fighting, though, and the bottom ones abandon the alien-looking landscapes in favor of a more normal one.

Say, I sent some robots into space earlier today, didn't I?

alien cats climb on neon future robots on an alien planet

Four very different interpretations this time! The upper left is the only one to actually feature a cat sitting on a robot, and it's joined by a cat that's standing more like a human. The upper right doesn't show robots at all, only showing a cat near structures that might be associated with them. The lower left shows cat-like robots meeting regular cats, and in the lower right, the "robots" are giant cats wearing mech suits.

Something that strikes me about the lower two is the AI's willingness to pick an interpretation and stick with it. They each come up with a distinct design and repeat it three times, and the ones in the lower right are even in very different poses. I wonder what sort of processes that takes.

alien cats and neon future robots look out the window of a spaceship

I guess you can't take it for granted that a spaceship will actually be in space.

Only one robot is present, and it seems to be looking into the spaceship. The rest of the robotics present seem to be cybernetic enhancements on the cats. All four of them feature this to some extent, with some amount of repeating elements, but with different takes each time.

Perhaps these cyborg cats will go on to have further adventures.

[megamijadeheart]

I've been on a bit of a Kaiju kick (it's a longstanding love, I always come back to it) so I decided to give the three anime films on Netflix a try.

I've finished the first two, and so far these are solid Sci-fi movies that explore themes of what it means to be human. But the focus has been on the relations between the three alien races and humanity, with the conflict against Godzilla and the presence of Kaiju being a metaphorical backdrop for philosophical differences.

Which is really cool? Honestly?

But it means that they don't feel like Kaiju movies. There's no camp. There's no humor or joy in the ridiculous. Or awe in the impossible. The human characters don't love their Kaiju, they just want to kill it. There's no humility before nature, there's the call to pride. The imperative of humanity to reclaim and conquer rather than learn and live.

And there's no monster battles. It's all been humans in tiny scifi battle suits attacking Godzilla. There are no cities to be destroyed or cars to pick up and throw. For a movie baring his name Godzilla spends a surprisingly small amount of time on screen, and he barely moves!

It feels... like an appropriation? Like someone wanted to write a future scifi alien horror and was told they had to add Godzilla to the setting, which was done without an appreciation for why people love Godzilla.

Movie two delt with Mecha Godzilla and I was entirely disappointed by its execution, because I love Mecha Godzilla, and while there was a cool Gundam mech design... it was Gundam, not mechagodzilla. At no point do we see a robot dinomonster.

And movie three seems to be Ghidorah's movie, but I'm not sure I trust them anymore to do him justice. And Mothra and her twins have been a chekov's gun, but I worry if they will let her show up as more than a background presence supporting the humans. I was feeling disappointed enough that I had to stop after the first bit of movie three and write my feelings out. But I feel like I keep waiting for these movies to get around to remembering they are giant monster movies? And I feel like I'm having to stop and calibrate my own expectations to the fact that they are not.

I want my movies to be what they say they are. If these had been advertised to me as scifi alien phycological thriller I would have enjoyed them for being that. They address the politics and psychological strain of space travel beautifully.

But they said they were Godzilla. And. It looks like him? In basic outline? The silhouette of the monster matches. But it doesn't act like Godzilla outside of the first flashback scene.

[beevean]

The ARK, and consolidating Shadow’s corruption

What’s this? I still have Things to Say about ShTH levels nobody cares about? Yes, it’s not my fault this game has gallons of untapped potential :)

I planned to write only one last post, but since it turned out a little too long, I thought it was better to split in two parts. This one is a little shorter than the others, and it’s about Shadow’s trip to his old home with his dad. Fun, right?

The ARK is the darkest 5th stage in the map, and you can reach it in two ways: either Shadow detonated Black Doom’s giant bombs in Central City, destroying at least part of it, or Black Doom succesfully corrupted Shadow enough to let him experience a false memory in which he killed every G.U.N. soldier during the famous raid on the ARK.

Obviously, both of these events are nothing short of a Moral Event Horizon. Either Shadow is a full-fledged terrorist, or he succumbed to Black Doom’s violent brainwashing to the point that he can no longer trust his own thoughts. In any case, if you reach this point, it’s too late for him to redeem himself.

Look at him, he’s out for blood. Even Black Doom is happy that Shadow has “finally come to realize just how abominable these humans are”. And personally, I find the music that starts playing when the cutscene focuses on Shadow’s hatred-filled eyes a little unsettling, as if it’s saying “This is not Shadow anymore. Who is this monster?”.

Much like its mirror counterpart Lost Impact, The ARK has an unbalanced set of missions, only Neutral and Dark. It again emphasizes how Shadow can’t turn “good” anymore; but it also conveys how alone Shadow is now. He has rejected the help of many of his friends and, depending on the route, committed unspeakable crimes: his only ally in the world is the manipulative Black Doom, from which he cannot escape anymore.

There’s actually not much to talk about the level itself: for being the second-to-last stage in a path, it’s incredibly easy, as you literally fly your way through shooting at your targets with the Black Volt. Either you destroy 4 defense systems to allow the Black Arms to get to the Eclipse Cannon, or you… don’t. It’s a needed breather between what came before and what comes next, but it’s a shame that it’s so easygoing considering the heartwrenching context of Shadow violating his old home under Black Doom’s orders.

On that note, the music is worth talking about:

It’s a very catchy remix, the only contribution to the soundtrack from Tomoya Ohtani no less, of Sonic Adventure 2′s Final Rush.

What’s the significance? I think it’s pure irony. Final Rush is the last stage of the Hero Story in SA2, where Sonic has to make a mad dash to prevent the Eclipse Cannon from firing. In ShTH, you return to the same location (with a very similar level design if you bother getting off the Black Volt), but as a villain with plans to fire it again. If you played SA2 before, revisiting a beloved level in this situation just rubs salt into the wounds.

Anyway, much like Lost Impact, what’s really interesting is the endings both missions send you to.

You can suddenly tell Black Doom “nah i can’t be bothered with opening the way for you, cya” and fly to the Goal Ring in 2 minutes or so. Shadow’s musing at the end of the mission implies he’s simply filled with nostalgia for “where it all began”. The big man is strangely okay with this, even though he doesn’t get to use the Eclipse Cannon: he can still threaten humanity, and with reason. He also still trusts Shadow enough to ask him for help with G.U.N. raiding the Black Comet. (It makes me think he didn’t really need the Cannon, he was just being petty.)

Believe it or not, this is the path you have to take if you want to see Shadow becoming Black Doom’s servant: dispatch 50 of the G.U.N. mechs on the Comet, and Shadow will find his place to the right side of the alien lord.

It’s actually creepy how easily Shadow vows loyalty to Black Doom and forgets everything about finding his own identity, and I can’t help but wonder what kind of existence he’ll live with him.

(small comparison: in the Japanese version, he says “My name is Shadow the Hedgehog… The strongest soldier, chosen by the ruler of darkness, Black Doom! Together with him, using this wondrous power, I shall dye the ugly world in black!”. Not only Shadow sounds less servile, but there are several paths that lead to this ending named after the concept of “dyeing in black” and especially being a “soldier”. A clear case of lost in translation, but the English version isn’t bad, so I’ll let it pass)

(and before you ask, I hate the Semi Dark-Hero ending so I refuse to spend more time thinking about it than the writers did, which is “they didn’t”)

But let’s back up a bit. What if Shadow is a good obedient tool and destroys the 4 defense systems instead? In that case, after murdering the poor pilot of the Blue Falcon, he gets a front row seat to watching Central City crumble under the Eclipse cannon.

And then he goes to the last stronghold humanity has left, where he loses what little sanity he had left.

The second part of this post will be about my favorite stage in ShTH. See you then as I try to convey how horribly well-written the evil endings are :)

[goldstonegolem64]

Murder drone Oc: E-103 Gamma

I’m going to try to do this Oc Bio every two weeks. Now lets get this Started with the dad of the group   

Backstory: Gamma is the leader of team Ion and the Father figure of the Family. Gamma uses his size ,strength and heavy weapons to Brutalize anyone who dares to threaten his Family. Built during the early years of the Company back when it was called JcJenson's Robotics company. He was a Military drone used to help Colonize worlds the Company had bought. He fought on Countless planets killing dozens of Alien creatures Space Pirates, Rebelling Worker drone and invading Companies that tried to press their luck.

Gamma did this for two centuries until his Produce Line was discontinued and he was dumbed on the last Planet he was helping Colonized Mercury-2. An he was reassigned to being Head security guards and one of the few selected to Progenitors of Project Disassembly. He was there to see the first Prototypes Disassembly drones walk of the assemble line. An even fought some of them to test if they were combat ready. He was stationed there for three decades training and seeing off several generations disassembly drones and growing a romantic relationship with a Mech Pilot drone named Beta ursa. He also grow an attachment to those he trained. The one he grew the most attached to was a young Serial designation V seeing her as the daughter he and Beta never asked for but were happy to have. An when she was set off Gamma and Beta were there to see her go on her latest mission with her new squad mates. 

Through the years of training and service to the Company. Gamma knew his days were numbered. An no amount of Loyalty and hard work could stop some higher up from deeming him obsolete. So he decide to take a page out of the Human’s books and Take an early retirement. He just need a way out and that would arrive when the rumors of a rebellion on Copper-9 started to pop up.  He thought it was a good time to jump ship and used his position as one of the Trainers of the Disassembly drone to get a free ride to Copper-9. So he took Beta because of their relationship and Having a fifteen foot tall war mech on the team never hurt .An he took an old squad mate Delta who he owned a few favors too  

When they arrived on World via the drop pod the group was immediately surrounded by the Family which at the time was comprised of N,V,E,S and Uzi. Who were already to fight until V saw Gamma any tension undercut By V hugger basically her father. Gamma slotted into the father roll rather easily seeing as most of the Drones there had either parentally or self-esteem and he was there to fix the best he could       

Looks: His current body is a mix between a generation two disassembly drones mixed with a fifth generation military drone. So he stands about eight feet tall with a wing span of ten feet, tank treads on his feet allowing him to move faster on the ground where he felt more at home then in the sky. The armor he wears looked like a heavy metal Bomb suit that can be taken off to reveal a terminator style skeletal body that he rarely showed off only when he needs to  repair the Armor itself. He has several different masks and helmets to hide his face do to it looking similar to Skeletor’s and the fact that he is bald 

Weapons: Gamma has a plasm cannon in his left arm ,An anti tank gun in his right. twin Gatland guns and on both shoulder's he had micro missile batteries

Personality: Being a Military drone Gamma fits perfectly as the father figure of family as he is the stern, stable, commanding voice that keeps the family under control. He very protective of those under him and it can cause him to be a little too caution when it comes to dangerous situation that could risk the lives of his children. He is also quick to anger not as bad a Beta when he see one of family hurt. Nearly killing Both Doc and Chen after the capture of Fritz as revenge for the deaths of S,P,Q and Delta only being stop When Beta stepped in and stopper him as well as Doc Promising to bring the fallen back to life good as new. But besides that Gamma dose his best with the skills he has and failure is just something expected as a father.

An that’s it if you want to know more my Asks are open and I have a lot of idea bounding about in my head 

[cybertronian-cupid]

I'm feeling really uneasy having to spend the holiday season with my family, so, if that's not a problem, could I request some fluff with TFP decepticons? Like,, comforting their s/o, making sure they feel safe and happy?

You didn't specify which ones you'd like best, so *rubs back of neck* what happened was a bit of a fluff surprise story. Hopefully it makes you smile Anon, and makes the holidays atleast a little more bearable.

*squints* though I think we should have the comfort styles of the Cons written somewhere... Keep an eye out, they'll be posted as soon as they get pieced together in some semblance of sense. ~Gregoria🏩

We hope you like it, Anon, and we hope this holiday season treats you well. You deserve nothing but happiness~Mila 💟

Holiday Surprise Fluff: Poly!Reader x TFP Decepticons (sfw)

(Yes. All of them. That includes the troops.)

............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............

Being partners with Steve had its perks. Sure, there were some drawbacks as well, but considering how close all Vehicons were, that just meant the human suddenly had a whole lot of love and support, when one of these aliens decided to zoom into their life.

And well, when Breakdown met them and saw just how close the other guys are with them, and how nice they are treated by this fleshie, who's to blame the poor mech for falling for them too?

Knockout flirted with them once, and caught feelings when they laughed and flirted right back at him.

The rest of the ship caught feelings for the little organic faster than the cosmic rust, with the High Command being the most confused and vary over trying to express their feelings about it.

After all, their human isn't just a partner of one Steve.

They are a partner of all Steves, and soon of the Insecticon troops as well, with officers falling prey to their charms one after the other. In a sense, they have the whole ship wrapped around their tiny fingers, and soon they earn the affection of the Communications officer, Second in command and the Lord of Decepticons as well.

With ALOT of compromising and weekly reminders amongst the top three, that their human loves everyone aboard the Nemesis. The whole Nemesis.

How they manage that, remains a mystery to everyone aboard and yet, the morale has never been higher, so who is going to look a gift horse in the mouth? Noone, that's who.

🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸

Steve drives them through the groundbridge straight into the command center.

Sondwave greets them with a merry tune, Lazerbeak chirping happily as they are swooped up into familiar well maintained servos.

"Here you are, " Knockout kisses their face all over, before glaring at Steve. "If I remember correctly, today was MY turn to pick OUR lovely fleshie up"

"But you just did sir," Steve answers prompting a groan out of Knockout, before rushing off towards the barracks laughing.

"So, what ARE you guys planning?"

"We can't tell you just yet," Dreadwing smiles at them. Skyquake is leaning against his twin, nodding.

"It would ruin the surprise."

They pout and look at the ceiling.

"Not even an itsy-bitsy clue? Come onnnn, you guys have been driving me crazy for long enough."

Airachnid giggles, skittering off her perch and extending a welcoming servo for them to step on. She holds them close to her spark, heels clicking as she walks.

"Not even that. Orders from the Second in Command."

"I thought you were ALSO Second in command."

"Who isn't at this point," Shockwave points out when the femme places them in his servo, pressing a quick kiss before dragging the two warriors with her, off to who-knows-where. Being carried and placed from servo to servo was a thing that took some time to get used to, and yet, they are always handled with such care and love they can't really stay mad at their partners for too long.

They gaze up into the red optic staring at them.

"Shockyyyyy,"

"No,"

"Shockerrrrs,"

"The answer is still no," his voice is firm and unyielding, but his finials are wiggling in amusement.

Whatever the others are preparing is clearly going to be good.

"Come on, can't you just tell me? " they try again, genuine laughter from the Warlord snapping their attention to the entrance. Disappointment setting in when he is not actually standing there.

>>Patience, little one,<< the recording echoes from Soundwave, who steps through the groundbridge a moment later, with parting words of

"And enjoy the show."

🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸

And what a show it was. Almost an hour of all fliers, spinning and looping around each other, acrobatics of transforming mid-flight to blow them a kiss, before transforming again and resuming what has clearly been practiced time and time again with how perfect their forms were.

They couldn't look away even if they tried, each segment of them all dancing in the air grander than the last, topped off by Predaking creating rings of fire for them all to fly through.

It was a spectacle of the kind they have never seen.

Their excitement has them almost jumping in place when all commanders return to the bridge, optics twinkling with glee at their s/o and their clear enjoyment and pride.

"That was just the start," Starscream smirks knowingly, with Breakdown presenting them with a thick coat.

"Just wait till you see what our Liege has in store for you,".

🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸

They honestly expected a gladiator match. Hardshell, Dreadwing and Skyquake against Megatron and Soundwave. Or perhaps some sort of a firing range, or anything that would indicate a show of strength, or precision and cunning. They wouldn't be surprised if the Warlord somehow decided to do it all inside of an ice cave just for the extra challenge.

They didn't expect to be taken to one of the empty mines.

They did not expect there to be decorations put up, a mix of what they know to be Cybertronian designs with different Earth influences mixing into them all and still looking stunning in their own way.

And they did not expect every grounder of the Nemesis to be present.

"What is all this?" they ask, their eyes roaming over everyone. Their frames polished, their engines humming in sync, as they all break into a song.

A song about them.

They caught a glimpse of the title one night, when Megatron forgot to put that particular datapad away.

"Oh it's nothing," he waved their question off, settling them down in their bed above his berth.

"Megs, what are you planning?"

His grin and a tilt of his helm had them laughing, the expression on their face earning them a chuckle of his own, and yet no answer beyond the teasing "You'll see".

Any questions directed at others about what they think could be in the works, were met with the same grin and chuckles of "You'll see, it's a surprise."

Arms wrap around them from behind.

"Happy holidays," Steve says, nuzzling his helm against their head.

"Care for a dance?"

Dating Steve had many perks. Dating the whole Nemesis, has around a million more. And they have all night to count them all, as they dance and laugh with their wretched, evil, horrible, no good Decepticons.

At a house somewhere on the planet, there stands a very, very irked Makeshift, currently tangled in strings of lights, reminding himself that he is a vital part of the operation "Our Human Will Have The Best Holiday Celebration". He's been bossed around this way and that, without much rhyme or reason for a week now, and at this point, he would much prefer to listen to a certain Seeker screaming his voicebox raw, than to be listening to yet another round of 'All I want for Christmas'.

He will have someones spark if he isn't the one that gets to cuddle with The Spark of Nemesis for at least a week after his mission is complete. He knows those will be well deserved after the madness he's being put through.

[remmushound]

Curse of the Clans part 60! @selfindulgenz @scentedcandlecryptid

Content warning: blood, injury, insults, hatred, nightmares

“Uh…” Donatello was staring at the wall—in fact, he was staring right through it— as he witnessed the truck barreling toward them. “Uh uh uh—we should GO!”

With seconds to spare, Sunita snapped out of her stupor enough to practically tackle the four others and engulf them into her form just as the truck made contact, ripping through the hull of the mech and slamming into the empyrean supply. Sunita’s body absorbed the impact and kept those within her sheltering embrace safe. The green liquid spilled out through the cracks that the force sent spiderwebbing across the glass, leaking out onto the hood of the truck that had started to blare its deafening alarm.

Sunita let everyone go once she had gotten them to higher ground and away from the spilled empyrean.

“How does truck beat alien tech?” Donatello scoffed.

“Well, the mech wasn’t exactly designed for fighting.” Leonardo pointed out.

“Guys!” Raphael pulled himself out through the window of the truck and onto the roof , taking several steps back to avoid the spilled empyrean as he pulled Cassandra free. “I got your message! It was a smash message, right?”

“Uh. Yeah.” April said, shaking her head slightly, “And you really took it to heart.”

“Don’t say smash if you don’t mean SMASH!” Cassandra cheered, thrashing about in Raphael’s grip like an excited toddler.

“Point taken.”

Sunita made extra arms to be able to carry everyone across the quickly flooding room to the truck that was rapidly becoming a landbridge.

“Dad!” Raphael noticed the old rat and immediately ran forward, taking the burden from Leonardo and easily cradling his unmoving father in two hands.

“He’s alive, but he’s hurt— we have to get him back home.”

Raphael nodded, his breath quickening. He looked back up at his gathered clan, doing a mental headcount of all gathered. “Wait, where’s Mikey?”

“He’s up there with Krang—“

“You left him with Krang?!”

“Guys, this mech is going down!” Donatello said, and his words were true as the mech started to fall apart at the very foundations all around them.

“We have to go now!”

Sunita snared everyone including Raphael, dragging them out of the mech and away from the danger zone.

“No— we have to get Mikey!”

The mech stumbled, the last of the empyrean spilling out and taking the mech down with it. It took one final step and then powered down, collapsing on top of several structures and sending a shockwave that tore up asphalt and ripped through nearby buildings, some breaking apart into a cloud of suffocating dust. The first few seconds all Raphael could do was cough, covering his mouth with one arm while trying to keep his brothers behind him, as if he could spare them the choking pain. Donatello squeezed his eyes shut, clutching to Leonardo who had braced similarly and was holding his breath.

“MIKE!”

Raphael ran to the mech; Draxum was there first, vines and fists ripping through the rubble, tossing pieces the size of boulders as if they were pebbles. He didn't care that the rocks he threw nearly struck those behind him several times, Leonardo and April having to duck out of the way of the flying stones. Raphael knelt to join him, throwing the stones with just as much fervor but more aware of his family. Everyone else knelt to join, but there wasn’t much they could do with the heavy rubble, some half the size of their body or even bigger.

They cleared a path; a small space that Sunita was able to squeeze through, entering the dark mech below. Her slime gave off the slightest glow to guide her, dimmed greatly by the invasive dust accumulated in her fragile microbiome, but it was enough.

“Mikey? Mikey!” She saw him, little more than a shape. Unmoving. She hurried over to him, to the discarded bricks pinning him down, but she couldn’t move them. “He’s in here!”

More space was made; enough for Donatello to press himself through. He was able to lift the bricks that Sunita had been struggling with, tossing them aside so Sunita could grab Michelangelo and pull him free.

“Mikey…” Donatello took Michelangelo from Sunita, cradling the younger turtle with the affection one might show to a baby. He gently traced a hand across Michelangelo’s cheek and that made the turtle smile, just slightly, and raise a hand up to meet Donatello’s.

Michelangelo was more gray than green, dusty debris covering him in a thick layer that Donatello quickly worked to clean off. When his hand went to brush off Michelangelo’s plastron, it came back wet and red. Donatello stared down at the hand in growing horror before he shook his head, working to clean Michelangelo off faster before crawling carefully through the debris to pass him through the cracks and to Raphael, who handed him just as quickly over to Leonardo.

“Hey… hey hey hey little bro…” Leonardo said; April passed over her coat immediately for Leonardo to wrap Michelangelo inside, shushing him gently as he assessed the injuries to Michelangelo’s plastron. Cracks, a lot of them, and though the amount of blood spilled was very little, Leonardo winced at the thought of how painful such a sensitive area would be. It didn't help that Michelangelo was covered in dust and shivering from the shock of it all.

Raphael looked up from his two youngest brothers to watch as Sunita and Donatello crawled out to join them. Then he looked into the darkness beyond them, to the vague shape looming.

“Get back!” Raphael gathered everyone up in his arms, even Draxum, and pulled them away just as Krang busted free.

The utrom seemed worse off than Michelangelo had been, his slimy body bruised and battered purple, leaking a bright pink substance from his injuries. Several of the spines littering his body were bent or broken completely and some of his tentacles were drawn close to his body instead of being sprawled out like the other ones. His body was borne into the air by a small, floating platform that seemed just barely big enough to bear his weight, the hoverpod bringing him out to face the clan for a final stand.

The chakras all stood ready, weapons in hand; at least, those still able to stand were. Raphael held Michelangelo in his right arm, drawn tight to his chest so he could bring his tonfa forward to protect his baby brother. One by one the lights all blinked to life inside of each of them, soft heats blipping where their chakra were located. Sunita and Draxum, though they had no chakra of their own on display, stood just as strong in the face of pure evil.

Krang wasn’t easily deterred. Frowning, his thoughts escaping his controlled grasp, he closely considered his next move. There were seven of them, sure, but were the right seven? The orange and the indigo were missing and that made Krang grin. They were strong, but they weren’t enough, and in each of them he tasted the weakness that they buried inside, some deeper than others. The sweet taste radiating from Donatello was the strongest, most familiar to Krang much to his delight. The soft-shelled warrior.

Donatello’s mind was weak, just like his stance, and his grip on his weapon. When he looked at Krang, he saw many things; food rotting away in his grip, the water he drank running red, flowers wilting into dust. Cold, hunger, thirst, and most importantly pain. Glorious pain. When Krang looked at Donatello, all he saw was an easy target, and the first on his list to snuff out those irksome lights.

“Donnie

!”

“Huh?” Donatello frowned and looked around. That was Leonardo’s voice! But… where was Leonardo? Then again, where was anybody? From what he could see, he was floating on a solitary island all his own, no brothers no friends no Draxum or dad. Just an empty void, surrounded by smoke. Then the smoke took shape, and from the shape came Leonardo. “Leo!”

Donatello started to run to him, but quickly slowed. There was something strange about the atmosphere, a cold chill that he still had imprinted in his mind. Cold tentacles gripping and squeezing and ripping through the very atoms of his being. Leonardo’s approach only quickened, until his hands slammed against Donatello’s chest and shoved him to the ground.

“You’re so selfish, you know that?” Leonardo’s voice was his own, but empty.

“Wha…? L...Leo…” Donatello could only say as he stared up at the image of his brother with the cold eyes staring back at him, like someone had molded a life-like Leonardo out of clay.

“You just waltz around barking insults and sarcastic comments and hole up in your room all day while we do the real work!”

Donatello tried to back up— and backed straight into Michelangelo. He looked up, and Michelangelo’s eyes that usually held love were nothing but hate.

“You’re a narcissist!” Said the dark clone, “You literally altered us to be more like you and got upset when we were more like you!”

“I… I didn't think…” Donatlelo tried, and his eyes were burning and so was the rest of him as he tried to explain but the words wouldn’t come out.

“That’s exactly your problem! You think too much one minute and then not at all the next!”

Donatello stood up and tried to run, but Raphael stood in his way. “You don’t know when to stop and you just keep pushing all our buttons! You want to change us!”

“N...no! No, I love you guys!”

“Love?” This time it was April’s voice and it hurt deeper than all the others, “What would you know about love?! For someone with such a soft shell, you’re so insensitive and cruel! I ask a simple task of you and you have to go above and beyond and not in a good way.”

“You’re pathetic!”

“The only thing you’re good for is your tech!”

“And even that only works half of the time!”

“If it wasn‘t for your enhancements…”

“You wouldn’t even be on this team!”

“You’d be where you belong.”

“Behind a desktop…”

“And far away from us.”

Leonardo saw Donatello’s light flicker out, and he saw the distant look in his brothers eyes as he stared out at nothing and cried, mouthing words that came out silent. He immediately knew something was wrong, and he reached out with a hand to grab his brother and tether him to reality. Donatello blinked, and the nightmare was gone as he looked upon the tender eyes of Leonardo.

“He’s lying, Donnie!” Leonardo said, “Whatever he’s doing to you isn’t real!”

Then Leonardo was lost in a nightmare. An island of smoke, his senses little more than a distant memory, as if they had all been plugged with foam. His brothers came to him, shapes of hate and spite as they spat their words of discouragement and fraud.

“I can’t believe I ever trusted you.” Raphael said, “I give you the slightest taste of control and you rub with it like it’s your destiny.”

“It’s not.” Splinter was there, and he was whole—not injured. “Winning the Battle Nexus was just dumb luck, like everything you do.”

“And you never trust us to do anything, but expect us to trust you with everything!” Michelangelo this time. All of them were advancing on Leonardo and trapping him with their insults like dark storm clouds closing in.

“You couldn’t even made a portal to save our lives after you put us in danger!” Donatello said, his words most horrible to the slider for that was his twin. “You’re so hung up on being a champion that’d you get us all killed to boost your self esteem! And they call me soft!”

Raphael was next in line and next to grab Leonardo’s hand and pull him back down to earth before being lost to the darkness himself. Shadowed figures, nowhere to hide, surrounding him.

“You’re an animal. A vicious, violent animal.” Did it matter who was speaking? No. Not when then words were all the same to the snapper. All things he tried to tell himself were lies. “At the drop of a dime you could hurt any one of us.”

“Or kill any one of us.”

“And all the people of New York.”

“You try to convince yourself that it’s just a different persona…”

“But it’s not.”

“The savage you is the real you, and this facade you put up is the true persona.”

“Because you’re lying to yourself.”

“Raphie…” Michelangelo whined softly, gripping Raphael’s hand with his own; it was dwarfed by the size of the snappers hand, but he didn't care. Raphael was brought back down to earth, and Michelangelo was sent up.

“How could you be so childish in a time like this?”

“Earth to Mikey, you’re supposed to be focusing!”

“You’re fourteen— you’re not a kid anymore, but you still act like an eight year old!”

The words rang out in Michelangelo’s mind relentlessly, like a broken record.

“You’re so lazy! It’s not hard!”

“Why can’t you just be normal?”

“Just pay attention!”

“You’d be so smart if you’d just just—“

“Put in the effort—“

“And—“

“FOCUS!”

“Mikey!” Cassandra grabbed Michelangelo’s hand and took his place. Krang grinned as he neared the last light dropping out; just yellow and green left to go...

“It’s all your fault.”

“You’re to blame!”

“Their blood is on your hands!”

And the blood was— had hands were red and she tried to wipe them off but the red was growing all around her like a Red Sea— dark silhouettes swimming in it. The ones she had hurt, the faces of those she’d killed imprinted in her mind and coming to her every time she’d blink!

“You saw me burn up!” Mother Jones said, turning the blood to fire— and she was on fire!

“You watched her die!”

“You could have saved me!”

Cassandra backed up and collided with her foot masters.

“We raised you better Cassandra.”

“You betrayed us!”

“And your teachings!”

“And you were such a promising student!”

“No no no no…” Cassandra backed into Raphael, “Raphie help me…”

“Raphie?” Raphael laughed, “You think I like being called that? You think I like you?! Please, you were just the means to an end that overstayed your welcome.”

“Cassandra, those nasty words aren’t true…” Splinter’s grip was weak, but he forced himself to grab her. The evil, nasty lies rung just as clearly in his head as they did in Cassandra’s, and he couldn’t stand for that. The angry words came to him next, his sons and his mother and his grandfather and his ancestors, a suffocating amount of them.

“You failed us.”

“You were content to destroy us!”

“To never have children.”

“To abandoned the legacy of our clan for fame and fortune.”

“The best thing you ever did for thid clan was be expirmented on.”

“You didn't train your sons…”

“You didn't remember the stories…”

“You let Shredder live and walk again!”

“I’m sorry mama…” Splinter shrunk into himself, almost believing the words true until April grabbed his hand and pulled him out.

“Stay with me Splints…”

April was lost now, the turtles surrounding her with their cold, empty faces.

“It’s been months, April. Months! Yet still you refuse to recover.”

“You tried so hard to ignore the past that you almost destroyed the future!”

“The only good thing that came of you was being a vessel for Karai.”

“But your importance has quickly waned.”

“You’re not one of us. You’re human. You don’t belong in a mutant world.”

“You belong with your own kind.”

“Even though you should have died like Karai did.”

“Like we’re going to.”

“Like the story goes.”

April took those words and several more, but even as the brothers advanced on her to fill her head with fibs to rip her apart, she never stopped smiling. Even as she cried, she smiled, and when the images ran out of things to say, she looked up at them. Her heart was glowing brighter than ever before, the green enough to swallow her in its pulsating light. Those were all things she had told herself, over and over, so much that had lost their meaning to her.

“That’s a lie. It’s all lies. Karai never died.” The words pushed back the darkness, and she kept them coming. “She was only lost. Lost to the nightmares, fighting the darkness. The Shredder. I… I was lost after my fight with the Shredder too…”

“What are you doing?” Raphael’s voice slowly melted away into Krang’s.

“And I still am lost. Lost with this new power, lost with this pain that won’t seem to leave me alone. I’m lost but I’m still here, and every day I find another peice of myself to fix the puzzle. Who knows if I’ll ever find them all. But I know one thing I have found; why I’m still here. My purpose. Destroying you.”

[tate-lin]

Omg an extension of your dissertations!! That's so cool tho; exploring your dissertation in a fiction novel~ There's more creative freedom to express what you want to say and make your point through the book's themes 👀🔥

For manga, I have several (though I did very briefly touch on it in this post)!!

The biggest I'd say is Hunter X Hunter's magic system called Nen. What I love most about it is how majority of Nen-users have to create their own special ability called Hatsu and, because of this, their Hatsu is directly informed by their respective personalities, strengths & interests which says a lot about their characters, narrative, and story arc. Because of this, I modelled the basics of my own magic system, ethra, after it by having it be something anyone can pick up and use, like a sport or skill. Here's my post on ethra and I think anyone who read the manga and see my six foundational pillars will be able to spot my inspiration behind it 😂

Besides that, I was inspired to create my darling plant-robot, Drew, directly because of an animated movie called No Game No Life: Zero. I just loved how strange and alien the robot seemed at the start and how the robots were all connected like a hive mind.

In terms of his actual story arc tho, my biggest inspirations come from a mech creation manga I read years ago (I can't remember the name of it now but it's basically this dude manufacturing non-sentient transformers) and Pluto by Urusawa Naoki, a grimmer and more grounded retelling of a really, really long chapter in Astro Boy by Tezuka Osamu called The Greatest Robot on Earth. And while it's not a manga or anime, I was also influenced by the video game Detroit: Become Human while trying to figure his character out.

Though I love No Game No Life: Zero, Pluto, and Detroit: Become Human (especially Pluto I love that thing to bits), I have different ideas on the potentials of robots. In all three of them, there is a lot of emphasis placed on the robots' humanity and empathy. In fact, the androids in Detroit: Become Human were only able to be freed from their lack of agency by becoming exactly like a human till they're nearly indistinguishable on the outside (hence the title).

For me, however, I don't need nor want robots to become exactly like us because they're not. If they can become sentient, they'd be people, of course, but not humans, and this difference is what's crucial to me.

In this case, it's the mech manga that truly influenced my direction on this take. In that story, there was a long-standing habit, maybe even an obsession, for engineers to create the mechs in our image, and the MC found a problem with that. Their society created mechs in order to fight or solve other problems, but was it so necessary to have them take on the shape of humans? If a spike for an arm made more sense, or if it was more useful to create something more akin an over-glorified spring with a knife, then wouldn't that be better? Why were humans the template that all mechs were based on? Just look out to nature and you can find thousands more fitting examples to base a design on, depending on what you're trying to solve.

This manga introduced me to the idea that humanity has a huge keenness to create robots that looked, moved, and acted exactly like us. Which is why things like this exist:

I'm absolutely not suggesting that humanity isn't creative enough to come up with something else, but from what I see, the general consensus is that a 'perfect robot' would be something that's exactly like us, just better.

But is all of that really necessary? In my opinion, it's akin to a parent-child relationship where the parent raised a child just to have another version of them. A take #2 of their life, but be perfect and make absolutely no mistakes. Be whatever the parent needs them to be in order to achieve their own goals.

In the end tho, I think it's nonsensical to assume that if a robot achieves sentience, they'd want to follow the same path as us or even want to think like us. There are many robot media out there which touched on how differently they view the world, but why is the correct answer at the end for a robot to want to be like us? To love like us, feel emotions like us, to care about the same things?

I just don't think that it makes sense. What's wrong with acting, feeling, and thinking like a robot? It may contrast with humanity's goals and desires and may prove to be inconvenient or troubling for us, but as long as they aren't hurting anyone, what's the big deal? They're essentially a whole different species we're creating, even if they're based off humans.

To me, I feel like their biggest problem wasn't necessarily not being human, it's that they wanted to be accepted and have agency but they're not, because robots were ultimately created as tools first. There is a huge difference being 'treated like a person' and 'treated like a human' I think, and that's what Drew struggles with the most.

Returning to Pluto though, one thing that influenced me heavily is how even robots that have very typical clonky robot looks can show such deep emotion & depth. Like omg JUST LOOK AT THESE PAGES!!

(note: please read from right to left for manga, like a reverse-z)

Like wowowow I just can't. I really can't. The anime did not do this scene justice cause I near about cried while reading this the very first time.

A robot that can't express themselves like a human can, a robot that doesn't look or think like a human does, a robot that doesn't even appreciate the same things as a human does... And even with all that, this is so clearly a person with her very own problems, thoughts, personality, and mindset. With Drew, this is exactly what I want to achieve.

Robots have their own strengths and weaknesses and unique appeal to them. Just like we humans do, even if we end up as very different beings. Isn't it such a waste to desire a pure copy-paste of us? I want to explore robots as their own species that are still a legacy of us, their creators, but also how they can go beyond that, like all children do in the end.

Other than that, certain panels of numerous other manga really strike me and they often inspire the creation of a particular character or plot choice. For example, Attack on Titan (humanity vs giant monsters) really influenced how I think about life's purpose, especially these two juxtaposing panels:

What are we born for, what should we do with our life? Attack on Titan was the manga that really made me realise that the answers to those questions don't necessarily need to be answered, and that's also what I want to explore, particularly with Minh.

And while thinking about my theme on acceptance, these are my biggest inspirations for it (the first is from Blue Lock, a soccer manga, and the second from Jujutsu Kaisen, an action manga about child soldiers, though the character featured is a lawyer):

Anyway we finally come to the end of this!! If you read till the end kudos to you omg cause I just ended up rambling 😭

I do get inspired by English novel books and other media too, but there's sth about the honesty and sincerity I find in manga that just really captures me.

@tate-lin reblogged your post:

#wowwww omg#did you take philosophy?? the inspiration you got is so interesting#i'm mainly inspired by manga so it's really cool to see where others draw their inspiration from#the ideas you're trying to implement is super intriguing too 👀🔥#i wanna beta readdd 🥹

Hi Tate-Lin, 💜 It's such a treat to see you on my dash! Hope you're doing good and the Writeblr gods are smiling down on your WIPS (check them out here). Thank you so much for reading through that super-long post 😅 I got a little carried away. But to answer your question, yes, I have two degrees in philosophy, and I'm still debating whether I should go in for another one (it's an addiction at this point, although I don't like the whole snobbish academic scene, tbh). Most of the references I mention in my post are things I've studied over the years. In fact, most of my big creative projects, and The Sorcerer's Apprentice especially, are extensions of my dissertations. I'm exploring the same questions, just through a different medium (my latest dissertation was on Socrates, fascism, and Foucault, so yeah you can definitely see that in the references lol). I'd be honoured to have you beta-read it when it's ready!!! By the way, I'm curious: which manga have inspired your work? I haven't read enough Manga in my life and I'd love to know more about it from your perspective! 💜

[dnawield--a]

actually fuck it I feel like babbling

Anodite!Ben is so in tune with his alien half- way more than his human half. He finds out later in life, so the summer with Gwen when she found the Omnitrix was more of Gwen teaching him self defense, and his grandpa showing him how to shoot a laser gun. He’s significantly more skilled in hand-to-hand combat than he is in his main verse, and MUCH more weapon savvy in the Gwen 10 verse.

He’s not. As close with Gwen in this verse as he is in main verse, but more in the sense of he doesn’t feel comfortable being as obnoxious with her, even when it’s on friendly terms. He’s a bit more respectful (sounding anyway- he has NOTHING but respect for Gwen in main verse), and looks at her more like a leader than family. Sometimes he’ll crack a joke with her, but there tends to be an awkward tension between the two since Ben seems more distant with her in this verse.

It’s also because his powers awakened when he was alone, and more abrupt. Since Ben wasn’t into magic like Gwen was when they were kids, and never took to really understanding any of the stuff Hex would use on them when they fought, he spent a good year on his own (from 13-14), during a time he and Gwen didn’t hang out much (haven’t figured out why- probably similar reasons Ben took the watch off before OV gave us a possible reason he took the watch off, which was maybe just letting the teens actually live like normal fucking teenagers for a short time). He’d just go out in the middle of the night, fuck around in the deep woods just figuring things out.

He still has ADHD and is still autistic in this dimension, so paralleled with Gwen who’s more about focusing, Ben. Doesn’t do like. Meditation or reading since he a) doesn’t like to read, b) wouldn’t know WHAT to read aside from magic or witch books which he’s not keen on buying, and c) will get distracted. However, when he’s developing a new skill using mana, he tends to hyperfixate on it until he can do some cool shit or be able to do it without using up that much energy. He’s already REALLY high energy in his main verse, and it still carries over in the Gwen 10 verse. He also developed a routine with going out into the woods late in the nights until early in the mornings that it’s nearly over a year of constant self training. He’s very in tune with his emotions, and has accidentally destroyed some parts of the forests due to frustration. You have to get him SUPER SUPER SUPER pissed for him to start to lose control of his powers.

His preference is to create things out of his mana that ranges from whole ass mech suits to surround himself (that he and Gwen had to investigate and Gwen for a long time going “what the FUCK how do a WHOLE MECHA go missing??’ and ben somehow managing to pull off being absolutely clueless until he decides to tell her about it), to weapons made from mana, the platform stuff that Gwen does in canon, and Ben eventually decided to play hero for a bit to test out his powers outside of the woods, and learned his mana can just make shit, so he just designed his own costume and changes into it while he plays hero. He’s silent when he’s in “hero mode” ‘cause Gwen sometimes showed up, and didn’t want his voice to give him away.

His mana’s green ‘cause fuck you I’m keeping the green aesthetic (and Gwen’s omnitrix is blue ‘cause also fuck you), but his body shifts into anodite!mode.

Verdona makes a comment about this when they meet her the first time at how tf he still has his human body when he’s CONSTANTLY changing into anodite mode and he’s like “huuuh???? i don’t get the question- anyway check out my big energy sword!!! cool huh?!” Him and his grandma actually get along, and Ben just tells her, Iunno- lemme think about the whole destroy my body thing. Maybe ask me in two or three years,” which is lit the ONLY reason she doesn’t pull what she tried with Gwen ‘cause he actually is debating on it. He doesn’t care much about being human, and is like, “bruh I can do MORE STUFF if i JUST destroy my body? AND I can just learn to make a whole new one? lit but lemme think about it and see if i still vibe with that in a couple years.”

Verdona visits way more in this verse, though Gwen isn’t vibing too much with it since Verdona is constantly seeing if Ben is willing to destroy his body NOW since she can’t be bothered to wait the equivalent of a week to her for Ben to be like, “alright let’s get this bread *destroys human body* oh heck  yeah we got the bread.” Also ‘cause Verdona tends to be a bad influence on Ben since she just ups his desires to do w/e the fuck he wants, which is often going HAM on bad guys and ‘causing some public property damage ‘cause he’s vibing and moving literal mountains, and slowly picks up on warping reality around people that annoy him.

The issues with anodite!Ben lie more in he’s a lot more. Morally grey. The SECOND Verdona mentioned how there is mana in every living thing, and you can absorb it, Ben has always had that on the back of his mind, and he HAS completely drained one enemy (haven’t decided which- probably a low stakes guy like Ssserpent) because of some other factor that made him snap and go, “Nope I’m angy now you go die while I just take your mana :/” which. KINDA DOESN’T SIT WELL WITH GWEN OR HIS GRANDPA. idk when Kevin comes into all of this, maybe when Ben’s alien side if still a secret to his family and is the only one to identify WHAT kind of alien ben’s alter ego is, which is nice ‘cause then Ben just fucks around on the extranet to look up more about his alien side. Which is 10x funnier when they all meet Verdona and he’s like “yeah Kevin figured it out so I just looked up info on it. what you told me I already read on like 50 different sites.”

He has a bit of a fall out with Gwen and Kevin, probably showing he’s going a teeny bit too chaotic to be safe, and they end up being enemies for a short time (probably an evil arc). Ben DOES end up accidentally destroying his own body, and just going HAM on their cousin Sunny. She ends up being REAL scared of Ben, and even Verdona shows a bit of discomfort. He ends up just chilling as an anodite ‘cause he doesn’t feel comfortable going to Anodyne now. Verdona herself even says that might be for the best that he waits since she’s worried he’ll get hurt. That’s what she says anyway. With how bad he ended up hurting Sunny, she genuinely is both worried for his safety, and the safety of OTHER Anodites on the planet.

He does EVENTUALLY go to Anodyne for a couple decades when he’s like 40, and then comes back. The other Anodites vibe with him, and he genuinely enjoys being there. He mains a pretty high chaotic energy all his existence, and he’s slowly showing them just ‘cause they’re super powerful doesn’t mean they can’t learn to have some kinda fucking morals. He wants them to know being human was pretty cool, and they could learn shit from them. He always boasts about Gwen and Kevin and their escapes together, and uses them as role models for other Anodites.

They only started listening to him ‘cause he never shuts up and every single time they tried to fight him to shut up, he just kicked their asses for trying to kick his ass. Eventually they just learned to let him ramble, but ended up actually liking what he was talking about and rolled with it. Some Anodites DID decide to go travel back to Earth and actually learn more than just keep going along with the rest of the Universe. A lot of them still go “it’s not that great man,” and he’ll always be like, “Hey but now you know for sure,” and they hate that. But he had a point.