#what the fuck kind of genetic tampering is that?

[a-sad-mage]

Hey

Can we talk about the fact, that Eli, a guy known for naming his slugs has yet to name his Enigmo Slug

Because, as far as I can remember, Eli and the Gang, just call Enigmo... Enigmo

Like you would think after like immediately saving Enigmo from that trap, and ultimately keeping him, Eli would name the little guy.

Personally, I've just been calling him Iggy

[ohnoitsz1m]

Whatever. Combine Barney AU concepts. But also he's a furry because I just can't be bothered to draw people rn

Not by any means an original idea but I've seen so little of it and what IS around isn't very detailed or isn't finished so. I'll gladly add to the pile of unfinished stuff ^_^ I may not be good at keeping up with my AUs but I try to be thorough with them while I'm working on em

Okay continued rambling below final warning also there's a maskless combine down here so like .. HL:A spoilers and general body horror (?) below ↓

Anyways so. Barney is like. A figurehead. Of sorts. Very much a "hey look the combine is actually really great and basically your best bet at survival. We promise not to take away your humanity completely just let us do a little surgery and genetic modification it's totally okay we promise." Type deal. He exists for propaganda basically.

His mask is separated into different parts because well that's just how the design ended up. It's hard to translate shit to furry bodies T_T. The mask snaps together to make a fairly airtight seal since it is technically a respirator,,, but comes off in two pieces. External ears are lame you don't need em when you have a mask and implants that give you better hearing than any other member of your species. Stuff em in the mask they're not made for your comfort anyways.

He's got kind of a modified version of the Ordinal uniform because 1 I really like the HL:A Combine designs and 2 it was the easiest to make look like his Black Mesa uniform. Just for funzies

He's still "Barney" he just got his brain tampered with. And maybe a liiiittle extra stuff. It's fiine. But uh yeah he's lacking a lot of the visible modifications that the combine soldiers usually have because if this thing started trying to tell you how cool it is to join the combine nobody would listen.

So they had to compromise. A little. They let Barney have most of his personality and a good deal of his memories, juust modified to better suit their needs.

The How and the Why of this AU aren't quite set in stone yet but the basic gist of it is:

Barney initially joined Civil Protection early on as a double agent for the Resistance, buuuuut due to prolonged separation from the resistance, propaganda aaaand tampering with the food and water supply he started turning more to the other side. He was still working as a double agent but he started to get sloppy and became more sympathetic towards the combine. Eventually the Combine figured out what he was doing and fucked with his brain for funzies or whatever. Suddenly not only is the combine cracking down harder on rebel outposts, there's a new guy appearing in between breencasts!

[sayakxmi]

I finally got myself together to finish the trolltags/lands I have for the dancestors, that I overthought to hell and back, so why not share. Explanations under the cut!

(Also, I probably should mention that it's all in context of an AU, so if some things are confusing, that's why.)

KANKRI:

vendicateThumomacule [VT] Kankri's original trolltag is, well, grey to hide his indentity, and is actually a small nod to John/June. Hence the letters are VT, absolutely taken from VanTas. Mostly, because ectoBiologist has EB like EgBert. You know how these letters are taken from the genetic code, but John/June ended up breaking from it? Well, Kankri's the opposite here. The very first mutation, someone who didn't belong there, but inserted himself there anyway.

Vendicate means to claim for oneself, whereas Thumomacule comes from two words - thumomancy (divination by means of one’s own soul) and macule, which can be either a) (in printing) to blur, as from a double impression in printing, or b) (in anatomy) another name for macula (a discolored spot on the skin). The second definition refers to his mutation, while the first, I'm kind of thinking about blur/double impression as a reference to The Signless, and seeing visions of another world. Personally, I love the idea that Kankri's always had these visions as well, so that's what I was going for here.

As for constructiveGrievance, I'll be honest, I've seen it once upon a time, I don't know where, and internalized it as his trolltag. He has a lot of grievances, and tries to be constructive about it. (Whether he succeeds is up for debate, lmao).

As for his land, the Land of Conduits and Valves: Conduit: - a pipe or passage for water or electrical wires to go through - reference to Mituna (as I am a huge Captor&Vantas whatever the fuck they have going on enjoyer) - a way of connecting two places - the aspect of Blood - someone or something that provides a way of passing something such as information or payments from one person to another - role of a Seer, but also a small reference to The Signless again, passing information about different worlds between each other Valves - a device that opens and closes to control the flow of liquids or gasses, or a similar structure in the heart and the veins that controls the flow of blood - pretty obvious aspect connection.

In general, thinking about the Seers' lands, they all have somewhat... liquidy feel to it. Rose's has literal rain, while Terezi's land has these thought river-like things on the sky. So I was also thinking about something fluid, and, well, blood.

Kankri's land is pretty similar to Dave's, except there's no cogs or lava, only endless red-and-blue pipelines that are meant to let the blood flow, but the valves aren't letting it, and empty void beneath your feet. It's an extremly unpleasant land.

It's a bit of a theme, actually, that the lands are pretty hostile towards their players here - since the game was tampered wth, Skaia knew early on that this session had no chance at succeeding, so it was quite literally trying to get the players to make The Scratch faster. F.

It's actually quite evident since the get-go, Kankri's land is LOCAV. So. Random fact: I'm Polish. In Polish the way you read V in English is the same as we read W. So I could write it as CAW. A sound made by a crow. And, well. One Crow: bad luck, loss, unpleasant catastrophic changes.

From the very moment Kankri got into the game, it was already lost. RIP.

Also, I've meant what I've said. I aggressively overthought it, lmao.

DAMARA:

acroamaticAcicutie Acroamatic - esoteric - ��intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest” - I was thinking about her ability to speak & control ghosts, a medium, but, yeah, honestly, it can also allude to the fact that as far as we know only Rufioh actually understands her speech. Acicula - One of the needlelike or bristlelike spines or prickles of some animals and plants; also, a needlelike crystal. Connected with cutie.

Land of Ponds and Shimmer, well, when it comes to Shimmer I was thinking about light reflecting on crystals, since her Scratch device looked like these music boxes on Aradia's land, so there had to be Some crystals in there. But it can also be the shimmer of the ponds. With ponds, I was kind of thinking about koi ponds? Who's stopping me from there being koi fish, tbh. The ponds are also a reference to Meenah, because, well, water. But also small one to Rufioh, I guess. Also, ponds and reflections (When will my reflection show who I am inside).

In general, Witches lands are, imo, pretty, colorful, and dangerous if you aren't careful. And that's also what I thought about Damara's land - looks very pleasant, but crystals can have some sharp edges, ponds be deeper that it has any reason to etc, etc.

But since all their lands make things difficult for the dancestors, the catch of this one is that it makes Damara homesick. :)

Ah, but here's my favorite part. PAS. Pas is Polish for fold in poker. "Folding simply means to let go of your cards and surrender the pot to another player". Or another set of players. ;>

RUFIOH

agromaniacalTauroboly Agromania - intense desire to be in open spaces Tauroboly - the ritual sacrifice of a bull. I like to think about is as a contrast to Tavros' trolltag, in which Tavros is a bit more of plot’s sacrificial bull, but his trolltag relates to bulls fighting, whereas Rufioh would wreck people’s shit if it wasn’t for his non-existent self-worth & confidence, but his trolltag relates to sacrificing a bull.

The Land of Breeze and Hills has a somewhat simple etymology. All the Breath player we know had some specific type of wind in their land's name (literally Wind for John/June, and Zephyr for Tavros), so I went with something similar. And boy oh boy, is Breeze a reference. Obviously, Breeze relates to water, and that way it references three pretty important gals in Rufioh/The Summoner's life - Damara (ponds), Meenah (a seadweller), and Aranea, or more specifically Mindfang, who was a pirate. As for Hills, Rogues tend to have some rises, like Roxy's pyramids, or Nepeta's... sugar cube pyramids? So I thought about hills for Rufioh to more or less fit it in, very much thinking about"a hill to die on".

BAH is kind of weaker, but at the same time, it gave me some ideas for the land. In several languages it means flood, but in a few others it's an expression of disbelief, disdain, resignation & scorn.

LOBAH is flooded, which is a huge pain for Rufioh, whose wings aren't really good for damp environments. His mobility sure is limited, which kind of sucks. He could probably ask some imps to help him out in travel, but that'd mean using his powers, and he's not a big fan of them. }:(

MITUNA

technicolorAlytarch Technicolor - a vivid or bright color “Alytarch in ancient Olympic games was the leader of the police force who assisted the Hellanodikai to impose fines on athletes who did not follow the rules” "Hellanodikai - literally meaning Judges of the Greeks - were the judges of the Ancient Olympic Games, and the success of the games was attributed to their efforts". I like the idea of it referring to more than one character, but ofc I thought of Latula first.

Land of Screens and Skyscrapers Skyscrapers as in heights & danger, at least that’s my association. Something about falls, especially when you're very high... Screening - concealing, protecting, sheltering. But also screening, as in “checking for disease when there are no symptoms. Since screening may find diseases at an early stage, there may be a better chance of curing the disease”. Also, fun fact, SAS is a group of highly trained British soldiers who work on secret or very difficult military operations. SAS is an abbreviation for 'Special Air Service'.” I wonder if it's relevant.

Heirs' lands tend to be really dark for some reason, but it's a bit difficul to say if it's a theme for them, because Equius' aspect is literally Void, so of course his land is dark. But I went for it. I'd say LOSAS resembles Dirk's land a bit, but there's also a shitton of giant screens on the building, all of them not working properly. The land is dangerous in it's nature, and generally not the most pleasant place to be in (ah, Doom players), but it sure gets worse after Mituna's accident, now that he has trouble seeing, and his balance also got quite bad. F.

MEULIN

acuteCardiograper Acute: - causes severe problems or damage; - pain or illness is one that quickly becomes very severe; - aware of or able to recognize small differences between things, or being accurate in judging something; The first two are more foreshadowing, whereas the last one is the actual intent. Since she's an amazing matchmaker whose speciality is the Hreat. Cardiography - the use of a machine to record the beating of the heart. So. You know. Hehe. Meulin's trolltag is an ad. Bonus a cute cardiographer.

Land of Lily Pads and Wisps Lily Pads are literally there in Openbound, but also I like the general symbolism of lilies - purity, innocence and rebirth. I think it describes Meulin very well. Wisps - of smoke, of light, but also will o' the wisp - a person that is difficult or impossible to reach or catch on (OR aurora). Of course even Meulin can't have nice things. Her land mocks her for being "useless". (Note: I'm not saying that she is, but that's how she feels). LOLPAW is not exactly deep.

PORRIM

gallivantAvantgarde Gallivant - to visit or go to a lot of different places, enjoying yourself and not worrying about other things you should be doing. Avantgarde - the painters, writers, musicians, and other artists whose ideas, styles, and methods are very original or modern in comparison to the period in which they live, or the work of these artists. Porrim's attitude, essentially.

Land of Threads and Frogs Threads like fabric, but also thread/fabric of the universe Also thread as in “to move forwards, often changing direction in order to avoid people or things”. Which is, well, what she was supposed to do. Another land that isn't exactly dangerous, but feels more like a mockery. Cluttered, soft & pastel. You could say ""girly"". She hates it here.

Maid's lands are pretty nice, though they tend to lack the aspect the Maid is supposed to create, at least that's what I've understood.

TAF - a substance, consisting of protein and nucleic acid developed in a malignant tumor, that stimulates the formation of capillaries for nourishing the tumor and carrying off its waste matter. A connection to Kankri, and especially The Dolorosa's role in The Signless' life.

LATULA

I'll be honest, I'm not exactly the proudest of hers, but this grl was giving me a headache at some point. Mostly when it comes to her trolltag, because I like the name of her land, but oh well. I was tired.

galiantCaballerial Galiant - “Galiant is a mixture of two words; Valiant (Possessing Courage and Determination), and Gallant (Grand, Fine). This is what you call someone who excels at anything they play, mainly videogames.” Urban Dictionary. I'm not sure it's the most believable source, but you know what, why not. If it's not really a thing, what's stopping me from headcanoning that it is on Beforus? Or add a small backstory that Liltula found that term & loved it, used for his trolltag & only later found out it's not a real thing. Now she's living a lie. Caballerial - a trick invented by Steve Caballero in the early 1980s in which the skater performs a 360-degree ollie in a ramp while riding fakie and without grabbing.

Land of Smoke and Mirrors Smoke and Mirrors - the obscuring or embellishing of the truth of a situation with misleading or irrelevant information. Other than the obvious, it's not a big discovery that the Knights' lands are filled with danger and even things they personally hate & fear. Mirrors for somebody as self-conscious and obsessed over her presentation? And also smoke. There might be fire somewhere, but she can't smell it, she won't know she's in danger until she gets closer to it. F. No cool meaning for SAM :(

ARANEA

amasthenicGraphomaniac Graphomania - a compulsive urge to write Amasthenic - uniting the rays of light into one focus, as a certain kind of lens does (in photography)

Land of Swirls and Candles Swirls - I was thinking about the weather, so connection to Breath, but also whirlpools, so connection to water. Extreme weather. Hella important in sailing. Etc. Also swirls & cherubs. Candles - light. Quite simple. LOSAC is essentially a gorgeous dark forest lit by candles, and Aranea is blind as shit in there. Did I mention that Skaia doesn't want them to keep going? :) Other than that: - Candle Queen by GUMI is such an Aranea song, you won't tell me otherwise. - one of the definitions of a SAC is "a covering that surrounds a tumor" i WoNdEr If It'S rElEvAnT

HORUSS

compoundTegument Tegument - natural covering of an animal or plant body Compound: - a thing that is composed of two or more separate elements; a mixture - make (something bad) worse; intensify the negative aspects of But Also - compound bow - A hand-drawn, hand-held bow that for similar poundage at full draw, stores more energy than a recurve bow through the use of two cables and two eccentric wheels

Land of Copper and Bolts Copper can be used in making steam engines. “Brown coins of low value made of copper or bronze”. And making electrical wires. “any of various small widely distributed butterflies of the genera Lycaena, Heodes, etc, typically having reddish-brown wings: family Lycaenidae” h u h Can mean “policeman”... Law reinforcement… Executioners… HMM. Bolts - well, bolts, but also arrowheads (in crossbows), also to quickly escape, and also (lightning)bolt, also A bolt is also a part of a gun that pushes the cartridge (= container filled with explosive powder) into position to be fired - I wonder if it its *gets shot* CAB - besides the obvious - “the enclosed compartment of a lorry, locomotive, crane, etc, from which it is driven or operated” - trains. steam. it’s all coming together “the glass-enclosed area of an airport control tower in which the controllers are stationed” listen, it works for me, but I can’t explain Why “first cab off the rank” - the first person, etc, to do or take advantage of something - like. the first person to take advantage of somebody’s malleable and passive personality…?

Steampunk land. What can I say. Downside: them damn bolts everywhere. You can hurt yourself :<

KURLOZ

tumultuousCaduceator Tumultuous - chaotic or disorderly; full of noise, commotion, or turbulence. Caduceator - herald; messenger Also similar to Caduceus (prolly related), so a relation to Mituna who is a Gemini - Gemini is ruled by Mercury (Hermes’ Roman name, the Caduceus belonged to him) So it’s a mixed bag of relations to others: tumultuous is a relation to Caliborn (there’s even a wholeass Sign of the Tumultuous - Caniborn). Herald/messenger is akin to Kankri’s role of a prophet. Except he’s heralding Lord English’s arrival rather than another Signless’. And, well, the Mituna connection. It’s also a Doom connection, lmao.

Land of Pits and Thrills You have this huge never-ending theme park with random pits where you least expect them, cartoonish experience. In general, Princes' lands tend to be extremely dangerous in ways that relate to their aspects, and, well, cartoon-like traps break the immersion a bit, really makes you think about everything being fake. Plus a theme park doesmake one think about the HS clowns a bit, right? Another one of my faves, PAT means a stalemate in Polish - a situation in chess where one of the players can’t move according to the rules, but their king isn’t in check - it ends the game in a draw. Technically, they haven't lost, and yet they cannot progress :o)

CRONUS

corbanAlluvion Corban - offering to God in fulfillment of a vow / kinda thinking abt it regarding Cronus wanting to fulfill his “destiny” Allivion - effect of water impacting on shoreline (eg. deluge) Was I tempted for Cronus to have his trolltag as cronusAmpora? Yes. Absolutely. But in the end I decided to pretend that I Am A Serious Writer.

Land of Tides and Rows Tidal island - a piece of land that is connected to the mainland by a natural or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide Also changing tides. Row - well, rowing, so water travel. This land looks quite nice on the first glance, but once you start to travel you find out, that the further you go, the darker and more dangerous it becomes. Oh no. Also, the water is definitely tainted. TAR - a dark, thick flammable liquid distilled from wood or coal, consisting of a mixture of hydrocarbons, resins, alcohols, and other compounds. It is used in road-making and for coating and preserving timber. But also as a verb: blame or damage the reputation of (someone).

MEENAH

cerescentConqueror Conqueror - obvious Cerescent - a typo she didn’t care to correct; crescent is a phase of the moon (halfmoon); Ceres is a roman goddess of harvest etc.

Land of Passages and Harvest Passages as literal passages, but also in: passage of time, or passing = death, so a relation to Damara. And Harvest is, well, harvest. In general, the only other Thief we have is Vriska, and her land is essentially "things that help in stealing her aspect" and "something that represents her aspect". In this case, then, you need to let the time pass for harvest to begin. Also, I love the idea that all Life Players have some representation of the other players on their planet, just like Jane's lamps. In this case, Meenah has flowers. I have yet to finish it, but I did assign some already. PAH - used to express disgust or contempt. Aka Meenah's reaction when she first saw her bright colorful land full of flowers.

Final notes: - ok, so, the idea for LOLPAW, Thrills in Kurloz's land & Avantgarde for Porrim's trolltag are from kanmeu, Caballerial is 100% an accident, though, when I've found that word I thought it looked familiar, and Oh. - I might fix the formatting tomorrow, idk, but it sure ain't gonna be now.

[mega-ringsandthings-world]

Vash and Knives were’t a miracle

I’ve been thinking lately that Vash and Knives were perhaps not as unprecedented as they seemed. At least in tristamp’s verse. Independents is a very telling name for them, isn’t it?  The entire SEEDS project was based around the creation and existence of plants, and a very large amount of funding, time, resources and dubious experimentation must have been poured into creating the so-called biological generators. So we know a few things here. One, that plants have a rather hefty amount of human DNA in them, and that they can’t be easily created. (See how the loss of plant engineers and scientists in the Fall put a stop to the creation of any new plants in Noman’s Land, after all.)  So Vash and Knives might have been part of a continuing series of experiments to make the plants self-proliferate.  Think about it, if plants can pop out another plant any time one is needed, then there would be an abundance of plants to be had and never a shortage or need to worry about a replacement when a plant’s Last Run comes or it gets sick, and there would be no need to artificially create more of them. Put the strain of reproducing plants on the Plants themselves, just as they generate essentials for life, they’d also generate more of their kind. Given how much human DNA the plants had, the scientists may have decided to use it to their advantage (or else it was planned all along,) and tried to tweak things to make a Plant give birth.   Given the amount and type of other DNA used besides human DNA, it’s safe to say that Plants can reproduce asexually, using their own genetic material.  SEEDS 5 may have been running the first wave of those types of experiments, leading to the birth of Tesla, fifty years before Vash and Knives. But maybe something went wrong, or not quite right, and Tesla came out more human than plant. In tweaking genetic codes to make a plant reproduce, they ended up nudging the plants’ offspring in a different direction, a plant with almost wholly human DNA, that kept what it could generate hidden, rather than fully exposed as dependent plants. (Vash’s gate, Knives tentacles are all things they generate like dependent plants generate water and power)  So Tesla came out wrong, and instead of trying to understand her, they got impatient and ripped her apart trying to figure out where they went wrong, or else trying to figure out what she could do.  

The brutal experiments ran on Tesla could have been repeated attempts to make her reproduce like her mother plant did with her, or else an attempt to find out why she wasn’t reproducing.  Bear with me, but Tesla has the appearance of being biologically female while Vash and Knives have the appearance of being biologically male. Whatever tampering was being done to the plants to try and give them to birth may have led the Plants to produce a male and female independent (an Adam and Eve, if you will.) The plants were given the directive to reproduce, and they did, they generated the things necessary for Plants to reproduce ad infinitum, except Vash and Knives came too late.  SEEDS 5 maybe have realized their mistake when Vash and Knives were born, they fucked up by ruining Tesla. (I know the implication here is that the twins were meant to, ahem, reproduce with Tesla, but hey. It’s trigun. Worse shit has been implied or outright shown.) (Although I think that Plants and Independents alike have the ability to reproduce asexually or with another Independent regardless of gender at will, and that their entire modus operandi around sexual organs and reproduction is greatly varied from a human’s but that’s topic for another time, and besides, the scientists may not have even realized this.) Vash and Knives being born as two may have been a fluke, or it could have been a deliberate choice on the scientists’ part, with Tesla out of commission, they might have decided that two was better than one. An heir and a spare. Maybe they had planned for them to be born apart, but they were born together,  as twins, which was seen as another failing.  We see that Vash was in a different folder than Knives on the ship’s files, so he might have been slated to be used in experiments while Knives, who showed evidence of useful powers, was to be kept back in reserve. Vash might have been assumed to be too human to be of any technical use. We do know that the twins knew Dr. Conrad, so it was likely him observing the twins from afar with the rest of whatever team he had, and planning for them while Rem cared for them.  Obviously, it would be Dr. Conrad who was in charge of the initial experiments to create self-generating plants, and that carries over to the plan he forms with Knives on Noman’s land.  Okay, this is getting long, so td;lr, Tesla, Vash and Knives were all born because the SEEDS project was trying to create self-reproducing plants and things went wrong. 

[dragonnarrative-writes]

hi dragon!! hope you’re having a good tuesday ☺️ wanted to stop by to talk shop for a little

I absolutely adore Autumn Embers, genuinely one of the au’s that feels the most “real” to me. I’m really curious to learn more about how you fleshed out the world politics for this AU?

It’s one of my absolute favorite parts of the AU truly from the relevance of the 4B movement, to tampered beta suppressants, and even the courting cakes?? Adore it so much!!

-Kiko

Hi Kiko!

I'm going to offer a content warning for general discussion of reproductive health, complications, and freedoms below the cut.

The omegaverse is really interesting as a concept, but I really wanted to answer the question: What about Omegas that can't have children? And then that spawned the question, what kind of genetic conditions would make an omega not be able to have kids? There are so many real world reasons why pregnancy and childbirth are complicated and dangerous, what would estrus/heat and rut contribute to that? And, unfortunately, how would capitalism impact those complications?

It's kind of tricky to come up with the exact reasons why I asked those questions. I'm a Black US American, so the US Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade and subsequent war on reproductive freedom is part of it. The climate crisis and capitalist contributions to environmental destruction, and the health impacts thereof, are also a part of it. Honestly, my own queer identity and the experiences of intersex loved ones also contributed.

Whatever the case, the answer I came up with was: Omicron conditions. A classification of congenital developmental issues impacting but not limited to issues of presentation and reproduction.

All of Autumn Embers is based on this concept! We haven't explored it in depth yet in the fic, but Wildfire has an omicron condition. It's why her scent is so fucked up unique.

From there, I just wanted to make a world that feels complete. Of course someone surrounded by a world of "Heat and Rut!" and "Scents! Mean! Everything!" would be sensitive to their own reproductive experiences. And omegaverse fiction is (almost) never far enough from our reality, in my opinion, so of course there's going to be some conflict about reproductive health and rights, impacted by the Ever Present Evil (capitalism). And of course it's going to be global, this whole fandom surrounds an international task force.

This is way longer than I intended, so I'll just admit that I came up with the sex cake because omegaverse is inherently horny and I also want to do weird horny stuff in the middle of my examination of gender, sexuality and reproduction.

I want to give a shout out to Scents and Sensibility: The Working Assassin's Guide to Supersoldier Seduction, a Captain America fanfic that rewired my brain when it comes to omegaverse fiction. And another shoutout to I Shall Not Live In Vain, a series from The Witcher fandom that actually got me thinking about scent compatibility.

Thanks for the ask @mikichko!

[changeling-droneco]

There's something there about how Zoe shows a lot of care and love for her Grizzbolt, a pal that can only be found in the wildlife sanctuary that she freed from being poached that really just makes me interested in her.

She's the most introspective characters in the whole game, clearly showing a care for pals, a deep curiosity, and a mistrust for the group she helps run and was born into. When all the other journal owners are all fucking assholes (Lily's a misanthrope, Marcus is a capitalist of the worst kind, Victors super clinical about his weird genetic research tampering thing, and Axel sure...exists?) Zoe is asking questions, why is she here, why are they poaching, who are they selling to, why do they fight the FPA, what is outside these islands, whats with the towers?

She truly isn't satisfied with the current status quo and is trying to learn more about the world outside of her group. So I really hope we get to learn more about her in the future, because I really really like her!

[silveragelovechild]

I’m continuing to watch Foundation. Is it odd to primarily watch it for its art design and visual effect? I also like some of the characters. It’s probably best I have not read the novels. Part of me doesn’t care what happens in the long term (and I’d probably chafe if I knew how much it departed from the book series). FYI - There’s a link below to VFX from the series.

Season 2 follows two versions of Harry Seldon. One of them is an AI inside the Vault on the planet Salvor Hardin. There’s a second version of Harry as a holographic projection generated by something called the Prime Radiant. Via an unexplained method, this version was given a new human body. (So that 2 episodes later they could show him slowing being drowned.)

In all honesty, I’ve lost interest in both Harrys. I also have become tired of Gaal, and Salvor, her adult daughter. Both are about the same age (mid 20s) due to the use of hyper sleep at different points in their lives. Gaal is always worried she’s doing the wrong thing, and Salvor is usually angry and/or distrusting. After while both these character traits get boring.

I do like is Lee Pace as Emperor Cleon, aka Day. I like the two other clones, Dawn and Dusk. As a way of protecting the dynasty 3 versions of Cleon exist at any one time, via cloning. They discovered ann unknown enemy tampered with the cloning process and none of them are exact clones of the original.

I especially like Day’s Majordomo Demerzel, the last sentient Robot of her kind (they’ve reference Azimov’s robot laws which she says she is no longer bound by). According to Wikipedia Demerzel is an evolved version of a character from his Robot novels. She’s played by Laura Birn, a Finnish actor, and is very good. image0.jpeg

After a neatly successful assassination attempt, Pace/Day decides to end the clone dynasty and marry to start a genetic dynasty. This threatens Dawn and Dusk as they would no longer be necessary. The woman who Pace/Day has selected to marry, suspect he killed her family. She’s willing to marry him but doesn’t want to have his children. She’s concocted a plot to have children with Dawn (who is 20ish) without letting Pace/Day know. She calls it a “fucking bloodless coup”.

I also really like Bel Riose,the gay general (Ben Daniels) and Glawen Curr, his lover and second in command (Dino Fetscher). It’s interesting to see a loving intimate gay relationship in a scifi setting. I wish their storyline was expanded.

They’ve recently introduced a Han Solo type character by the name of Hober Mallow. He has gone on an undercover mission to bargain with Spacers.

Spacers are a genetically created beings necessary for FTL space travel. They have an incredible design - tall and slender with a golden glow and what looks like gold circuitry imbedded in their skin. They have fun names like She-Bends-Light and She-Is-Center.

Here’s a link to a VFX reel.

[m0ggers]

* / YUKI LORE

STAR PLASMA VESSEL

As I mention briefly in my Choso/cursed womb lore post there has historically been a jujutsu family with body/flesh related jujutsu/occult mutations. The star plasma vessels are basically all descendants of branches of that family who's occult DNA has the right configuration of features to merge with Tengen. It's that freaky genetics that helps make it all possibly along side some likely long term tampering with the prospects pool done by Tengen, and at the start, Kenjaku.

No star plasma vessels have ever been from the modern lineage of the flesh jujutsu clan that is the cursed womb clan. SPV and CW are totally incompatible.

Yuki was originally trained to accept the merger but then girls more better suited were born and the focus shifted to them. Seeing them be treated how she was cracked enough of an uneasy feeling that she started to ask questions. That urge to rebel and question everything only got bigger as she grew up, eventually causing her to completely break ties with Jujutsu Society.

By the time of the main plot she's actually officially considered a dangerous political threat and many elders think part of her whole "unite the occult community" project is to do a cue (this is not wholly inaccurate)

WORLD TRAVELER

Yuki has spent her adult life traveling across the world hunting for foreign sorcerers and other occult practitioners and forming communication networks between them. She's also helped form organizations and saved whole countries from shit like super ghosts.

Yuki is also an explorer, a philosopher and a kind of a scientist. She's deeply interested in solving all kinds of riddles of the occult, not just how to curb the creation of cursed spirits but things like how the star plasma vessels work and how to travel to new dimensions.

Yuki is also well, i wouldn't call her a good person? She's not actively evil but like.... she will leave you to die or let fucked up shit happen to you if she'll learn something from doing it. Only people like Todo are generally protected by her sentimentality. She has limits on what she finds an acceptable sacrifice but that limit might not make sense to others around her.

She also might've intentionally planted that shit in Geto's head. Now she was HOPING he'd go a different route but hey, death to jujutsu society. Honestly she paid little thought to it after until she heard he'd gone AWOL, then she saw an opportunity to maybe branch out her network.

Yuki may or may not be trying to find a way to jailbreak her psychic powers to destroy/get around the block that keeps jujutsu sorcerers from doing all the things other psychics can. (She is and this is the kinda thing that makes people shit their pants to think about)

[bloblobber-propaganda]

what’s the skipper and squall lore

This is difficult to answer without Wade (Agent 4), so sorry if you don’t care about him but he’s included lmao

Skipper is a funny 3 who I more or less characterize as this absolute MENACE to the octarians. Fucking boogeyman type of entity, someone who showed up and started slaughtering the infantry en masse right

Squall is significantly more complicated. On top of octarian soldiers being genetically enhanced, he (and by extension his siblings but dw about them yet) were further enhanced and unethically experimented on further by this crackpot geneticist. Experimental super soldier among experimental super soldiers but I won’t get too hard into that

Squall and Skipper actually have virtually zero involvement with one another until Wade shows up, though!

Wade is fucking unapologetically a horrendously annoying and obnoxious person. But he’s pretty pacifistic throughout his campaign, dealing with him is actually one of the first big boy tasks Squall and his squad are assigned to. They don’t even get their asses handed to them so much as so outfoxed that Squall has a category 9 prettyboy bootboy bitchfit and defects from the military with the SOLE purpose of tracking Wade down to fix his damaged ass pride by beating his ass. This is actually what results in him encountering Skipper and winding up in the metro

(I know OE/Splatoon 2 story modes canonically happen at the same time, but I set Octo Expansion as happening slightly later for the Bit. You understand)

From that point he obviously Forgets this slight and Octo Expansion goes on as expected. Up until the sanitized agent 3 fight. My entire reasoning for Squall managing what no other test subject has successfully managed is purely because of how supernaturally freakishly strong he is from genetic tampering and rigorous training, so Skipper posing any type of challenge to him is like a clash of the titans for me. And the only reason he manages to nonlethally stop Skipper is because he lobs her arm off. (Which I imagine is normally not super serious for cephalopods, but uhhhh 3rd degree chemical burns might hinder regeneration. Oopsie <3)

From that point it’s like. Traumabonding mixed with mutual guilt? Squall actually makes Skipper think about her octarian bias and kind of feels bad about all the killing and fighting (probably not for the right reasons but yk, white woman moment), Squall kind of feels bad for permanently disabling her, but there’s also a lot of mutual respect for each other just based on the “you fight good” front. And of course, just the overall experience you get from going through an insanely fucked up situation that no one else can really relate to. Results are very predictable

It took me a really long time to find this meme I made it like 2 months ago

Anyway uhhh this is mostly incoherent and a really brief summation of things. And most of it predates Side Order. Because My Assumption was memcakes restore someone’s memory, so collecting them all probably means you’re not an amnesiac anymore right? Yeah I’m still working on that. Because Squall wanting to makeout with and also murder Wade is a huge hallmark of That relationship and a major plot catalyst which doesn’t really work if he doesn’t remember fuck of shit

Like make no mistake the Skipper/Squall dynamic is great but it’s crabsolutely not the star of the show, that goes to this fucking guy

And how much Squall hates him

They also all 3 make out sloppy style

I might drop individual lore posts highlighting each individual agents pasts and shit that might be a good idea lmao. But for now you get the lore crumbs that have been rattling around my empty skull and unfortunate friends Discord servers privately for like 3 years god bless

[an-aura-about-you]

i saw your venn diagram and- im dead

and respectfully dying to know just what kind of person you think would ever fuck D. D. Drosselmeyer. im guessing that the logic here is that the spinner powers had to be passed down from him but idk, if its genetic maybe a lot of the family carries it without it ever being expressed? so maybe D. D. Drosselmeyer has never fucked and is just that weird estranged uncle. thats how ive always seen him but penny for your thoughts pls

I mean I'M dead from that venn diagram and I made it!

As far as who fucked Drosselmeyer/canon evidence that he has fucked, Autor says (in the dub at least; the last time I watched all the way through was with Dad and we watched the dub) that Fakir is a direct descendant of Drosselmeyer. idk, maybe my understanding's wrong, but I'm pretty confident that that means Drosselmeyer had kids, those kids had kids, etc. until we get to Fakir.

So, the kind of person I think would fuck Drosselmeyer. Well, it could have been an arranged thing? I'd have to look at the Drosselmeyer family tree again to see how many generations are in between Drosselmeyer and Fakir to see if that fits with the times. (For the record, I'm team "Princess Tutu takes place in the same time the show was made ie the early 2000s and anything that looks old-timey is the result of Drosselmeyer's tampering.") But also I can picture people existing who are like, "Wow, you're fucked up and I am into that." Maybe even a sort of love-hate marriage where the kid(s) are a result of some hatefucking. Like, I usually don't understand the dynamics of a hatefuck, but I have one big exception where I do, and that's Amanda and Hoffman in the Saw series. I can 100% picture them hatefucking, and I can picture Drosselmeyer having a similar dynamic with a sexual partner.

[isshuns]

the progression of things - discarded scenes

this is a dump post for scenes that were in the original draft, but never made it to final version of the fic. they bear no connection to the final version of "the progression of things”, but i liked them enough that i couldn’t bear just deleting these scenes (TPOT underwent a lot of editing and rewrites) ;_; they were part of the original premise where I wrote Miyano as ace/demisexual, but in the end it didn’t work out ;_;

click on the “read more” link if you’d like to read them, but take note, they’re were part of the rough draft, hence are extremely unpolished. 

Miyano remembers being fifteen, his school bag heavy on his shoulders, but his heart heavier in his chest. Every day he looks at the mirror in his bathroom and wonders why he was cursed with such feminine features, a smaller build than the rest of the boys in his school; everything on his face seemed wrong as though nature forgot to switch its genetic code back to “MASCULINE, MALE” when constructing his face.

He couldn’t blame his parents, they never had any say in what he’d look like when he was born, and his mother would be heartbroken to hear that her son, bearing such resemblance to her looks, actually hated his own.

But as slightly estranged as he was from his middle school classmates when his looks came up as a topic of conversation, Miyano still heard Things whispered amongst his peers, seen Things even, when his classmates included him in their weekly get-together to ogle at printed materials meant for a demographic way beyond their age.

In the flush of youth, where the boys in his class pondered over their body anatomy, fascinated with nature, and looked to adult magazines (stolen from their older sibling’s stash) for enjoyment, Miyano pondered over the harsh reality of his feminine features, upset but resigned with nature, and looked to fashion magazines (taken with permission from his mother’s collection) for pointers on how Not to appear even more like a girl.

(His father’s copies of Business Weekly helped a little too, even if only to remind Miyano how top businessmen in the country dressed for a business photoshoot with the press – suit, tie and expensive watch peeking from the cuffs.)

When the passage of time came and went and Miyano entered high school, he discovered the world of Boys Love manga and dedicated his free time to understanding the intricacies of this fascinating genre. Being a minor, the type of print he could obtain were fairly sweet and innocent, nothing too explicit save for some scenes that took place on a bed, the protagonists’ modesty preserved with a flimsily drawn blanket over their nude bodies.

Occasionally, a book or two with explicit content would make their way to his collection. The internet was also a place full of wonders and possibility, and once or twice Miyano would (secretly) look up the famous series promised with rave reviews, but somehow, Porn Without Plot never really stuck to his repertoire.

Even after becoming of age, Miyano still finds himself gravitating towards the safety that comes with the PG-13 books. There is a strange sort of comfort in consuming fiction that depicts love as something simple and uncomplicated, straightforward and representation that love– intimacy did not necessarily come hand in hand with sexual acts. Intimacy could exist with or without sexual acts and vice versa, whatever floats your boat, really.

For Miyano, it was always the build up leading to that ultimate confession scene (at the rooftop, under the cherry blossom tree by the school yard, the back of the school gym, endless options) that grabbed him by the feels and punted him into the sun. That’s where the highlight is!! He once told Sasaki, unable to hold back on his excitement that twinkled in his eyes.

And identifying all the event flags leading up to that very moment of their first kiss? Unparalleled. Truly the best of all scenes there is. Peak romance. The bedroom scenes (few and rare in his possession) are really just a bonus.

So, while his peers continued to chat about going through the motions in bed, the closest miyano could ever try to relate to during those conversations was the intimacy that came along with the idea of sexual intercourse.

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

The moment Miyano is done with the last of his midterms and bids his notes goodbye (for now), Sasaki magically appears beside him and whisks him away to the nearby izakaya for a celebratory dinner.

“For getting through the first midterm week of your life~” His giant baby boyfriend coos, ever so sweet like the cakes he bakes.

Miyano pretends to be exasperated, shoulders dramatically slumping over the sticky izakaya table, but his heart knows better. It’s been one month since he’s started college (the one Sasaki also so happens to attend, not a coincidence at all), and the privilege of having more time to spend with one another makes Miyano giddy with happiness.

Gone are the days Miyano can only meet his favourite senpai for a handful of hours after club activities until the reality of their courseload slaps them in the face; gone are the days they have to rely on telephone calls and text messages, where the minutes and seconds flashing across the screen serve as an unforgiving reminder of the time they have left before they have to part ways.

It’s all gone now. Sasaki sits before him, in the flesh, and Miyano has always felt that seeing Sasaki’s smile in person would always be different from seeing it on screen. The grainy pixels on his phone can never do those handsome features justice, nor can it the warmth blooming behind his breastbone whenever Sasaki threads their fingers together and walks him all the way back to his dorm.

The freshmen all share a common dormitory block separate from the rest of the college students, something about building connections and getting to know each other better, so Sasaki insists on walking Miyano back to his room before he makes the trek all the way back to his own. The night is young, the dorms are peacefully quiet, and everyone is probably still out in town having a good time.

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

Loathe as he is to do so, Miyano makes the executive decision to drop by the bookstore one afternoon to try and consult a few adult BL manga. It’s the worst idea he could ever come up with, he hates comparing his own relationship to silly BL manga tropes, but nothing short of an apocalypse would push him to ask the people around him whether it’s normal to… not think about sex in a romantic relationship. While the internet is a wondrous place full of answers and possibilities, Miyano figures it probably wouldn’t hurt to take a peek at how society tackles his questions through the lens of BL manga.

Hurriedly, just before his date with Sasaki, he randomly picks up one of the highly rated R-18 series, heads over to the payment counter quickly, and bolts out of the store the moment the cashier bags his purchases. He makes sure to stuff the damned volumes deep beneath his bag, out of sight, before he heads over to the café to meet Sasaki for lunch.

And when he’s finally back in his own dorm later that night, his roommate blissfully unaware and asleep, Miyano retrieves the book from his bag, cautiously peels away the plastic wrap before he settles down for the night to take notes.

His efforts are all for naught. Halfway through the series – one Junjou Romantica –, it takes Miyano all but 3 volumes before he calls it quits and and promptly closes the book. Guess there’s no way he can redeem his money now, unless Sasaki is into dubcon…? Well, that’s a thought for future Miyano to ponder on. Current Miyano just wants to sleep and wash the images out of his mind with bleach.

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

he has no care for sex, but nothing compares to the tender happiness that comes along with partaking in something sasaki enjoys and yearns for. sasaki’s language of love has always been touch and spending time partaking in activities of common interest.

today, sasaki has picked a soothing lo-fi playlist as their background music. they’re seated on the bed, warmly nestled against each other as they browse through their respective manga

his eyes may be on inked pages, but his heart is long gone. he discreetly observes his boyfriend, the curve of his jaw, long lashes almost curling against the high of his cheekbones as his honey-gold eyes flit across pages and pages of content.

the fingers flipping through each page is steady, long, and miyano suddenly wonders how it would feel to have them splayed across his body, touching him in places his own hands have never ventured before.

“what’s wrong, myaa-chan?” sasaki smiles at him, eyes impossibly fond and kind.

well, fuck it, there’s no going back now.

“senpai, what do you think… about… BL with explicit content?”

sasaki blinks. miyano tampers down the urge to kiss those parted lips.

“you mean books with sex scenes in them?”

“yeah.”

“oh.” sasaki turns away, the hand that’s not rested on miyano’s shoulder has found a place on top of sasaki’s mouth. he’s embarrassed, miyano realizes, and somehow that makes him feel ten times more endearing than usual.

sensing that this was a topic his boyfriend wasn’t going to let go any time soon, sasaki clears his throat and returns miyano’s gaze head on.

“i’m fine with it. why do you ask?”

“i… well.” while miyano struggles for words, sasaki hand starts moving up and down his arm, soothing him.

“are you starting to read rated manga? it’s normal, at least, ogasawara’s girlfriend says so. so there’s no need to be shy, myaa-chan! if you want to recommend any, you know I’ll read anything you lend me. no judgment here.”

it should have been reassuring, but the thought that ogasawara’s girlfriend discussed with sasaki about explicit BL manga like it’s the fucking weather has miyano choking on his spit. what the actual fuck.

do people actually talk about these things? is miyano the abnormal one instead for never entertaining the thought of doing things with his significant other?! has he been missing out on some code of relationship couples ought to follow?! the BL mangas he read never said so!

“myaa-chan? are you okay?”

“you- you talk with ogasawara senpai about these things?”

sasaki’s cheeks colour a lovely shade of red. from his looks, he’s starting to catch up with where miyano wants the conversation to go. that’s a relief, because miyano honestly doesn’t know how to tactfully broach the topic without sounding like a dumb dumb about these things.

“yeah, i do.” sasaki admits, “but only once or twice, because ogasawara needed to vent about things. sorry, does that weird you out? i can stop. i don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.”

“no, no, it’s fine. totally fine, senpai.” it must be a common boys topic that somehow eluded miyano and friends during high school. at this point, miyano’s face must be burning with the hot flames of embarrassment and shame, he’s pretty sure sasaki’s fingers can feel the heat all the way from where they are, stroking his cheek absently.

“what brought this on, if you don’t mind me asking?” sasaki asks a moment later, when the weight of silence in the room gets a little too much to bear.

“just… some friends talking about it the other day.”

“friends.”

“yeah… fine, classmates.”

“are you… thinking about it?”

at miyano’s surprised expression, sasaki backtracks immediately.

“forget i asked.”

“to be honest, i don’t know what to feel about it.”

“it’s okay, we don’t have to do what you don’t want to do.”

it’s so painfully awkward yet endearing at the same time.

“do you think about it, senpai? about us… doing those things?”

sasaki’s lack of an answer is extremely telling. the shade of red coloring his cheeks is probably bright enough to rival miyano’s own face.

“does it matter? i am happy with doing whatever myaa-chan wants to do.” sasaki finally says, but his eyes have shied away from miyano’s gaze, and something within miyano snaps.

“of course it matters. it’s you, sasaki-senpai. i want you to be happy too. i want to do things that you want to do too.”

something akin to hope blooms across sasaki’s eyes (surprisingly moist).

“thank you, myaa-chan. that thought alone makes me happy enough. let’s leave it here for now and let things progress as they naturally would, how about that? we don’t need to rush into anything. i’m really happy with where we are now.”

he knows that sasaki has caught on to his sexual orientation, no doubt. it’s been a year since he became of age, and yet the BL manga he still buys have never ventured into the explicit genre. briefly, he wonders if sasaki actually keeps his own stash of porn somewhere below his bed, like normal boys would do.

they aren’t in high school anymore. it’s been years, and yet until this point, the thought of doing something more than kissing and cuddling has never crossed miyano’s mind. he wants to cry at how respectful his boyfriend has been all this while.

“myaa-chan? myaa-chan? oh no, yoshikazu, don’t cry. i’m sorry if i said something wrong-”

oh fuck.

miyano has always been uncomfortable with displays of affection and attention, preferring to bask in the comforting arms of his daydreams and fantasies, but his love for sasaki burns greater and he will do anything he can to ensure that sasaki receives equal, if not more, affection and care than the amount his boyfriend showers him in.

scene ends with sasaki hugging miyano tightly, reassuring him and planting a kiss at the side of miyano’s temple. but it does nothing to seep away the frustration gnawing at his bones.

END

[holdyourbreathfornow]

Like Father Like Son (ch.3)

(3rd and final part. I really took some liberties with headcanons, especially with a headcanon I had about Gordon so feel free not to post if it’s too out of touch with your canon. Admittedly kind of phoned it in near the end but I wanted to make sure I didn’t run out of motivation and leave it unfinished)

Coomer double checked the control panel screen displaying Gordon’s vitals for what must have been the hundredth time. He knew they were all stable, but he couldn’t help a bit of parental over-caution.

Gordon had been out of the danger zone of temperature fluctuations since he’d first woken up, briefly, almost nine hours ago. It’s why Coomer’d been able to convince Bubby to finally change over watch of Gordon to him and go to sleep in the first place. He’d assumed that, after alerting everyone to Gordon having no longer been comatose (to everyone’s great relief), Bubby would be glad to finally rest, but instead Coomer had had to argue that there was almost no chance for any kind of relapse at this point for nearly ten minutes before Bubby finally relented (a headlock might also have been involved at some point). 

  Bubby had been adamant about staying, despite his clear exhaustion, to the point where Coomer almost worried Bubby doubted in his ability to do so himself, but Bubby had gotten cagey when Coomer pressed him for the cause of his hesitancy. He drew into himself and quickly agreed to give up his vigil, hurrying away before Coomer could inquire further.

  Certainly not an entirely comforting sign in regards to Bubby’s emotional state, but Coomer couldn’t say he was faring very well himself. He’d barely been able to sleep at all, jerking awake every time he drifted off, thinking he heard the blaring of Gordon’s tube’s vital readout alarm, indicating another temperature spike or drop in blood oxygen levels or erratic heart palpitations. 

  Coomer hated seeing Gordon in that tube.

  He and Bubby had discussed, back when they first conceived (ha!) of the idea of creating their child in a fashion similar to Bubby’s own creation, the likely necessity of supplementary time in a growth tube later on in Joshua’s life. Bubby had needed many throughout his life and, though Gordon’s creation and genetic structure was much more stable than Bubby’s had been initially, due to being based off of existing DNA, instead of entirely from scratch, as Bubby had, it was still likely that, somewhere along the line, his body might need a “tune up”, so to speak.

  They’d planned to build him his own tube around ten years old for that purpose, but then…well, they hadn’t ended up needing to. 

  So now, instead, Gordon floated inside an old tube of Bubby’s they’d specifically made for emergencies, ever since a terrifying incident back when Bubby had first been able to live outside of Black Mesa and they’d moved into this house together. The sudden changes and stress of living outside of Black Mesa for the first time caused Bubby’s molecular structure to almost entirely destabilize.  

  The frantic drive back to the laboratory, Bubby in the passenger seat, condition rapidly deteriorating, was one of the most frightening experiences of Harold’s life. 

  Since then, they’d made sure they always had a tube similar to Bubby’s at Black Mesa available outside of the facility. Years of fine tuning had stabilized Bubby’s physical makeup significantly, and eventually they’d moved the tube to storage, not having needed it in many years, but still wanting to have it available in case of emergencies. 

  Coomer supposed that was part of what made seeing Gordon like this so terrible. 

  This tube was one tied to painful and terrifying memories. Unlike Gordon’s original one, which was associated with the creation of their child, and even Bubby’s tube at Black Mesa, which at least held memories of how they met, this one was associated only with things going horribly wrong. 

  And how wrong they’d gone now.

  Coomer had seen Gordon hurt before, of course, during the Resonance Cascade, but it had been different this time, to an extent he hadn’t expected. 

  Since learning of Gordon’s true identity, the memories of every time he’d come to harm, come so close to death, during their journey through Black Mesa and Xen, had haunted him, of course, knowing retroactively that it was his own child that he’d seen so battered and broken. 

  Coomer hadn’t expected just how different it would be seeing Gordon hurt while already knowing it was his child. He’d felt sick to his stomach, like he was going to break down or pass out. Luckily, Harold Coomer was nothing if not good at compartmentalizing, and had managed to keep it together while they worked to stabilize Gordon.

  Now, thankfully, it seemed Gordon was out of the woods. His skin had grown back, to at least some extent, over nearly every burned area, and his temperature was completely stable, if still high. Likely, it was as low as it was going to get without him intentionally lowering it. 

  Which was precisely why Harold was making very sure everything was in no danger of sudden change for the worse. He needed to leave for a moment to talk to Bubby. Gordon’s temperature was still high enough to simmer the fluid around him and he’d likely need instruction from Bubby on how to control his newly developed powers before he could be released from the tube. The sooner such instruction could begin, the better. 

  One last check, and Coomer was confident enough to leave Gordon alone long enough to fetch Bubby. 

  Climbing up the basement stairs into the main hallway, he glanced into the living room. 

  Benrey and Tommy were fast asleep, leaning shoulder to shoulder on the couch, having apparently worn themselves out with worry. 

  Coomer smiled. He was glad Gordon had the two of them, it was clear how much they all cared about each other. He didn’t see Bubby in the room however, nor in the connected kitchen, so he didn’t dwell there.

  He headed towards the room to his and Bubby’s room, but paused as he reached the door. He could hear a faint noise coming from inside like a soft sniffling and uneven breathing–

  Oh.

  He opened the door just a crack to see Bubby sitting on the edge of the bed, head in his hands and body shaking with soft sobs he was clearly trying to muffle. 

  Coomer rapped his knuckles against the door.

  Bubby startled, and whipped his head around to see Coomer.  His face was red and his cheeks streaked with tears.

  “Fuck–I-” Bubby roughly wiped at his face to clear away the tears, and fumbled for his glasses on the nightstand. “Harold, I didn’t…I didn’t hear you…”

  Coomer simply sat on the bed next to him as he composed himself. 

  “How’s…how is he?” Bubby asked, after clearing his throat. He stared at the floor, not looking towards Coomer.

  “He’s stable. Tissue regrowth is coming along well. He’s as stable as I think he’ll be able to get until he can bring his temperature down,” Coomer replied. “I think it’s best to start teaching him to control it sooner rather than later. If he can learn at least how to regulate his temperature while he’s still in there, he’s far less likely to lose control again as soon as he comes out of the tube. You can work on teaching him all your flashier tricks once he’s out.”

  Coomer chuckled, lightly. 

  Bubby, however, only turned even further away from him.

  “Do…do you think that we could…” Bubby trailed off, then started again. “That tube is made for post decanting genetic alteration. If we could just…if we could nullify or remove the gene responsible for pyrokinesis…”

  “What?!” Coomer cried, agape. “Bubby you can’t be serious! You know better than anyone the risks involved with that! That tube is made for emergency stabilization, not tampering with genetic code when there’s no reason!”

  “No reason? There’s a damn good reason!” Bubby said, turning at last to face Coomer. “Look at him! Look at what’s happened to him! That’s the reason!”

  “But you’re living proof that’s something that he can control! Something that doesn’t have to hurt him!”

  “You don’t–you couldn’t understand!”

  “The fucking hell I couldn’t!” Coomer snapped. “He’s my son, too! You think it doesn’t break my heart seeing him like this?”

  “But it isn’t your–!” Bubby cut himself off.

  “My what?” 

  Bubby grit his teeth.

  “My what, Bubby?!”

  “YOUR FAULT! IT ISN’T YOUR FAULT!”

Any rage that had been building in Coomer was doused instantly.

  “Not my…Bubby, do you think…?” he stammered, almost at a loss for words. “This isn’t your fault, Bubby.”

  Bubby stood up, sharply, hands gripping at the side of his head.

  “Don’t you see?!” he cried. “Everything that’s happened to him is my fault! Everything that’s happened since I included my DNA in his design. I should never have included my DNA. I didn’t want to! I told you I didn’t want to! Why? Why did I let you convince me?!”

  Tears were streaming down Bubby’s face again.

  “We agreed to include both our genetic codes together!” Coomer said. “We wanted a child. One that was both of us, not a clone. I’ve had enough of those. We wanted a child that would be like us both.”

  “Don’t you understand? He is like me! And I wouldn’t wish those words on anyone!” Bubby sobbed. “Seeing him like that I just–Everything they did to me. Everything they put me through–they would have done it to him, too. All the awful tests, all the cruelty, all the pain, oh god…he went through it all. Because of me! They took him because of me!”

“Bubby, we’ve talked about this a thousand times, he was sick and we were both scared. It wasn’t–”

  “Not just that! I read it in his file! It wasn’t happenstance, Harold! They targeted him! Because he was on their record! Because he was…” Bubby’s voice broke. “Because he was mine. They took him because he was mine…”

  He choked out a sob.

  “They took him and they hurt him in every way they hurt me, and more. And now he finally gets out…and he’s just hurt more. Because he’s like me. Because he inherited my powers,” Bubby hugged his arms around himself, shaking.  “Pain and misery…is all he got, all he could have ever gotten, from having me as a father…”

  Coomer stood, slowly, from the bed, and placed a gentle hand on Bubby’s arm.

  “Tell me how your powers work,” he said.

  “You know how they work.”

  “Tell me again.”

  Bubby shook his head.

  “I-I don’t–I can’t talk about that now,” he choked. 

  “Bubby, please,” Harold said, insistent. 

  “I…I absorb direct and…and ambient thermal and electromagnetic radiation and expend it at will, controlling…controlling my external temperature to induce localized combustion,” Bubby said, voice still shaking.

  “What do you absorb?” Harold asked, his voice lilting as to imply a conclusion Bubby wasn’t drawing, but Bubby wasn’t in the mood for guessing at it.

  “Damn, it Harold, why are you asking this now?” he snapped.

  “Just say it one more time, out loud. Please, Bubby.”

  “For the love of God, thermal radia–” 

  Bubby cut off as the pieces finally clicked into place.

  “Radiation,” he breathed. “I absorb radiation.”

  Coomer smiled, softly, as he saw realization dawn on Bubby’s face.

  “Gordon absorbs radiation!” Bubby exclaimed, grabbing Coomer by the shoulders. “He absorbs Xen radiation! His cells absorb and expend it instead of being destroyed by it! He didn’t die from being sent to Xen because he absorbs Xen radiation! He didn’t die because…because…”

  “Because he’s like you,” Coomer finished. “I had my suspicions from the moment they explained how Gordon was able to build up a tolerance from just the exposure to Benrey’s low levels of Xen radiation, and with so few negative repercussions. Once this happened, my suspicions were all but confirmed.”

  Bubby released Coomer’s shoulders and sat heavily back down on the bed, as if his legs had been turned to gelatin. His eyes, red and puffy from crying, were wide with disbelief.

  “They took him because they were cruel and evil people,” Coomer said. “He lived because he’s your son.”

  He gently cupped Bubby’s cheek and guided his face up to look him in the eye.

  “And your son needs you now,” he said. “Not to try to remove any trace of yourself from his genetic code. To show him how to accept and control what he inherited from you.”

  Bubby breathed in a deep, steadying breath and nodded.

  –

  When Bubby returned to the basement, Gordon was just blinking his eyes open again. 

  With his facial skin growing back rapidly, his cheekbones no longer looked so gaunt and pronounced, but Bubby still saw his own defined bone structure reflected in them.

  Not entirely alike, but not entirely different. 

  Not entirely a stranger, but not entirely himself.

  Someone who was a mix of things that weren’t him, and of things that were.

  For the first time, Bubby felt like that might not be a curse after all.

[themiscyra1983]

Gender Identity In The 24th Century, As Viewed By Trekkies Named Cass Who Are Me

I’ve been real sick lately - in kind of a health crisis, honestly - and I’ve only recently been coming out of it. It made it really difficult for me to write or to find the presence of mind to keep up with a lot of things, Tumblr included.

But I’m back! I’ve been looking in now and then. I probably won’t try to catch up. And I’ve been easing back into writing by finally putting together the first few chapters of my “Trans Harry Kim” fic. (I need to work on other things, which I will get to.) As part of this, today, I wrote some notes on where I plan to take the fic over time, and then I got on this, which...took longer than I thought and now constitutes the majority of the notes.

Presented for your entertainment, my personal views/working canon on how gender identity is handled in the late 24th Century of the Star Trek universe. Working title: “FUCK THE J’NAII UP THE ASS WITH A PISSED-OFF CAT”. Actual title: “Gender Identity In The 24th Century”. With the caveats noted above.

The State of the Art

Even in the 24th Century (Earth standard calendar), no single genetic, environmental, psychological or other factor associated with gender identity has been definitively identified by any culture on par with the scientific and technological development of the United Federation of Planets. Though routine gestational and neo-natal scans sometimes turn up certain genetic indicators, these are generally not acted upon - at least within the Federation - until a child is old enough to express their own gender identity. In most Federation cultures, this will occur by the onset of puberty, if not before. When a child reveals that their gender identity differs from their presumed gender, standard procedure within Federation cultures is to begin a course of psychological evaluations coupled with hormone blockers to delay puberty. However, full transition is generally not delayed - the Federation lacks the paranoia that attended underage trans people of 21st Century Earth, medicine and psychology have advanced exponentially, and physical transitions can be reversed or performed again if required.

Federation medical technology allows for a complete physical transition into the form the patient finds most comfortable. This is accomplished through a cellular reconstruction matrix. The patient is suspended in a tank of biomimetic gel, and through a series of procedures over the course of a week, their body is altered on the genetic level - this is one of the few exceptions to the Federation’s general ban on genetic engineering. Cosmetic changes may be made if desired by the patient, but are generally minimal; in a sense, the patient is recreated as though they had always outwardly presented as their true gender. Those who fall within established gender groupings are genetically and biologically indistinguishable from cisgender individuals. Barring other medical conditions, trans women can bear and nurse biological children; trans men, similarly, can conceive biological children. Fat deposits, hormonal distribution, and all other biological functions are altered accordingly. In the case of individuals who fall outside their culture’s established gender groupings, their bodies will follow the functions they have chosen in collaboration with their physicians.

Cellular reconstruction can be performed on any sufficiently developed Federation planet and most starbases. The majority of Starfleet and civilian vessels are not equipped for the procedure, though some are, most notably those designed with the long-term residence of families including children in mind. Beyond the borders of the Federation, the available medical and psychological procedures vary.

The following is an incomplete summary of attitudes toward transgender individuals on various homeworlds and among the relevant species, including both Federation and non-Federation cultures.

Earth

Contrary to the stereotype, humanity has not become a species of perfect angels, coddled and content in their paradise. Bigotry still exists, but by the 24th Century, that bigotry, where it manifests, is largely turned outward. Vanishingly few human beings object in any way to any element of what the 21st Century would have considered the LGBTQ community; all romantic and sexual interests among consenting adults (including asexuality and aromanticism) and all gender identities are broadly accepted. When homophobia, biphobia, aphobia, or transphobia do manifest, those responsible are shut down hard. Though the LGBTQ community has largely integrated with the broader population and is no longer considered unusual in any way - human sexuality and gender identity are both understood to fall along a relatively even distribution curve - there is still a form of queer culture revived after First Contact. It differs substantially from the pre-warp queer culture that existed prior to the Third World War, but annual Pride festivals remain common, particularly in New York, where the Stonewall Inn still stands as an historic monument.

Transgender individuals are considered widely unremarkable, though self-actualization in any form is considered praiseworthy. Many are open about their history to some degree, but some binary trans people still choose to leave their past behind them, and considering both Federation law and the availability of complete physical transitions, it is easier than ever to do so. Though 24th Century Starfleet considers the use of addresses such as “sir” and “mister” gender neutral, some trans people do quietly object to the practice - as do some cis people, for that matter. Requested exceptions to these addresses are generally accepted with no questions asked; though there is a small movement to correct the perceived problem across Starfleet, tradition continues to stand for the time being.

Vulcan

Those with only a child’s understanding of logic might conclude it is illogical to change the physical body to fit the mind, when surely it is far more efficient to ‘repair’ the mind. Surak and the logicians who have followed in his footsteps would disagree. Transgender Vulcans were known even in the pre-logic era, and recognizing the complexity of the issue, even Surak wrote briefly on the subject in the Kir’Shara. Six hundred years later, in the 10th Century of Earth’s standard calendar, the non-binary Vulcan philosopher S’lira wrote what would later become known as The Logical Underpinnings of Gender Identity, still considered a seminal text by all students of Vulcan literature and philosophy, and beloved by trans people throughout the Federation. Vulcans possessed and employed cellular reconstruction technology prior to First Contact with Earth, though they did not share this technology with other cultures - humanity included - until the establishment of the Coalition of Planets, the precursor to the Federation.

Andor

Andorians, too, recognize gender variance, though their sense of it is somewhat complicated by the fact that their species recognizes four distinct gender groupings as well as a spectrum between and outside these genders. The specific physiology and biology involved can be complex, and as Andorians and Vulcans were mutually hostile for much of their shared history, it took some time for the Andorians to accept cellular reconstruction technology from their former foe, and longer still for them to adapt it.

For a time, during the 24th Century reproductive crisis, there was talk among the higher levels of Andorian government of suspending cellular reconstruction for transgender individuals, as it was felt that the population needed to stabilize and any form of genetic ‘tampering’ was unconscionable under these circumstances. Though this was a minority view, the suggestion, coupled with rumors of wide-scale genetic manipulation to reduce the Andorian species to two recognized gender groupings rather than four (modeling the “male” and “female” of other species), led to ferocious debate in the halls of power. Fortunately, by 2386, the crisis was resolved through the work of Dr. Julian Bashir and his colleagues.

Trill

Unjoined Trill may declare their own gender identities and transition freely. There is no stigma attached to it, and following a physical transition, transgender Trill can still apply to be joined.

There is, however, a taboo around joined Trill transitioning. This is due to two factors: first, the health of the symbiote is considered paramount, and though there are methods of reducing the risk, cellular reconstruction can endanger or at least alter the symbiote as well. Second, in the aftermath of joining, joined Trill must learn to balance their own identities against the memories and identities of their prior hosts. Though candidates for joining are vetted thoroughly, there is still a belief, generally unspoken, that it is possible for one or more prior hosts to so overwhelm the current host that their identity is radically changed. This would be considered a failed joining. In the rare event that a Trill comes out as transgender following joining, the Symbiosis Commission becomes directly involved in the subsequent evaluation, and can deny requests for cellular reconstruction. Though most such situations have been resolved amicably, there have been a few ugly incidents resulting from the Commission’s decisions.

Bajor

Prior to the Cardassian Occupation, the gender spectrum was widely recognized and celebrated among the Bajorans. Though most fell within genders analogous to the human concepts of male and female, and agreed with the gender assigned at their births, binary and non-binary trans Bajorans were not unknown. Trans people were viewed as following the calling of their pagh, and declarations of self, as well as physical transitions, were cause for celebration. Many Bajoran poets and religious figures wrote eloquently on the subject of gender identity, and the ancient Song of the Self Discovered has become a beloved text among Federation cultures since the Occupation ended and Bajorans began to trade and communicate with the Federation on their own terms.

During the Occupation, however, much of this fell by the wayside. The Cardassians frequently refused to allow the Bajorans any form of self-actualization, and it was difficult for those Bajorans in hiding, or in the Resistance, to receive the care they would previously have enjoyed. Following the end of the Occupation, the Bajorans turned to rebuilding their planet, and in that light, some viewed cellular reconstruction or other transition care as a frivolous luxury on a planet still prone to famines, disease, and a general lack of resources.

This began to change as the Bajorans gained distance from the Occupation, and successfully repaired the damage done to their world. By the time of Bajor’s long-delayed admission to the United Federation of Planets, transgender Bajorans were once again widely accepted, even if the culture around them had shifted. The Bajoran people continue to work to recover all that they lost, and strive to build a culture that carries worthy traditions forward while rejecting those elements, such as the d’jarra caste system, that no longer have a place in their society.

J’naii

The J’naii, the native species of the planet which shares their name, are not members of the Federation, though they have had contact and even trade with the Federation in the past. They consider themselves a monogendered species, and do not tolerate any form of gender variance, subjecting those who express any gender identity which does not agree with the prevailing consensus to exruciating psychotectic treatments which most Federation medical professionals decry as brainwashing and torture. This practice has soured relations between the J’naii and the Federation, but the Federation will accept individual J’naii refugees fleeing persecution for their sense of gender identity or general political dissent. There are even some J’naii officers across the gender spectrum serving in Starfleet.

Qo’nos

Even in the 24th Century, Klingon culture is often sexist and rigid. Though women can be warriors and serve aboard Klingon vessels, they do not command. Among noble Klingon Houses, the husband controls the House and its assets, while the wife attends to ritual and social matters. In the event of a noble Klingon man’s death, his widow can preside over his House only in narrow circumstances.

As such, Klingon society has a uniquely one-sided - perhaps completely warped - view on gender identity. It is understandable, in their view, for a woman with the heart of a warrior to hear the call to become a man. This warrior must prove himself in glorious battle before physical and social transition is allowed - but it has happened, and Klingons who would be recognized as trans men among other species have risen to high ranks, even commanding noble houses; historians and observers speculate even some Klingon Chancellors once presented as women. Trans men have been recognized in this fashion since the days of Kahless, who had such a warrior among his companions, and prior to the availability of cellular reconstruction technology on Qo’nos, such warriors could live as men without altering their bodies, taking wives and adopting children.

On the whole, Klingon society does not understand why any virile man would wish to become a woman. There is, even among Klingons, such a thing as compassion, and it is not unknown for individual families to take their transgender daughters offworld for treatment. Correcting their personal records is a more complicated matter, and as a result, there is a small population of “orphan girls” allegedly found among the stars and adopted into families grieving their sons. With the proper persuasion, the authorities generally look the other way.

Klingon society does not generally recognize non-binary individuals within their own species. The concept is baffling. Again, it is not unheard of for non-binary Klingons to seek treatment outside the Empire - but they often exile themselves from Klingon society afterward. Some abandon their culture completely; others attempt to preserve a form of their culture in solitude; but generally speaking, non-binary Klingons do not present themselves as such in public if they continue to live within the borders of the Empire.

Romulus

Gender variance and any accompanying physical transitions are accepted among the Romulans - but there is no escaping the past. Records are meticulously updated and maintained; transgender Romulans are recognized according to their gender identitiy in the present, but their assigned gender at birth, along with all the medical and psychiatric care they have received, are noted in their files. However, though this information may sometimes be brought into play if it seems relevant and the individual has become a target, there is no particular stigma attached to being transgender. Romulan society is largely egalitarian with regard to gender, for all that it is a xenophobic. repressive oligarchy. Men, women, and non-binary Romulans can all be of service to the state, whether in the military, the Tal Shiar, the Senate, or as simple shopkeepers, farmers, or whatever else is required.

Ferenginar

The Ferengi readily understand why a female might wish to become a male, but given their extensive cultural misogyny, they have generally forbidden it. Any Ferengi male discovered to have been assigned female at birth will be harshly punished, their physical transition forcibly undone. As a culture, they have no idea why a male would wish to become a female, and non-binary identities are beyond their comprehension.

None of this means it has not happened. Certainly Ferengi women have posed as men in pursuit of better lives, and some assigned female at birth have genuinely been transgender, going offworld to transition not only for the sake of profit but in answer to the call of their inner selves. Some Ferengi assigned male at birth, though it would be considered scandalous, have abandoned the expectations of their society to become the women they know themselves to be. And Ferengi assigned either way sometimes adopt non-binary identities. It often means leaving Ferengi society, living on the edges at best, but even among a people as profit-driven and rigid as the Ferengi, the true self cannot always be denied.

Things have begun to change with the ascension of the Grand Nagus Rom. Ferengi females can now wear clothes, move outside the home, and pursue profit in their own right. Slowly, the concept of non-binary gender identity has been introduced. Though it is a secret between zirself and zir wife Leeta, Rom is in fact genderfluid, sometimes identifying as male, sometimes as female, and sometimes as non-binary. Leeta accepts this truth wholeheartedly, and Rom’s mother Ishka has come around on the matter as well, but even the new Ferenginar would not accept Rom’s circumstances so readily, and so Rom maintains a strictly male presentation when dealing with literally everyone else.

Cardassia

Cardassian society is perpetually paranoid, and has been for some time. Gender variance is widely viewed as weakness, and weaknesses are to be exploited to remove the unfit from power and allow the advancement of those more equipped to deal with reality. Cardassian society officially only accepts the binary genders of male and female, and has not historically allowed transition between them.

This may not always have been the case - some archaeologists have found evidence of more accepting cultures in the Cardassians’ past, before the rise of the military regime that ultimately gave way to the Dominion. When the civilian Detapa Council briefly overtook the government, there was some movement in the direction of greater tolerance, but this was swiftly quashed once Gul Dukat and his Dominion allies took control.

In the aftermath of the Dominion War, the new civilian government has wrought many changes in Cardassian society. As a people, they have begun to rediscover their history, their ancient culture, even their spiritualism. Tolerance for gender variance, among other differences, has been growing. But progress remains slow. The military and the Obsidian Order, in their time, caused damage that may take decades or centuries to repair. For now, transgender Cardassians generally seek treatment offworld and do their best to keep their heads down and their hopes moderated. But there is hope, no matter how long the road ahead.

Breen

Literally only the Breen could tell you, and they aren’t talking.

The Dominion

The worlds of the Dominion vary widely in their acceptance of and response to gender variance, though most accept it to some degree and offer some form of transition care. The Federation is now in more constant contact with these planets, and with communication and trade have come cultural changes which are bringing even the more conservative societies around.

The Founders have no actual concept of gender or sexuality beyond the Link. They present in whatever forms suit their needs of the moment.

The Vorta and the Jem’Hadar are so heavily genetically engineered, created to singular purposes, that it is difficult to impossible for them to think for themselves. Federation doctors and anthropologists, with the permission of the Founders, are working to undo the genetic damage and to introduce concepts long since lost among these species, but for the moment, all Jem’Hadar continue to present as male and refuse to admit any feelings to the contrary.

The Vorta consider it blasphemy to alter the bodies given them by the Founders, but male, female, and non-binary Vorta all exist, so that they can interface with any culture regardless of the local views on gender. Among the Vorta themselves, the distinction is meaningless. They are sterile, cannot reproduce without medical intervention, and have been cloned exclusively for longer than any living Vorta can now recall. Their culture is stagnant, their imaginations nearly nonexistent, and they are only slowly beginning to recognize any sense of personal identity.

The Borg Collective

Surprisingly, the Borg recognize gender variance and routinely perform physical transition. The reason has to do with efficiency: gender dysphoria is a condition which inherently complicates the interlink between the drone and the Collective. In allowing a drone’s body to conform to their sense of self, this sense of self can then be subdued. The conscious mind, at peace, can be suppressed and captured within a waking dream, giving the drone over to the Collective. Transphobia and gender stereotypes are irrelevant. All will become one with the Collective and adapt to service them. Dysphoria will be subdued; resistance is futile.

Aboard a Borg ship, genetic reconfiguration can be achieved within any standard regeneration alcove or maturation chamber. Sterilization fields and other necessities can be easily supplied by the ship’s systems. The technology would need to be adapted outside this environment, but as the vast majority of drones live aboard ships, stations, and unimatrices, and treatment is applied as soon as the problem is identified, this concern is generally irrelevant.

[thanksjro]

Eugenesis, Part Six Scene Six: Jolup Sinks Rewind’s Ship

You sure as shit have, sugarplum.

It’s time to get the down-low on everyone’s favorite severely-depressed detective.

So, hey, remember waaaaay back in Part One, when Nightbeat used his deadname to sign a report accidentally? It’s okay if you don’t, because I sure did.

God, that was ages ago, wasn’t it? Anyway, that string of numbers is his biocode, which I guess sort of functions as his social security number. So, if any of y’all wanna go ahead and steal his identity, I’m not gonna say anything.

Now, that’s a mighty low number for a Transformer. Strikingly low, even. Turns out that Nightbeat wasn’t biomorphically created, but rather cold constructed. Cold construction as a term didn’t exist within the canon when this was written- trust me, I checked. Sure, robots were built, as opposed to bursting from another’s torso like an over-microwaved hotdog, but they usually turned out like the Dinobots… that is to say, not exactly smart.

Cold construction was an experiment, trying to build Transformers outside of the messy lines of “genetics" and “family lineage”, and as it turns out, the first batch didn’t come out as expected. Or, at least, Nightbeat didn’t.

Hey there, friends. Just a head’s up, before I try to tackle this: I am, as far as I’m aware, neurotypical. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what may be an honest attempt at inclusion for a neurodivergent take on a character in a story published in 2001.  

Now, some of these snippets look kind of harsh at face value, but let’s take a closer look. Everything harsh isn’t really Nightbeat putting himself down, but rather him quoting what others have said. Notice the use of quotation marks. Think back to Part One, how he was treated by his peers- they treat him like everyone else, they respect him, they trust his input. Hell, Rodimus himself wanted Nightbeat on the mission to go get Optimus from the past. Nobody who’s been in the story has tried to belittle Nightbeat for being wired differently. That’s fucking phenomenal treatment of a character like him in the early 2000’s.

I’m probably out of my depth here, but it seemed worthwhile to mention.

Anyway, back to the plot.

Right, that.

Nightbeat gets pulled out of his inner monologue when Red Alert asks if he’s okay, since he’s been staring off into space for the last little while. They’re still waiting for Optimus to show up, and everyone’s starting to get antsy. It’s hot as hell over by this collapsing wormhole, which isn’t helping them settle either.

Something finally comes up over the horizon, but you and I both know that it wouldn’t be Eugenesis if things just got on smoothly, now would it? Quantax starts firing on the team of Transformers, while he gets nervous about the wormhole still being there. He decides that if it is, he’ll jump back to this exact point in time to show himself that it is. This is a stupid plan, for a lot of reasons. 

Good idea, Quantax.

While he’s trying to come up with something better, someone lands a lucky shot and takes his ship down. Trailbreaker goes to see who it is, I guess because he isn’t aware of what happened the last time a Transformer went to go see Quantax.  

Oh no, he’s been turned into The Transformers The Movie Prowl!

Before anyone can try and save Trailbreaker’s stupid ass, the Quintessential Flying Fucks show up. Nightbeat’s not having it- he orders his team to take them down.

The Quintessential Flying Fucks are here for the wormhole as well, but they’ll be taking out the Autobots beforehand. While everyone else handles the Fucks, Nightbeat chases after Quantax, who just bolted for the temple.

Nightbeat catches up and tackles him to the ground, only to get himself pummeled for his efforts. As the blows rain down, Nightbeat tries to reason with Quantax that the wormhole is dangerous and shouldn’t be tampered with. Not sure why he thinks this would ever work, but alright.

Quantax, pal, do I have some friggin’ news for you.

Quantax pulls out of Nightbeat’s hold to hide in the shadows, only to jump out and slash him once he gets close enough.  

I hope nothing bad happens to Muzzle here. I feel like Nightbeat really would snap if that orb got broken.

Trying to buy some time, Nightbeat tells Quantax about the futility of trying to change the past, the future, simply because it’s all already laid out, and has been from the beginning. Quantax doesn’t take the jab well, jumping out at Nightbeat again and stabbing him in the stomach, spilling his guts. Nightbeat uses the slump of his body to topple the both of them into the hole in the floor.

Outside the temple, Centurion’s wondering just how the fuck he’s still alive. Jolup’s got him by the throat, his legs have gone AWOL, and he honestly just wants to go home at this point. Jolup’s about to drop the poor guy in a conveniently-placed pool of lava, when Optimus finally shows up.

He, Thundercracker, and Astrotrain- who I’d legitimately forgotten was in this novel- are all pointing their weapons at Jolup, and demand he put the cinnamon roll down and back away slowly. It’s a sweet gesture. Too bad Centurion’s already dead, though.

With a grand, villainous flourish, he drops Centurion into the lava, where he promptly explodes, then flies off for the temple. Astrotrain pursues, as Optimus orders Thundercracker to find Nightbeat and get back to the eighties.

Sevax is in the middle of a scrape with Hound, about to be shot to death. Looks like it’s all over for this son of a gun.

Or not. Man, there goes Rewind’s weird coworker ship. Too bad, he’d already written a huge chunk of his slowburn Ultra Magnus/Hound coffeeshop AU slashfic.

Jolup tells Sevax to slap a bandaid on it and get ready to go while he goes and grabs Ryknia.

Back inside the temple, Nightbeat is clinging to Quantax like his life depends on it- because it does. They’re both hanging off the edge of a hole that’s filled with molten lava. Quantax pulls himself up with his very strong arms, just in time to stand up and immediately be shot back into the pit. Nightbeat dares to dream a dream almost too beautiful- that Optimus is here to save him, like the romance novel protagonist he is!

No such luck. It’s just the Quintessential Flying Fucks. But how did they shoot Quantax? Didn’t he make that impossible? Good thing they dragged Trailbreaker along for the ride, and also good thing he’d managed to keep hold of his gun. Loopholes are fun.

The Fucks run for the wormhole, and all Nightbeat can think to do at this point is stand in front of it and hope for the best. Or maybe the least worst, in this case.

But… but the lore!

Nightbeat gets them with the device as they go through the portal, thus wiping everything from their brains and assumedly dooming them to a short, brutal loop for the rest of time. Thus the plight of the Quintessential Flying Fucks draws to a flaccid and confusing close. I had a feeling this might happen. I was hoping it wouldn’t, though.

Thundercracker soars through the wormhole next, and Nightbeat manages to hit him with the mindpurge just as he crosses the barrier. He’s not even sure if it’s working anymore at this point.

Then Optimus gets there, and it’s time to take him back. They hold hands, click their heels three times, say “there’s no place like home”, and step into 1984. Optimus stares at the collection of almost-dead robots on the Ark, not really feeling the scene, as Nightbeat blathers on. He offers to let Optimus keep his memories of 2013, so he can try and prevent his own death. Optimus… well…

And then he gives Nightbeat a gun and tells him to shoot him until he’s basically dead. Which he does, once the guy’s had the entirety of the last few days scrubbed out of his head. There’s an actual reason for this, though I won’t lie, I kinda freaked out a little when I first got to this part. In order for Aunty to reformat Optimus into his fresh new Earth bod, he needs to be injured enough for the scans to pick up. While this is happening, we also get an explanation for why the 1984 Decepticons got reformatted too- the mindpurge dropped and rolled under the counter while Nightbeat was busy murdering his celebrity crush, and wiped the entire history of the war out of the ship’s database. Now it didn’t see Autobots and Decepticons, but rather just a whole slew of injured robots. So if we want to end prejudice, what we need to do is mindwipe our cars and then shoot our dads in the chest. Gotcha.

And then Mount St. Hilary erupts. Time to go.

Back in 2013, Astrotrain’s been reduced to being transportation, as he always is, and the team’s watching the wormhole cook the atmosphere around it from a good fifty miles away. Fun fact, the curvature of the earth makes it so that we can’t see more than eight miles in any given direction from sea-level. Even though they’re holed up in a building right now and arguably above sea-level, I can’t help but wonder just how friggin’ big Cybertron must be for them to be able to see this right now.

Genocide’s over! Time to break out the booze.

Nightbeat’s taking his sweet time, but it isn’t for a lack of trying. He’s been dodging the repair beams, trying not to kick dead people in the head as he scrambles for the portal. He gets there eventually, the wormhole now running so hot he literally bursts into flames and his eyes melt out of his head as he passes through.  

There’s my macabre little man! Back to normal at last. All’s well that ends well!

The wormhole explodes as it shuts down behind him.

Hours after, things finally cool down enough for a rescue team to go try and find survivors.

Motherfuckin’-

NO.

NO, NIGHTBEAT, YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED.

That’s the end of Part Six.

[justmenoworries]

I don’t usually talk about Star Vs (I’ve pretty much abandoned this show after the mess that was season 2), but I need to get this off my chest real quick.

I find it really fucking funny that this

is hailed fandom-wide as some kind of ‘YAAASS QUEEN!!’ moment. When in reality it’s just terrifying sad and unfair.

It’s just incredibly rich for Solaria to stand there all high and mighty and glare at Mina like she had any fucking right to judge her when this

was her attitude towards monsters when she was still alive and her first reaction upon seeing that monsters and mewmans were living together in peace was this.

Like, this woman was a bona fide warmonger.

She created an army of super soldiers for the explicit purpose of committing monster genocide. She manipulated a young, poor peasant into enlisting in her services and then proceeded to mess her up so bad (physically and mentally) that she was unable to function outside of war.

Mina didn’t start out this way. Solaria literally made her what she is in the series present. And yet the series has the gall to pretend like Solaria just watching as the young woman who looked up to her, who literally gave her body and soul because she looked up to Solaria as a hero, who ended up this world’s equivalent of a traumatized PTSD-ridden war veteran and who lost all of her friends in Solaria’s war, dies a slow, agonizing death and pleads to be saved, was some kind of glorious redeeming moment for her.

Did Mina need to be stopped?

Yes.

Did she deserve what was coming to her?

Absolutely.

Does that mean Solaria’s reaction was justified?

Hell no.

Solaria does not get to stand there and pretend this entire situation was not her doing.

She was the on who created the Solarian Warriors.

She was the one who approached Mina and talked her into fighting her war.

She was the cause of and actively enabled the Warriors’ racist philosophy towards monsters.

TL:DR: The fact that the show pretended a victim of Warmongering and Genetic Tampering is worse than the perpetrator of said crimes is fucking disgusting .

Solaria is no better than Mina and it’s horrible that the show seems to just completely absolve her of all fault in the finale.

[skymade]

How /does/ Willow handle injury anyway? Is she just very resistant or does she heal rapidly? Could she, if hard pressed, remember all the various injuries she's suffered over the years? Also, HI!

   Good morning! Thank you for choosing Angst Airlines this morning. We’re happy you’ve chosen to fly the heartbreaking skies with us. As a reminder, this is a non-smoking aircraft. Federal law prohibits the tampering or disabling of any smoke dete– 

   1. Depends on what you mean by handle. Her disposition during her, uh, dying is relatively unchanged! She’s very used to being just on the cusp of death, so she’s just as Willow-y as ever. If by handle you mean how’s her first aid?, that answer is not great. Tallow tried to teach her, but she was very busy ignoring everything he told her ever. She uses tape – duct tape, masking tape, that kind of stuff – to tape her wounds closed. When she’s in so much pain that her body is heavy and weak with it, she tapes her hands to her Staff so she doesn’t drop it through the Gate. When she’s done with it, she puts the Staff tape, as she calls it, on her boots, and when she gets injured, that is the tape she primarily uses to pull pieces of herself back together. The idea is that after using the tape on her hands, the Staff, and playing with it on her boots, it’ll be easier to rip off of her wounds when she needs to. Her idea has the finesse of a child who just realized tape hurt, how fix and never talked to a medical practitioner about the potential problems of reusing tape she’d used on her dirty boots on open wounds because… guess what. 

   2. She’s very resistant! Amyra are amazing, terrifying things. All of their weapons would mean certain, instant obliteration of us – most of our weapons would be a mosquito bite at worst for them. But remember, Willow is a bad Amyra. There’s a lot of things she should be good at/have a handle on that she simply does not because embryo modifications failed and she had a poor run up of genetics. Amyra live on a planet with vicious creatures, with an atmosphere that changes drastically on a decadely basis. They’re predisposed to having thicker skin that heals quickly – and their blood is poison, for God’s sake. They have very thick skulls. They’re meant to be able to breathe on lots of different planets with little to no augmentation to help them. They’re able to survive falls from great heights with little to no injury. They’re poison resistant and, as is quite obvious, they can Blink.    But, again, Willow is “bad”. Willow’s skin is weaker than average for any Amyra. She was always easy to make bleed, and that was before she was on the run, where she was being stabbed multiple times a day. It’s now no longer an argument of is her skin thick enough to protect her? It’s more now is there enough skin to protect her? Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit, but the fact of the matter is: never giving herself time to properly heal means she’s weaker than most. In her defense, it’s a little impossible! She gets hurt everywhere she goes and can’t stay there and recover – she has to run to a new place, where she also inevitably gets hurt. Bones aren’t skin, though. Meaning her skull is still thick, and trying to land a devastating blow through her forehead would likely give you little for your effort.    To wrap up the other things: she also suffers little from fall damage ( but that’s getting increasingly worse, again with the non-healing of the rest of her body making her more susceptible to injury ), she’s still rather impervious to being poisoned, she does have difficulties breathing in certain atmospheres but she has a small device that helps her out with that so she mostly manages well, and – she’s actually an amazing Blinker and is very poisonous. She can’t control her Blinking, but her rather… chaotic lack of grasp over it helps her get out of situations with other Amyra, who have to think through their own Blinking. ( It also fucks her over at some points but I’m trying to focus on the positives here. ) And because modifications didn’t work well and the length of time she spent on her own planet, her blood is so poisonous that she can even end up poisoning her own people. It’s a hit or miss, but she’s ended up making a few people sick, so you bet your ass she pulls out the “MY BLOOD IS BAD ENOUGH TO EVEN FUCK YOU UP!” card every possible chance.

   3. She can’t remember what someone’s said when it’s her turn to talk, so… so no. She can remember a few of them, though. And she’s “fortunate” in the fact that most of her injuries can be summed up with the word “Mila”.