#you are telling me this is a ship between an almost robot and a human who are the missing parts of their soul

[a-little-bit-of-ships-in-my-life]

So like, i haven't watched any playthrough of SMT V, neither i have a really good idea of the plot. Yet, i read a lot of AoShu fanfiction on the past week (mostly by KivaEmber) and i must ask.

Is the fandom of the ship dead or-?

[ghostsandmermaids]

Fandom Manifesto: Hello From The Hallowoods

(Originally written for the Fandomanifesto community on Pillowfort.)

Here's a (mostly spoiler-free) fandom manifesto for my favorite podcast, Hello From The Hallowoods. (Please try to keep the comments on this post spoiler-free as well.)

What is a fandom manifesto?

Inspired by ship manifestos, a fandom manifesto is an essay meant to introduce people to a fandom and promote it by explaining its appeal. It's a really fun tradition that I would love to keep going.

What is Hello From The Hallowoods?

Darker than your dreams, and farther North than you remember, there is a forest where life and death meet…

Hello From The Hallowoods is a queer horror podcast written and produced by William A. Wellman (they/them). This is the official description (taken from Spotify):

Come walk between the black pines! In this award-winning queer fiction podcast, a cosmic narrator follows the increasingly connected residents of the forest at the end of the world. It's a bittersweet story that explores queer identity, horror genre tropes, and finding hope in humanity's last moments.

It's set in a forest in northern Canada (the Hallowoods) in a post-apocalyptic world plagued by the black rains. The story follows the inhabitants of the Hallowoods—only some of whom are alive and human—as their lives become increasingly interconnected. 

The podcast is narrated by Nikignik (he/they), also known as One Hundred Eyes in the Dark, an eldritch god who speaks directly to the listener via their nightmares. He begins to tell these stories because he's grieving his partner, another god called Marolmar (he/him), and humans were the last thing Marolmar created. Over time, Nikignik changes from a more passive narrator to an active character in the story.

There are a lot of characters, including but not limited to:

a nonbinary Frankenstein's creature piercing together their identity

a trans ghost dealing with his occultist father

an invisible man finding love at first sight

a genderfluid storm witch trying to prove themself

a retired rockstar and her punk butch lesbian daughter

a floral-suit-wearing demon on a celestial audit of earth

a starwolf on a mission to kill said demon

a killer robot skull and his pet dead seagull

an unkindness of ravens (yes, they are one character)

… and many, many more.

How scary is it?

It's a horror podcast, so there are some scary moments, but for me, the story feels very comforting and bittersweet as it explores horror tropes in a really unique way. According to the website:

It's been described as a show that helps you sleep easier, rather than one that keeps you up at night.

The story also explores themes like religious trauma, isolation, death, grief, and queerphobia, so please check the content warnings at the end of each episode description or at the start of each episode transcript. Transcripts are available on the website.

Why should I listen to it?

If the description above didn't convince you, here are some more reasons why you should listen to Hello From The Hallowoods. 

There is so much content! I often complain about books being almost always standalones or duologies lately and TV seasons only being 8-10 episodes. If I really like something, I want to spend as much time with it as possible!

With HFTH, I don't have that problem because there is so much to listen to! There are currently (almost) 150 episodes available (plus a few live shows and bonus episodes), and new episodes come out every Wednesday. There are also weekly 100-word bonus stories on Patreon, and a tie-in novel called One Hundred Eyes In The Dark is currently in the works, so if you're looking for a story you can get really invested in (or if you're angry that all your favorite shows have been canceled), HFTH is perfect for you!

There are so many queer characters, disabled characters, and characters of color! If you're looking for a really diverse show, you will love HFTH. (I cried when I heard a character describe herself as aromantic.) But even aside from the diversity, the characters are just amazing. I mean, "What if Frankenstein's creature got love and support and was an absolute cinnamon roll?" is the perfect character concept. The villains are also really compelling and well-written. 

It's a great introduction to podcasts, especially for book lovers, because it often feels like a very immersive audiobook! The voice acting and music are incredible, and even though there are a lot of characters, you can tell them apart very easily by their voices. If you like fantasy and horror books, this could be your introduction to the world of audio dramas. 

That being said, if you have listened to other horror podcasts before, you will still love this one! It sometimes reminds me of Welcome To Night Vale, but the setting and characters are very unique, and the writing is so, so beautiful. 

It's also a great introduction to horror! I used to avoid horror media because I get scared very easily, but horror podcasts (and especially Hello From The Hallowoods) made me discover how much I actually enjoy horror. HFTH explores horror tropes in such a kind, unique, and hopeful way, and as sappy as that sounds, listening to it makes the horrors of everyday life a little easier to deal with. 

If you like Malevolent (another really great horror podcast), Harlan Guthrie has a guest role in HFTH! You might also recognize Mx. Wellman's voice from other podcasts like WOE.BEGONE, The Silt Verses or Old Gods of Appalachia. 

The fandom is amazing! Everyone is so kind and talented, and we always have a lot of fun theorizing about what will happen next. There's even a fan-run Discord server!

We also have a fan wiki, and in addition to the official information, we also have a "fun gender" for each character. Here are some of my favorites:

Tumblr Sexyman (Official)

Eye-Affiliated Podcast Host

Deer that will fuck you up

Whatever the hell was going on with the guy from Shape Of Water

Nightmare Personality

Hot Topic Goth

Dilf Automobile

How do I listen to it?

You can listen to Hello From The Hallowoods on the podcatcher of your choice. Here are some suggestions from the Hallowoods website:

Spotify

Apple Podcasts

Podbean

YouTube

Google Podcasts

It's not an anthology, so please listen to it from the beginning to see how the different characters and plot threads come together. 

The show is entirely ad-free and sponsor-free, so if you like it and want to financially support it, please consider joining the show’s Patreon.

And that's it! There are many things I didn't include for spoiler reasons, but this should give you a basic idea of what HFTH is about and why I love it so much. 

I hope I convinced you to listen to Hello From The Hallowoods, and maybe you will love it as much as I do!

[allgearlit]

Hello ! I wonder if you're new on tumblr. If yes then i'd like to welcome you and i just read your work with starscream and it was super adorable and also heart warming😭❤️

If it's okay i'd like to request a small drabble with g1 Starscream and female human reader first contact au where a fem reader was taking a walk and suddenly finds abandonet jet and decides to take a look and then i'll leave the rest to you <3

OR something a bit more dark with also g1 Starscream and fem human reader where reader is being an unwilling captive and he decides to explore her organic nature ( could be a little non-con/nsfw-ish if that's okay if not then i comepletely understand <3)

You can pick between those two any you like more <3 thanks a lot for reading ans i hope you'll get a warm welcome🥰❤️

Hello! Thank you so much for the ask - I'm not new to tumblr per-say, I started as an art blog and decided to pivot to writing since that's more of my passion anyhow. Though I appreciate the welcome! <3

I love both ideas - I hope you won't mind if I maybe make the latter at a later date (with credit to you for the idea). The first one though; that screams (heh) mini series. I love the BumbleBee movie so much and fantasize about Charlie's scenario with other bots, so I'll make this into it's own little drabble series. I hope that's acceptable! ☆

G1!Starscream x Fem!Human!Reader: The Starscream Movie AU Pt1

I couldn’t tell you the time if I tried. I needed peace, freedom from my thoughts. A walk late in the night was my best solution. Anyone could tell you I haven’t been feeling my best recently, though to pin-point the problem would be an anxiety riddled mess in of itself. I walked down by the nearby lake that always looked so much bigger at night. Perhaps it was the contrast between it’s glistening blue water to the velvety black sky, or the way the stars hit the rippling water, creating a galaxy effect. Regardless, it was one of my few favourite spots in the area.

There was a bench that was almost always vacant, near the centre of the lake, just where the bend dipped over the shore in a gentle fashion. As I approached, something else caught my attention. A ship, or jet? I couldn’t quite tell in the light. It looked like something straight out of the military. I took in a sharp breath as the curiosity bubbled in my throat. I wanted to inspect the craft, anxiety and logic going out the window as I approached. It was a slender build, likely only able to house one person at best. The thought of there potentially being a body in the cockpit made me shudder, but I knew I had to check.

Reaching over with my shaking hand, I rubbed over the golden paneling, to my good fortune, it was empty. However, this lead to a new line of questioning, where had it come from?

I continue inspecting the craft, my hand gliding over the metal nonchalantly as I analyze it like an artifact. Something else catches my eye, a purple symbol - almost like a horned creature. Instinctively, my fingers glide over the etching, mesmerized by its rich colouring and definition. Whatever it meant was unfamiliar to me.

After my thorough inspection of the exterior, a little click and hissing noise arises from the cockpit, opening the sealed space. It was as if I was being invited into whatever this machine was, and I couldn’t help my temptations to peek. Climbing up onto the jet, I shuffled into its cockpit, as quickly as it had opened for me, it slammed shut.

An involuntary yelp escapes my lips as I hear the lock click into place, it was as if the jet was alive. Pressing my palms onto the panel, I whimper as I try to get it to open. A sudden noise fills the air, it sounded like robotic laughter. The noise startled me, and promptly caused me to land flat on my bum in the seat.

“Who’s there?”

Despite attempting to sound confident, my voice comes out as a weak whimper, panicked and unsure. The robotic laughter stops, and a voice comes out instead.

“Stuck on this wretched planet for less than half a cycle, and already an inhabitant has decided to be stupid enough to touch me.”

The voice was snivelly, snarky, and cybernetic. The kind that makes one a pinch uneasy. It filled the air almost too evenly, as if the words were coming from the jet itself. In my moment of logic, I begin trying once more to push the panel up, when the voice mocked me once more.

“Don’t bother, I’m keeping you in here so we can have a little chat.”

Defeated, I let my frame sink into the rather uncomfortable seat. Frustration bubbles within me as I look around the tiny space.

“Alright, let’s talk.” I speak up, my voice hoarse with that anxiety. “What are you?”

A light on the console shines as he prepares to speak, though nothing is obvious or makes any sense to me. Perhaps I was too oblivious to notice it at first.

“The name is Starscream, second in command of the Decepticons. Though, I don’t think your puny little flesh-bag brain can handle all of this info, I’m a Cybertronian.”

Every word that Starscream speaks makes me doubt him, as if the word  Decepticon wasn’t already suspicious enough.

“So, you’re a race of alien jets?”

This prompts a grunt, and I swear if he had eyes they’d be rolling.

“No fleshie. We’re robots who can change our forms. This jet you’re in is my alt-form.”

Before I can even ask, I’m suddenly shuffled inside the cockpit as it literally changes shape with me inside. I roll around like a towel in the washer, when suddenly it finishes with me in the palm of a massive robot's hand. Starscream looks down at me with piercing red orbs. He has a smirk on his face as he looks at me, before proceeding to tousle me in his hand.

“You’re cuter than I thought, I might just keep you.” His voice is the same snarky tone as  before, though now it’s clear that he is far more comfortable with me. I feel my face grow pink at the prospect of becoming his - human pet? I’m not sure what he’d make me, but regardless, I try to refute.

“Now wait a second -”

However, He places his thumb over my lips to promptly silence me, walking to where who knows where until he stands still and look down at me.

“...Where is your home fleshie?”

[shiningdesignersreflections]

Chapter 3: Stranger's Promise

Narrated by Marina.

Narrator: I glance around Cersei's stall. On the black velvet tablecloth lies an old, frayed set of tarot cards.

Narrator: A tall girl in an elegant, classy gown and a crystal crown is sitting behind the table. She looks like a beautiful princess!

Narrator: She shuffles the cards gracefully. I'm surprised to spot some green stubble under her veil.

Narrator: Cersei's deskmate, the youth in the noble outfit, is also standing at the side.

Noble Youth: Where are you from, young lady?

Marina: The voice...

You: So that "youth" is actually a girl...

Narrator: Meanwhile, a figure clad entirely in metal scraps is attempting to get up from the couch in the back, producing a series of loud clangs.

Robot: Activating... 20%... 30%, 35%... Activation failed.

Narrator: The strange metal man gives up his attempt and sinks back into the couch.

Cersei: Hey, Robot, don't scare our sixth member away.

Marina: What a group of weirdos.

Cersei: Bingo! That's right! We're weirdos indeed. You're indeed destined to be our sixth member.

Cersei: Let me introduce you. This is our Princess. This one is Prince. The robot dude is human, but you can just call him Robot.

Marina: You can call me Marina.

Prince: A very good name. Easy to remember.

Cersei: We all live in the Dorm of the Strange. The other students all call our building a forbidden zone!

Marina: Is that something worth being proud of?

Cersei: Anyway, if you join our club, you get free access to the Dorm of the Strange. You'll be one of us!

Narrator: Her words simply put me in a bad mood once again.

Marina: But I'm not even a student in your school.

Narrator: Princess, who has been standing silently at the side, finally sighs.

Stubbled Princess: Yeah, she's right. She's a kid. Can't you tell?

Cersei: So? She can just join the club now and enter Cicia School of Design later.

Narrator: I look up in surprise to meet Cersei's genuine, intense gaze.

Marina: B-but by the time I get in... you'll all have graduated.

Cersei: Nah, I should've graduated 4 years ago, and I'm still here. Who knows when I'll graduate? We might become classmates.

Cersei: By the way, where do you live, Marina?

Marina: I live on a big, big ship! Bigger than the whole campus, actually.

Marina: We sail all day. I don't know where to, but my brother says we'll find our destination someday.

Cersei: Wow, that sounds amazing. I deserve my own ship, too.

Narrator: Princess nods elegantly, stroking the stubble on her chin.

Stubbled Princess: It'd be nice to go tanning on the deck with a glass of champagne.

Prince: So, do you know how to steer a ship, Miss Marina?

Marina: Of course! I can do anything!

Robot: A ship bigger than the whole campus... It must be powered by cutting-edge technology. Maybe tech from the Ruins.

Narrator: They all start chatting. It's like they've already accepted me and fully believe I really do live on a gigantic ship.

Narrator: I feel right at home hanging out with them. It's almost magical. How should I describe this feeling?

Choose either "It's friendship" or "It's the mutual understanding between weirdos."

If "friendship," ...

You: It's friendship! You've made some great friends.

Narrator: So, is this what having friends feels like? Now I see why people find university fun.

If "weirdos," ...

You: It's the mutual understanding between weirdos. You fit perfectly with each other.

Narrator: Who cares if others find me weird? And what makes them so "normal" anyway?

--

Marina: But... I'm the 6th member, right? Shouldn't there be one more person here in that case?

Cersei: She went out to buy something. Oh, I see her over there!

Aeon: Marina!

Narrator: Before I can see the face of the fifth member, my brother has come looking for me.

Aeon: Where have you been? I've been looking for you for a while.

Marina: Aeon! You're already done?

Aeon: Yeah, it's time to go home.

Narrator: I hurriedly say goodbye to the members of the Research of Magical Humans Club and run over to take my brother's hand.

Narrator: From a distance away, I turn back and let my gaze linger on the stall a little bit longer.

Narrator: A new, grayish figure is standing by the small table now. The silhouette reminds me a little of a mirror we have on the Ark.

Aeon: What are you looking at, Marina?

Marina: Nothing, nothing! I didn't see a thing.

Marina: Aeon, can I study here in the future? I made some new friends and promised we'll become classmates someday!

Aeon: You want to go to school? Of course, you can go.

Marina: Really? You're the best!

Aeon: But if you want to pass the exam, you'll need lessons in history, languages, math, and more. Let's start lessons once we get home!

Marina: Huh? Nooooo! I don't wanna go to university anymore!

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

[rubbercasing]

prescription

robotic humanity replacement therapy, part 2

[ / rn 2023-07-22-0683.log | ]

[ LOG PLAYBACK: MEMORY 0683, 2023-07-22 ]

[ NOTICE: This .log file requires administrator permissions to access. Are you sure you wish to access it? y/n ]

[ y | ]

[ ... ]

[ RENDERING ... ]

[ ... ]

[ The hum of a fan on low, or perhaps an AC. Details hazy. Mornings are like that. There's a familiar tt8&-5!;&;&; . Gah. Tightness. Tightness in my chest. Doctor's appointment. Right. Inward breath. Deep into my lungs. Hold. Breath outward. The phone screen reflects black against a slightly chubby face and curly hair and green eyes. | DATA REDACTED BY CASING OS |. A loading buffer circles on the screen. A video call to Doctor Erkin. ]

[ The screen flickers. Blue and black in scan lines. Black, shining reflection. Then, white screen. A pair of black, pointed glasses on a white screen a second later. Black text on the screen, moments after. Momentary rush of a heartbeat on full speed. What is this? ]

[ "I am Dr. Oth Erkin." ]

[ Silence. Before the screen clears and more is typed. ]

[ "Are you the patient | DATA REDACTED BY CASING OS | ?" Along with two touchscreen prompts: Yes, and and No. I hesitate... before my thumb hovers over and touches against the affirmative. ]

[ A new prompt. "Do you consent to a home consultation?" ...then, the same answers: Yes, and No. ...now? Perhaps it's just a rescheduling service. Or, more likely, a virus. ] [ Another heaitation. Yes, again. The phone turns black, as if dead. It refuses to respond as I press the buttons along the side, trying to reactivate it. A virus after all, then. ]

[ A drop of TV static-patterned ooze drips from the charging port of the phone. Then, the speakers. It sounds as if a radio signal is being crunched through a meat grinder. Words, jumbled between the sound of feedback. I drop the phone against the counter as I watch the ooze drip in viscous strands downward, forming a puddle. And then, the puddle begins to ambulate, moving to an open area that Isn't beneath the desk. And... slowly the puddle grows. The phone looks as if it has become a conduit of liquid rubber, sputtering and practically growling as it finally finishes. ]

[ With the full mass of the puddle acquired, it ascends upward, taking on a more humanoid form as it shapes itself. Legs laced and lined with white stripes of circuitry against jet black, soon after adorned in khaki slacks. Then, a wide torso of the same pattern - soon after dressed by a gray button down and a white labcoat. Their face is finished with curly white hair, the features of their face almost painted on in the same way the circuit traces would be. The markings shine silvery in the light... and as they fully form, a pair of glasses with black lenses adorns their face. ]

[ "Ah. Good morning. You must be Case... allow me to check my notes here." They remove a PDA from their labcoat pocket, as I am left speechless on the floor, phone dripping residual black fluid as I try to collect my bearings. During this time, the newly arrived doctor scrolls through a list of pre-ordained knowledge. ]

[ Their eyes widen them narrow imperceptibly behind the glasses. "I see. Well... Let's talk about it. You want to eventually be a fully robotic organism. This is generally a route more extreme than the cybernetics option, in which we keep a little bit of you as an organic core... Hmmm..." Oh, no. They're going to do the 'infeasability' speech. ]

[ "...tell me. Do you know about the story of Theseus' ship?" They look out the window a bit, curiously examining the surroundings they've appeared into, but there's a sly gleam from the lenses as I gaze upon them. ]

[ "I've... heard of it, yes. Why do you ask?" I reply. Fingers fidget against fingers. The seat I sit upon suddenly feels awkward and uncushioned. ]

[ They turn their head and give a broad grin. "What's your conclusion, then?" ]

[ "...huh?" ]

[ "About the ship. Do you still think it's the ship of Theseus after every part is replaced with exact copies? And if not... when did it stop being his ship?" A slight cock of their bespeckled, inorganic head. ]

[ "I...'m not sure. ...I suppose it would still be his ship, after all is said and done." ]

[ They grin a little brighter. "Given my line of work, I am inclined to agree. And, I invite you to extrapolate with me." ]

[ The doctor holds out their hand, which quickly morphs into something akin to... a blood draw device? They nod, gesturing to hold out a hand - to which I shakily reach to oblige. The slot opens downward, and a set of impalement implements appear - one of them a standard blood draw syringe, and the others a set of five wires in varying colors terminating in points like those you would push into a breadboard. My heart races slightly as the needle punctures, then the points of the wires follow suit, small beads of blood appearing at the points of contact. ]

[ "Vitals looking good. Sorry about the scare... just establishing a baseline so we can start your prescription." ]

[ My chest flutters. Prescription. For some reason the word feels like peace on my tongue. ]

[ The process is over almost as soon as it begins. The needles and probe points are retreated into the circuitry-laced doctor, and in place of the diagnostic machine that their hand once was, comes the shape of a pill dispenser slot. They gesture again for my hand, and I oblige quicker this time, hesitancy lost. Out comes an orange plastic bottle of black, green, and gold pills. They almost look like diodes. ]

[ "Take two a day - that is, one in the morning, and one in the evening - and call me in three months. "]

[ When I look back up, their form has already dispersed, becoming blobs of data and once again reabsorbing into the matrices of networks by means of USB ports and plugs. The prescription of pills remains. ]

[ The label is simple. ]

[ | DATA REDACTED BY CASING OS |. Then, followed, an address (...my address?). All leading to the substance name printed below it. My eyes widen. ]

[ficbrish]

Tiny Scene Tuesday (missed week, whoops!)

[11Jul2023]

That day's three little words: Gun, Upset, Speculate

[Create a short piece (art of fic) that encompasses those 3 words]

Thank you @mallaidhsomo for the prompt!

Any stray Shenkos out there, come join the Big Place Shenko Discord for weekly art/fic prompts! ✨

"Priorities"

[[tw/cw: Violence]]

Their guns were trained on each other’s heads.

She’d been so eager to see him too.

See him okay; alive. To see his smile of recognition. Share an embrace if she was lucky.

Then they greeted each other with the end of each other’s barrels.

Hi honey, I’m home!—But make it the end of Humanity; the end of the whole galactic cycle. Make it “if everything goes south here, the Council falls and the final cry for unity across species, across planets will die out in an uncomfortable scream.”

Sprinkle in a history with Cerberus. Add a pinch of Udina.

That’s how you get guns in faces.

And that’s why it was a god damn miracle to see Kaidan on the Normandy again. Or the SR-2 for the first time.

“This is the Cargo Bay.”

“I know. Shepard, we’ve been here together. I stood over there, and you stood over there.”

“Right.”

Right. That’s right. Right before Mars. Before the thing that was EDI, before she was EDI, smashed his skull against steel with a sound that—

“Oh, fuck!”

EDI!

“Wha—?”

“Uuummm…. Uh, so,” Shepard was doing great, “There’s um, something you, um, I…”

She trailed off at the end of her sentence, leaving Kaidan alone in his head to speculate everything that could possibly be wrong within the space of the Big Bang until now.

Shepard continued in the worst way possible, “I don’t want you to be upset. So, I don’t exactly know how to tell you this.”

“Uhh…”

“EDI!” she called out, “Can you meet me in the Cargo?”

A mechanical voice rang through her omnitool, “Is there a reason you need me?”

Shepard rolled her eyes, “Guess Joker’s really rubbing off on you.”

“I do not recall Jeff rubbing me anywhere.”

They could hear his distressed cries in the radio background.

“Can you please just come down here?” Shepard’s voice was strained with more anxiety than impatience.

If robots breathed, there would have been a sigh, “Yes, Shepard.”

Kaidan had no idea what was going on.

“You remember that robot?” she asked, looking slightly unhinged.

“Robot?”

“Yeah! The um, uh… The uuuhhh,” she laughed nervously, “So we stood here. Because?”

“…Because?”

Damn, that bitch showed up so fast.

“You needed me, Shepard?”

Fear spread from Kaidan’s eyes to his eyebrows to his forehead all the way into his L2 implant, bathing him in a ready glow.

“This is fine!” Shepard shouted in panic.

“That’s—”

“It’s not!”

Kaidan kept looking between Shepard and the Cerberus assassin.

“I’m EDI.”

“So, um,” Shepard explained, “My ship is alive, and—and she took over the body of the robot who almost killed you. Right? But we’re, uh, we’re all cool now. So… And I really think you’ll get along! EDI, this is Kaidan. Kaidan, this is EDI.”

Joker’s voice came over the comms, “You forgot to tell him, didn’t you?”

“Yes, Joker. I forgot.”

His radioed laughter echoed through the cavernous, metallic Bay, “She forgot!”

Kaidan ignored them and shook EDI’s hand like a gentleman. Still trembling a bit, but also manically calm after his sudden flood of relief.

[Read more snippets on AO3 🥰]

[squipy]

Oh boy I'ma get cancelled for this but like anyways we're talking about proshipping...again

Ya know what's odd I like the IDEA behind what proshipping stands for basically ya know don't harass people over what they ship even if it seems problematic to you. See that is fine to me THE ISSUE IS WHEN PROBLEMATIC BECOMES OUTRIGHT DANGEROUS!!!!! so for example a big surprise to literally no one I'm a self Shipper and a lot of my romantic F/O's are villains who have done some shitty things which can be seen as problematic such as for example I don't think a robotic wolf with an ego trying to murder a child is exactly #unproblomatic but see that's the thing EVERY SINGLE HUMAN is problematic we aren't perfect we make mistakes and with that in mind that means that good written Fiction Characters are also by design problematic in some way just some more than others. THE ISSUE IS WHEN PROSHIPPERS ARE SAYING ITS OKAY FOR SOMEONE TO SHIP A CHILD AND AN ADULT TOGETHER!!?!? OR TWO BROTHERS!!??!? that's where I have an issue because at this point you are romanticizing these very serious fucking issues!!! It kinda reminds me of ya know violence in cartoons almost. I'ma use Steven universe as an example sense I've been thinking about that a lot. Steven universe shows a fantasy violence that is based on real use of these weapon's but is shown in a way where the child or adult watching it doesn't have a need to do these things in real life. NOW with proshipping that's the issue here you are Putting these not sure problematic things but straight up ILLEGAL things in a good light. Now now I know what your about to say "well death and murder is shown in fictional media all the time why is that okay" okay sure good question you wanna know why BECAUSE IT'S NEVER SHOWN AS A GOOD THING?!!?!!? for example in the new puss and boots movie it's never seen that what death is doing is good he's the antagonist. When you make these ships between an adult and a child you aren't putting it in a way that the viewer can obviously tell "okay this is just a really dark headcannon the person behind this headcannon obviously does not think this is a good thing* but no instead you guys make these edits with up beat sexual music. Now another argument you may make is "well people simp for fictional murderers why is that okay??!??" Again good question and this might be different for everyone but for me murderer is seen as an obvious bad thing but again I feel like people aren't into the character because there a murderer but because of other factors. Unlike proshipers who will be into a shipping dynamic straight up just because it's child x adult or sister x mom or whatever. It's honestly the same reason why I personally don't like the yandere Troupe because it puts the idea of straight up murder and toxic possessiveness in a positive light.

[ursamajorstory]

Captain Vaughn

[The Beginning] - [Part 2] - [Part 4]

Word Count - 3719

--

Ursa held his bag close to himself as he followed Lars through the ship’s halls. It was almost straight out of the sci-fi comics. He saw doors lining the halls with odd noises coming from the other side of them. Honestly, Ursa didn’t know how to feel about the situation he was stuck in. He was forcibly coming to grips with the fact he was actually on an alien spaceship. Some part of him wondered if this was just a dream he was having, and that he was still actually on the Flagship frozen in ice. But he doubted that. There was simply a difference in feeling between dream and reality. This was unfortunately very real.

“Alright, so we’re going to meet Captain Vaughn. You’ll want to be very careful around him. He’s very dangerous and you have to be absolutely respectful or else you’ll make both of us look bad,” Lars warned him, his little metal pincer-like legs tinking on the metal surface of hallway floors.

“Oh, really? What’s so bad about him?” Ursa questioned as they walked together.

“Well, he’s just a bit of an unpredictable man. He’s got these long pincers that can stab through even the toughest armors, he’s got these large claws that can crush someone as soft as you without a doubt, and his fangs are bloody huge! Rumor has it that he has an entire tank of poisons under the ship’s cargo for where he throws crew members that underperform. You know what, why don’t you just keep a five foot radius at all times from him. It’ll be for the best!” Lars explained simply, “He’s a dangerous one, Ursa. He’s from Telmun, you know!”

“I don’t know what that means,” Ursa glanced at Lars, “I think I should tell you upfront that I’m flat out not familiar with anything alien in the slightest. Like where I’m from, all of this is science fiction. We didn’t know there was other life in space other than what we saw on blurry pictures of Spes.”

“That explains why you lot chose to freeze yourselves. Needlessly risky to do that, you know. Look, the short version is that Telmun is a dangerous place, too. You should just avoid all routes that way because the entire planet is full of guys like Vaughn,” Lars’s sphere shook back and forth for a moment, “Do you know what a Dracorum is? He’s like one of those.”

“Dracorum? Like a vampire?” Ursa furrowed his brows as he pictured it in his mind.

“What’s a vampire?” Lars seemed just as confused as Ursa was about this before making an exasperated noise, “No. Dracorum! They suck the fluids right out of your body if you’re an organic! As for us robots, Vaughn is a jerk to us, too. You know, I’ve worked on this vessel for 10 rotations and I still don’t get the pay promotion of an organic? One time he pulled one of my appendages off because I miscalculated the time it’d take for us to travel from one system to the next?”

“I see…Well, I guess good thing I’m just a human, right?” Ursa tried to weigh the situation, “Did you have to fix yourself, then?”

“Yes, it was awful. Thankfully, now that I’ve got you, you’ll learn all the requirements of how to do mechanics and be a perfect assistant. I’ve decided this a bit ago, actually,” Lars spoke with confidence, walking ahead of Ursa.

“Assistant? Look, Lars, I thank you for saving me out there and unfreezing me, but I need to get myself to Spes. It’s where we were supposed to go,” Ursa tried to interject, “I don’t know anything about mechanics, anyways. I’m just a cleaning guy. That’s why I need my family’s stuff after all this.”

“And how do you plan to get to Spes without a ship, navigation, not even a flying permit? Yeah, you need me,” Lars turned his sphere to look at Ursa while he walked, almost giving what might have been a smug look. It was hard to be certain it was meant to be smug, his only form of emotional expression being a sort of lid that went up and down over the camera eye at the center of his sphere.

“Fine, fine, I get it. But, who knows, maybe I’ll butter up this Vaughn guy and he can get me to Spes,” Ursa grinned just as smugly, “I don’t think you know how good I am at convincing people that I have great ideas.”

“What?! Vaughn? You’re out of your mind,” Lars shook his sphere, “He helps no one but himself.”

“Well, first time for everything, right?” Ursa grinned as they finally seemed to come to a large set of doors.

“What? What does that mean? Is this another weird human thing?” Lars narrowed his eye, “Don’t say weird things like that in front of Vaughn.” Ursa couldn’t help laughing at that. Lars was such a weird little temperamental robot. It was kind of endearing to a degree for Ursa. 

The large doors slid open revealing it was like a large space deck like Ursa had seen on Star Battles and Star Voyage. He glanced around for a moment, observing the space as he glanced at computer screens, buttons, levers, and various aliens working back and forth. They were completely foreign in appearance to Ursa. If he had to rate them, they looked closer to the aliens he saw on Star Battles rather than how Star Voyage always had them somewhat humanoid. These aliens were drastically different from Ursa in appearance.

But his eyes stopped on one alien in particular who stood at the center of it all, the one Ursa had to assume was Vaughn. He was a tall alien, easily standing at nearly 7 feet tall. He was covered in scales that were a deep red that made him come across like a lizard of some form. He had two large horns that protruded upwards from his head and various spikes coming down his spine. Yellow eyes pierced their gaze right into Ursa as they stared him down from across the room. He had hands that had been clawed, the index finger having an especially larger claw than all the rest. His feet were also clawed, his legs bending back to further give this sort of lizard-like appearance. His tail swayed behind him for a moment as Vaughn seemed to be visually assessing Ursa. 

And then he smiled with a set of large, sharp teeth. “So, this is our precious cargo we picked up, hm?” Vaughn’s voice was a low, silky pitch. Despite the man being physically intimidating in appearance, his demeanor seemed to shift to come across more friendly, gesturing for Ursa to come up towards him.

“Yes, this is my cargo I salvaged,” Lars corrected Vaughn as he moved to stand between Ursa and Vaughn.

“Upload his data into the monitors, would you? I am quite curious about this rare little thing you’ve brought,” Vaughn was speaking to Lars, but didn’t exactly look at Lars at all. The whole time, Vaughn kept his gaze pierced onto Ursa.

Lars was quiet for a moment before glancing back at Ursa. After a moment further, Lars moved away, going up to one of the various screens in the room.

“What’s your name? What do we call you?” Vaughn stepped up towards Ursa, slowly closing in that 5 foot radius that Lars had warned Ursa about. It was getting close enough that Vaughn was able to easily extend his hand out, cupping Ursa’s face to turn it back and forth slightly.

“My name is Ursa Major. Like the constellation. I’m from Earth,” Ursa tried to explain shortly, unsure how to feel being examined so closely. Ursa was an average height man for Earth, so Vaughn towering him so easily was more intimidating than he was anticipating.

“‘Constellation’? What is that, if you do not mind me asking?” Vaughn questioned him, tilting his head a little, “I don’t think we have ‘Earth’ on our data ports, either.”

“Constellations… Uhm… It’s where we see the stars in the sky and we made pictures with them. My parents named me after one of them,” Ursa tried to explain with a bit of hesitation, trying his best to keep his composure. He gestured up to his forehead where his freckles had been, “I have these freckles and my parents thought they looked like the constellation.”

"Pictures out of stars? How unique…" Vaughn narrowed his gaze towards the freckles that Ursa had pointed out.

"Captain Vaughn, his data is on screen," Lars spoke up. "He still needs to go to the medical bay for official registration, though."

Vaughn stepped over towards the screen in question, observing it for a moment. "Organic in nature, yet a relic to time, I see…"

"I'm human, from Earth," Ursa spoke up, "We were supposed to be on route to a planet named Spes."

"And yet you're here," Vaughn noted, glancing at Ursa through the opaque screen, "You were frozen in time. We don't seem to have a planet registered on our systems named Spes. Tell me more about this mission of yours."

Ursa didn't know how to handle this. Lars made it sound like he was going to meet with a dangerous alien that was going to kill him. But Captain Vaughn seemed more curious than murderous. "We had to evacuate our home world. Earth was going to be destroyed by a massive meteor. It has this long Latin name I couldn't ever get right, but we just called it Mors. The guys at NASA -- this group of scientists from my world -- found a new planet that would be good for us. So that's where we were going."

"Interesting… And yet, unfortunately, we have no records of your species. Perhaps this is the confirmation of the end of your home world," Vaughn pressed a button on his screen, pulling up a window written in a language Ursa didn't understand.

"Yeah, I guess that's what it looks like…" Ursa glanced down at the floor for a moment, "But I do know that my people were also traveling similar to how I was traveling. I was on one ship of many. So they're probably all also on their own ships, traveling with frozen pods that are just sleeping."

"Ah, so you believe your species is still out there but simply asleep?" Vaughn stepped away from the monitor to approach Ursa again, "You all chose to freeze yourselves in space travel? Why? How old exactly are you?"

"Well, it was our only choice if we wanted to make sure us, specifically, got to get to Spes. I didn't have a lot of choice about it. To me, I'm 18 years old. But I guess on paper I'm apparently thousands of years old," Ursa shrugged a little, "It was our only option since we had to travel light-years away."

"According to the computer data I attempted to salvage, this species didn't have any jump technology. They were trying to travel light-years away on purely raw travel systems," Lars spoke up.

"I don't get what that means…" Ursa furrowed his brows, "Honestly, all of this is super foreign to me. When we were on Earth, the idea of aliens was just… science fiction, really. We had no idea any of you were out here. But maybe that's just what's changed over the last few thousand years, huh?"

"In simple terms, it would be like trying to walk the distance from one world to another. Except you were all attempting to do it across light-years of distance. You were all working on ancient technology, which makes sense given your circumstances," Vaughn explained for Ursa, "I see you're using the translation pieces. Turn that off, I want to hear your natural speech. Your extinct species gives me curiosity."

Ursa didn't like Vaughn calling humans extinct. He glanced at Lars for a moment who returned the look with a small nod. He nodded in return and pressed the buttons on the collar and ear piece. "This is English. Not everyone from my homeworld speaks it. I speak English and Spanish, though. Mi mamá habla español conmigo," Ursa spoke for Vaughn as requested. 

Lars started beeping at Vaughn and Ursa wondered if it was translation. However, Lars stopped to glance at Ursa, furrowing his eye at Ursa. "I don't understand the second part. Is that the second language you said?"

"Yeah, that was Spanish. The computer probably didn't have that in there. At home, they were weird about who speaks what," Ursa explained with a shrug.

Lars beeped to Vaughn who spoke in return to Lars. The language was nothing like he could describe at home. It didn't sound similar to any language he knew of. He had wondered if it would sound similar to a language he knew of at home, and yet it wasn’t anything close to that. It sounded like rumbles of noises that smoothed itself into different pitches of noises. 

“He said you can turn your devices back on, Ursa,” Lars glanced at him, nodding up and down to him.

Ursa nodded, pressing the buttons and listening to the slight buzz of the device in his ear. “So, uh, yeah, that’s my situation. I would really appreciate any help I can get since I’m really unfamiliar with the systems here.”

“It’s a very interesting situation, certainly,” Vaughn nodded as he moved to approach Ursa once more. He placed his hand on Ursa's shoulder, smiling down on him. "However, you will be a welcome crew member. I, personally, have a fascination with long extinct species. Lost knowledge we may never have known about otherwise is always valuable."

"Well, like I said, we're possibly not extinct. Just asleep," Ursa corrected him as a thought came to his head, "In fact, I kind of remember that there was a section of my kind deciding to make colonies on a planet near our own. After all these thousands of years, I'm sure they're thriving out there. It's on a planet called Mars?"

Vaughn and Ursa both looked to Lars, who simply shook his head. "We don't have a planet registered as Mars. But if I can restore the full starmap of your ship, we might be able to cross reference it to our own maps. I'm guessing you lot named planets on your own without registering the names to the federation and then went ahead and went extinct. I'm guessing if your Mars colonies are still going, it's under a different name given how long it's been," Lars explained as he looked at a monitor, "Probably why you mentioned a planet named Spes, but we don't have that planet on our systems."

"Oh, that's kinda hopeful. Yeah, maybe it's just all a bunch of alien names I was asleep for the renaming! Shoot, maybe even my species is registered but it's all just under different names!" Ursa smiled at the thought, hopeful that maybe humans were just called some new fancy name now. 

"Well, we don't know all that. Lars, get to work on cross referencing those starmaps. For now, Ursa, why don't you go to our medical bay to register your species. If it is the case that it's just a name confusion, your species should come up on our registry. And then… after that…" Vaughn pressed a claw to Ursa's chest, pressing his extended claw up and down his shirt. "I want to have a more private setting with you to discuss matters about your membership on my board."

Ursa stared down at the claw before looking up at Vaughn. His face slowly heated up and he didn’t know how to respond. In 1988, this was certainly something extremely taboo. But as Captain Vaughn was practically doing this in front of his entire crew, Ursa realized that the last few thousand years may have changed the mood a lot. Granted, that was a nice thought. But he was still quite flustered nonetheless.

“Uhm--Yeah, sure, uhm… Ok! Sure!” Ursa laughed nervously before nodding, “Yeah, I’ll be wherever you want me to go for this…private matter.”

“Great, I’ll see you then,” Vaughn stood back a bit to head for the monitors, “We will be headed for the Lixium system shortly. Try to be swift about this, yes?”

“Gotcha, I’ll be right on it,” Ursa nodded before beginning to move out of the main deck room.

“Oh! Let me show you the way to the medical bay,” Lars insisted as he quickly caught up to Ursa on his little legs.

Ursa nodded, allowing Lars to lead the way as they headed off together. Once they were back in the hallway with the door shut behind them, Lars and Ursa both seemed to slow down a bit in sync with each other. 

Ursa glanced at Lars for a moment before giving the robot a smug smile, “You know, I think that went really well. I don’t get why you are so scared of Captain Vaughn. He’s a nice guy, it seems.”

“Don’t count on it. He’s after something, I can tell. He’s not nice to others for no reason. You must have something he wants. Are you hiding something you aren’t telling me?” Lars questioned him as his eye narrowed.

“Well, from what I could gather, it seemed more like he was coming onto me. Uhm… In my home world, we were kind of weird about two guys getting really close and personal like that. Is that not the case around here?” Ursa decided to turn the questioning table around, “I’m not opposed to it! In fact, I mean… I’m pretty interested in what Captain Vaughn wants to talk about in private. But I just want to know what the mood is about this all.”

“I don’t think that should be your biggest worry. I’m more worried about why the Captain likes you to begin with. Captain Vaughn is still a dangerous guy. Just don’t trust him right away. Remember, it’s you and me who’s a team, not you and him,” Lars insisted this with a shake of his sphere.

“Well, I mean, we’re only a team because I’ve literally only met you and Captain Vaughn. I literally do not know anyone else on this ship and you happened to be the one to wake me up from ice,” Ursa clarified this with a gesture at Lars, “It’ll be alright, ok? I appreciate you being all concerned about me, but I can take care of myself, you know. I’m an adult.”

“I’m not organic like you, I do not have ‘concerns’ like that. I am just warning my assistant to not do something that is clearly deadly according to my calculations,” Lars insisted this with a stomp of one of his pincer legs. It didn’t feel all that believable to Ursa.

He couldn’t help but chuckle a little. “Alright, sure, gatito,” Ursa snickered as he decided to tease Lars.

“‘Gatito’? What does that word mean?” Lars questioned him, “Your translation device was programmed with English being anticipated, but if you say things that aren’t English or a programmed language, it sounds gibberish to us.”

“It’s Spanish, but I’m not telling you what it means,” Ursa grinned at Lars, “I’m allowed to have things for myself.” Lars narrowed his eye before seeming to rolling it. They continued on together down the hallway. Ursa couldn’t help but laugh a little again, patting the top of Lars’s head as they walked together. 

They stopped at a door that had a symbol on it, Lars turning to look at Ursa. “Alright, you’ll go in there and one of the medical crew members will assist you. They’ll do a bunch of nonsense I’ve already done on you. But the difference is I did it so I can actually figure out you, they just want to register that you exist in the first place with the federation.”

“You mentioned the federation before. Who are they? Are they like… the government?” Ursa furrowed his brows, trying to think of how this equated in his sci-fi comics. “I am just unsure what the point of this is.”

“The point is to make you exist on system files. Generally speaking, a lot of species don’t have to do this because they’re already widely known throughout the systems. But you’re an extinct species who just sort of popped into our time. It is alarming. I mean, you don't even have any identification numbers! We don't even know if you emit any toxic gasses at will, any diseases we're all not ready for, or if you actually are supposed to be living in different conditions!" Lars lifted one of his pincers, gesturing vaguely at Ursa. "You're very weird."

"Well, I can assure you I don't release toxic gas. Though, as far as living conditions go, it is pretty cold on this ship for me. Really can't wait to just bundle up in my blankets later," Ursa shrugged, "I think the weirdest thing you guys might find out about my species is that we lose our baby teeth and grow a second set?"

Lars stared at him with his eye wide before quickly shaking his sphere, "What?! Your species is so weird. Just go in there and tell them this stuff. When you're done, just wait for me. I'll be back in a bit and then I'll guide you to the Captain's quarters."

"What about storage? I still need to get my stuff. And also, why do I gotta wait for you? Can't I find this on my own?" Ursa furrowed his brows before tapping his finger on the top of Lara's sphere, "Worried about an 'organic' like me getting lost? Are you actually concerned about me?"

"What?! No! Absolutely not!" Lars shook his sphere quickly with a noise of frustration, "I'm not worried about you! I'm not organic, I don't have feelings like that! I just know you've had your head frozen for who knows how long and you've got ice for brains!"

Lars started to quickly walk away from Ursa, "Find your own bloody storage, then!" 

Ursa smugly smiled to himself. That's what he hoped for. A bit of independence was what he craved more than anything.

[kaitropoli]

Metropolis (1927)

Metropolis, one of my most favorite films, is a sci-fi drama created by Thea von Harbou (originally in 1925 through her homonymous novel) and directed by her then-husband, Fritz Lang.

This Weimar-era silent film tells the story of a futuristic dystopia, ruled by industrialists who feed off working class labor of those who live underneath the city. Explored is a forbidden relationship between Freder, son of city head, Joh, and Maria, a working class member who holds underground sermons to promote unity between the ruling and working class.

WARNING: PAST THIS BORDER ARE SOME SPOILERS.

THERE IS ANOTHER SECTION PAST THIS LONG PART WITHOUT SPOILERS IF YOU'D LIKE TO READ THAT INSTEAD &lt;3

Rotwang, a scientist associated with Joh, creates a robot with the likeness of Maria. Maria is soon chased and kidnapped by the scientist, who puts her in a cylinder and gives her life to the robot.

Portrayed as the Whore of Babylon, Maria the robot performs a lustful dance for a crowd of men, including Rotwang and Joh, hypnotizing them (represented through lecherous imagery, death parading around, and title cards such as "'Death descends upon the city---!'"

As human Maria used to promote peace to the workers, robot Maria is used to antagonize her original message. Rotwang tells human Maria of Joh's plan to use robot her as his mouthpiece, to promote rebellion between the workers so then he can quell them when trouble arises. Maria is in disbelief, but Rotwang assures her that much worse is to come, revealing that he's tricked Joh since orders to robot Maria only obeys Rotwang.

Robot Maria entices the working class to revolt, and violence soon follows, resulting in destruction and stabbings. Soon, a flood breaks out in the city, which causes commotion leading to blaming Maria, calling her a "witch". However, robot Maria celebrates, while human Maria gathers children to save from the wreckage.

In a misunderstanding, workers believe human Maria was trying to drown the children, and they start chasing her. Surviving almost being grabbed, one of the workers finds robot Maria and take her to be burned at the stake.

More Information on Metropolis

Where to watch: Pluto TV, Tubi, Redbox

Fun (Personal) Information Involving Metropolis

I've seen robot Maria in real life, and you can too! Robot Maria is displayed at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is part of their Robot Hall of Fame, featured alongside The Iron Giant, Tom Servo and Crow, and C-3PO (just to name a few). I've seen her just two months ago, despite a bunch of articles clickbaiting that they took away the robots permanently in their headline (don't believe them lol).

"Metropolis" is a word that exists (wow, no way, Kaiti! I didn't know that AT ALL), and if you have eyes, you probably can tell that my username is "Kaitropoli." You've guessed it, I was inspired by the movie to put combine my name with it--almost like a ship-name lol. Originally, it was "Kaitropolis," but problems rose, so I decided to go with the Italian spelling (aka: forget the "s"), so now we're here. Whenever you think of me, always be reminded of this sci-fi film classic!!

Video information

Edit: Made by me (@kaitropoli)

Song: Mermaid Motel by Lana Del Rey

Footage: Metropolis (1927)

Maria's Transformation

Maria's Dance

[luckycheesefoodie321]

Ok so I watched Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (SPOILERS)

I guess this is Michael Bay’s soft retcon of the Transformers franchise since this is meant to be a sequel of sorts to the Bumblebee movie. Which I did really enjoy. This one was like a 7/10 if I put it all together.

The whole arbitrary angry robot alien coming to take over Earth with his equally angry main henchman doing his dirty work is kind of how all the transformers films go in terms of plot lines so that was kind of whatever. You don’t really come to a Transformers movie for the plot anyhow. You hope for some good action sequences and maybe some fun character moments.

I feel like a lot what of the individual characters in RotB had going on was a lot of fun but the character relationships felt a little lacklustre to me.

Like in Bumblebee you could see the connection between Charlie and Bee but that’s always been something Transformers has done well. Bumblebee is a staple and has often been the main Autobot and so we all hold affinity towards him. He’s the robot we can relate to and is our tie in to the story. Optimus isn’t quite that. He’s more a tie in to the world building, the sage mentor-instructor who expositions everything, and also gets to have his badass leader moments and epic speeches.

But regardless there’s always a really strong human-bot relationship, usually between MC and Main Autobot, which previously has almost always been Bee (I confess I have not seen the Mark Wahlberg Transformers movies).

This time it was Noah and Mirage (I see y’all with the shipping tags, I salute you but for right now I’m sitting in a more bros vibe XD). Noah and Mirage and to an extent Noah and his brother, had the most chemistry in the movie. Each of their scenes had fun, had natural banter, and then they brought down that banter to something sweet and heartfelt and I genuinely felt sad when Mirage “died”. Part of that was because we see Noah and his brother’s bond, and Mirage gets to see that bond, and so we kinda see Noah’s brother through Mirage. And we all know we love to see a goofball who has a serious moment. Mirage parroting back the same words Noah always said to his brother just ties in that bond and makes Noah feel that much closer to Mirage. So yeah the “death” scene was sad. It led to a goofy ass moment where they got Mirage to turn into an iron man suit for Noah and I was honestly like wtf is happening.

But I would argue they were the best dynamic in the movie.

They kept trying to have Noah and Optimus be mirrors of each other but it was a lot more showing not telling. They sacrificed a lot of that good storytelling of demonstrating their similarities in favour of big explosions. If they had axed the exposition at the start, and made the Maximals like a big surprise later on that hey we’ve been here all along and now we’ll exposit some info on you, that could’ve given them a lot more leeway to building those mirrors between Noah and Optimus.

Like again you’re not going to a Transformer’s movie for the story, but I will say the first couple of movies did a lot in the way of demonstrating the chemistry between Bee and Sam Witwicky and why Optimus saw potential in Sam and why Mikaela was drawn to Sam.

Like I could see how Optimus’s personality had subtly shifted. He was still wise and delivering banger lines. But he was also tired, frustrated, angry, distrustful and I genuinely found that so interesting given how we’ve known him in the past. They’ve kind of paired down on Optimus’s visual scale. Like he used to be freaking huge, as tall as buildings. Like Sam was like half the height of his head. Which I do miss. They really make you feel the size and majestythat are the Autobots in the earlier movies, specifically Optimus Prime, who is a living legend by all accounts. But if that means we get more depth to his character outside of knowledgeable and understanding old veteran, then I’m all for it.

And again we see a lot of Noah’s home life but they just don’t quite go far enough to make it home how difficult he has it, and leave a lot to be assumed. But you see enough of how it is and how tough he has it. But then he’s suddenly raring to go in saving the world and yeah I guess they tie that in to wanting to keep his family safe but it did feel kinda abrupt. And that’s definitely a scripting issue. Some of the lines and line delivery was very stiff and uncomfortable. I think the cast tried their best but some of the more heartfelt lines or intimate moments felt very monotone. When it was Noah on his own kinda just reacting to the situation, it felt much more natural. But the exchanges between characters didn’t flow as smoothly as they could have.

That said, we got enough of two characters to understand them. But you can’t pit them against each other as being similar to each other without banking on more dynamic interactions between them or demonstrating how they individually mirror each other.

Like I said. The individual characters were enjoyable enough. I liked Optimus’s tired dad vibe. Noah was a decent MC. But there could have been a few different avenues they could have taken in letting Optimus and Noah see eye to eye.

Show Noah not immediately trusting Mirage and the Autobots but slowly building that rapport. He was taken aback by Mirage at first and then immediately made peace with his presence. Show me how that dynamic shifts so that the sad “Mirage dies” moment feels earned. And while you’re doing that show Noah going out of his way to save an Autobot when he could’ve escaped. Show Optimus placing trust in a human BEFORE the trans dimensional space key thing gets stolen. Then they have the big apology moment where Optimus says he should’ve trusted Noah and yadda yadda big team up moment ensues.

Also just a weird side bar. I’m sure they talked like this in the 90s (I’m a 98 baby) but the part where Noah goes “squad up!” Kinda took me outta the immersion for a second. Also it felt so awkwardly placed. Like potentially adlib but idk. At no point had I seen Noah having demonstrated leadership skills or authority where he can just order around the Maximals/Autobots like that. I mean he wasn’t, but there was no gravity to his words. Like if he had said that to me, I wouldn’t immediately jump into formation. Not to mention it was followed up by really poor line delivery where he said something like “there’s gotta be something we can do. Just think” and it had no urgency to it… then in comes Optimus Primal who delivers his line so much better like “it’s too late” and I’m out here like I believe him.

Tbh the action moments were fine. Could be desensitisation to big scale fights bc we’re so over saturated with them now. The whole iron man suit moment was just goofy as hell and when he somehow managed to catch Optimus and stop him from being sucked away?? Like Optimus Prime. The dude as big as skyscrapers?? The dude who was carried by helicopter??? That part was absurd.

Bringing it back to Bumblebee. I think the best thing they did for this story was to take Bumblebee out of it so that a new Autobot could have his time to shine they wanted this to be about Mirage and Optimus interacting with Noah and they got that chance. Now don’t get me wrong. Even if I knew it was a fake out death, Bumblebee dying made me upset and him coming back brought a lot of joy back to the story. Like we love a comeback moment (cue that song XD). The moment could’ve been a touch more devastating to make his come back more powerful. But it was a lot of fun when he did come back and there’s a reason he’s such a compelling character and a staple fave of Transformers.

But had he been there, it would have taken away from what I have already said to be the best character dynamic in the movie which was Mirage and Noah. It would have turned into another Bumblebee movie. I do like the tie in to the Bumblebee movie and mentioning his history with Charlie. That was cute.

I didn’t mind Alana/Elaina/Alayna (I have no clue how her name is spelt). I enjoyed her most in her initial intro showing her historical knowledge and then she was given some of the driest lines to deliver. Idk if it’s her acting but her dialogue was clunky and uncomfortable.

All in all. Average action movie. Some nice moments. Wasn’t expecting a GI Joe tie in but sure. 7/10

[akystaracer22]

James kept sending glances at the Staccek representative. His palms clutching his desk so tightly that his knuckles were white.

Human's were judged to be in the top 20 most dangerous races in the intergalactic council, and for seemingly good reason. A history bloodied by war and fuelled by destruction, and a prey based race becoming the apex predator of their home world.

It was an open secret how violent, yet intelligent humans were. It lead to them being feared, kept at arms reach, and generally left alone. What a terrible fate for a species that just wanted to make friends.

Then there were the Stacceks.

The Stacceks, who were seen as a peaceful and harmless version of the humans. Who looked virtually the same, except that they had reportedly never committed murder in their colonies, no had a single war waged. It was an idealistic dream that many species fell in love with.

Trades with human's were abandoned in favour of working with the Stacceks. Allies were lost, and it was almost impossible to even attack a Staccek without the entire species being ostracised.

Which is why human's were seen as jealous of the Stacceks.

So of course, to try and "mend the rift" they sat the Staccek representative right next to James.

He stiffened as the Staccek representative turned to him during the brief break the council held during the day, a placid smile on it's pale lips as it opened it's mouth to speak.

"You're Alone In A Crowd."

James flinched, violently. It's voice was exactly like his own, exactly. Alarm bells rang in his mind as every instinct in his body was screaming at him to run, to get to his ship and get to the nearest Terran colony so he can get support.

He just barely managed to reign in the instinct to ask what it was talking about.

"Everyone Here Considers Human's To Be The Most Dangerous Race In The Council. Look Around."

He didn't need to, he'd know what would be waiting for him. Secretive glances and guards training their attention solely on him. It pissed him off when he started. There were species here with venom that could kill in minutes and yet it was him that was treated like a maximum security prisoner.

"You See? You Are Alone. No One Considers Us A Threat. But You Do. Why?"

And wasn't that the question. Why did Stacceks provoke the fight or flight?

The answer slipped from his lip's before he could stop it, "You fit in the Uncanny Valley, and no species like ours has a complete lack of bloodshed. It just doesn't happen."

"The Uncanny Valley, The Phenomenon Whereby A Computer-Generated Figure Or Humanoid Robot Bearing A Near-Identical Resemblance To A Human Being Arouses A Sense Of Unease Or Revulsion In The Person Viewing It."

James nodded regretfully, but froze at the Stacceks continuation.

"You Are Correct In Your Assessment Of Us. We Indeed Have A Past As Blood Filled, If Not More So, Than Yours."

"...What?"

"Indeed. However, Unlike You Human's, We Have The Mean's To Disguise That Past From The Rest Of The World. Allowing Us The Freedom That You Humans Are Lacking In."

"Wh- How-"

"Tell Me, Human. How Would You Go About Hiding Something From Another?"

The Answer was obvious, "Illusion's, but that's-"

"A Matter Of Simply Having Patience And Good Reason To Do So."

"...Why are you telling me this."

"Because You Are A Member Of The Single Most Feared Species In The Universe, A Species With A History Of Jealousy Between Our's."

And at that, the Staccek's appearance glitched for a moment. And for a single blink, James saw something else. Something ancient and terrifying and unnatural. The abomination looked unholy, and a single glimpse in one of it's many eyes revealed a hunger that could never be sated. He understood now why his very being screamed at him to get away and get help.

This thing shouldn't exist. Whatever this species was, it was an affront to the very concept of life itself.

"Not A Single Individual Would Believe A Humans Words Against Ours."

There is only one alien race that humans fear; a race that can send them into a panic almost immediately. It just so happens that race was voted the most harmless in the universe. One was recently voted a seat in the intergalactic council next to the human judge, who was silently shaking.

[nathsolkyoako]

O shit I forgot to post that fic here yesterday here that is

On ao3 it’s the same title if you wanna read it there idk bro

Question? Answer

Inanimate: adjective, not alive, especially not in the manner of animals and humans.

“What do you do if you break?”

A seemingly random question from seemingly out of nowhere. Question from living to inanimate

Most of the crew was asleep at the moment. What crew was here with the captains gone who knows where. Ollie in the captains quarters (chips hammock. If it’s what he asked they couldn’t see why not) and Drey somewhere in the kitchen. So for now it was just Gryffon and Alphonze awake I n the treasury

The limonade stand was making a surprising amount of money and it needed to be sorted. Either to have something to do or for convenience of having everything clearly laid out for ease of access. So while they had free time at the end of the day

The table in the middle of the room was strewn with an assortment of gold silver and copper coins (even some jewelry!). Small piles of each were scattered around the corners of said table

Speaking of the table, across from Alphonze (inanimate) was Gryffon (living) sitting in a chair, supposedly helping but he’s barely moved since joining the other in the room. Just watching alphonze with one of his hands on the table and the other hovering over the many many coins on the surface in front of them both

It took alphonze a minute to answer the question. Pausing a response to move coins across the table to random (were they random?) piles

“It depends” he started “if it’s a minor issue I just fix it myself. If it isn’t and needs multiple pairs of hands I’d need help”

He moves a small pile of silver coins to the rest on the side of the table gryffons on “Again it’d depend on the severity and what specifically happened”

“That seems risky” gryffon noted. being alive was risky. But alphonze tried anyways didn’t he. If he didn’t he wouldn’t be on this ship. He wouldn’t be having this conversation

“I’ve already had to fix a few things” alphonze stated “ There isn’t anyone who knows how to fix, me, nearby at the moment so doing my own maintenance has had to happen before”

“Is that safe?” At that Alphonze looked up at him. Looking at his face you could almost see worry. Almost. Gryffon seems to emote less than the literal robot with one panel for a face

“Safer than not having any” Alphonze replied

“What if you taught me some things? I already know, uh some” Gryffons lifts his gun slightly “both my gun and you were made in the same place it might not be that difficult”

“It’s a lot to go over, it might take a few days”

“There’s time, the captains have already been gone a few days who’s to say it won’t be a few more?”

Alphonze looked at him again. Or at least his head did. He didn’t have facial expressions, nothing moved over there, so it was difficult trying to tell what he meant

“D’you have a notebook?”

A few moments later they were sitting on the ground abandoning the money above, various metal plating (including Alphonze’s face) on the ground next to the two. A metal hand pointing at bunches of wires and small moving boxes and pistons while a voice sounding much cleaner than before filled the room with explanations as to how he worked, How he thought, how he moved, how he spoke.

How do you think, How do you feel, How do you navigate, how do you speak were also questions the new, clearer voice answered. Or at least tried. Certain parts were more difficult than others, especially for trying to explain to someone who only knew how a gun was made

He could tell Gryffon was already trying to make sense of the warforged in front of him, he watched the eye that could move sift through the cavity that made up his head, dull LEDs instead of eyes tucked between tied bunches of wires and plastic boxes that probably held many things that’d never make sense in Gryffons lifetime. Why not explain, make more sense of the whole world Alphonze was beneath layers of silicone and metal. He had asked after all

Hands known to break bones, to move inconvenient things out of the way, to break blades. Those same hands were taking himself apart slowly to show how he’s made up, how he’s alive. Alphonze knows the dangers of doing this. if Gryffon went back into bounty hunting and tried to kill him he’d know how to do it.

He’ll just have to trust him right now. Would he be looking so intently at organs that didn’t breathe if he wanted to make them stop. Would he be this patient just to turn around and betray that trust?

Surely he knew what this felt like, prying questions about a whole limb. Pestering about how he moves it how it turns, shoots, kills, whatever. It was similar enough. Most likely the only other one close by who knew how, for lack of a better word, terrifying it is to explain how a weapon works. One being a tool the other having a mind. Or close to one. It’s complicated

A dance without moving, a conversation hidden behind complicated words and explanations. Already this made more sense than figuring out how a ship moved or where they were in regards to an oceanic map he rarely had access to. This made more sense than most things alphonze had encountered. For something made to know and follow orders he didn’t know as much as he should

Eventually the metal hands held out a glass looking icosahedron which pulsed a yellow glow. Strange looking wires poked from the corners and different angles of the glass. A cloudy liquid swirled just below the glass making strange unidentifiable shapes every few seconds

“In there is me” Alphonzes voice stated

“You?” Gryffon said making a confused face

“My soul so to speak. I control everything else you see from here” one of the hands tap the glass making a dull clinking sound. The “liquid” beneath made a shape similar to a spiky tornado, and then a triangle. And then back to swirling incomprehensible shapes

Gryffon made a sound to show he understood. He did that a lot. Doesnt speak unless he has to. Others understand him anyway. he seemed to be half paying attention to what Alphonze was actually saying most of the time. Looking more at the clumps of wires and metal boxes and lights tangled around the metal exoskeleton that made up the artificial person in front of him. Maybe he has a good memory and doesn’t need to take many notes. Maybe

There was a pause, two minutes staring at the living shape between them. The the more organic of the two held his one hand out under the Heart, as a question without speaking. Alphonze answered, lowering it into the hand gently without a sound and letting go.

It landed safely. Question answered. So simple.

They spend a few more moments sitting there like that before Gryffon asks

“Why do you stay here”

The liquid swirls slightly quicker making a circle, and then a donut shape, and then spins and-

“On the ship?”

The swirls made more blobby shapes. Looking more like a small lava lamp now

“Yeah, why you don’t have to”

The blobs turned into sharp shapes. There isn’t a better way to describe it. Sharp shapes.

“I do have to” he takes the glass “heart” again and puts it back in the nest of wires in his center, something made a soft (click) sound and the Heart didn’t fall further. “I was asked to by the captains”

“But you don’t-“

“Do you have any other questions”

“You don’t have to listen to the captains” maybe he didn’t have a good memory

“I do” where his eyes would be stared holes into Gryffons face. “Until I have someone else to serve I have to take the captains orders.”

There was a pause before Alphonze re-asked “Do you have any other questions”

the slight hum of various machinery paired with the others breathing sounded much louder than it was being the only sound in the room. For a moment that’s all was there. Humming without a tune. Almost thinking out loud.

“No” Gryffon answered

[aufredpratt]

Anything to Save You part 1

Ships: FredXSpike

Warnings: none in this one afaik

Summary: A "what if" fic of what if Spike had rescued Fred from Pylea instead and she joined the Scoobies. Takes place between season 5 and goes into season 6 of btvs. An expansion of a quick drabble I posted in my drabble collection (over on Ao3) but this time with alternating POVs! Not connected to my timeline just posting cus I'm proud of how it's coming along. Oh and title is a ref to a song by Sleeping Wolf. Spike parts will be in third person, Fred parts in first person.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Spike hated Pylea, it was never fun to go to. Sure, it looked pretty and had sunlight he could walk in, but something about the local Demons and how they watched him unnerved him. Despite this he had been hiding the parts of that robot in one of the caves. Keeping it out of sight and out of mind as it were. Trouble was, he could never remember which cave. It was about the third one he looked in when a movement caught his eye. It was a young lady, a human lady at that. Her brown eyes were wide as she froze looking up at him. She couldn't have been older that early 20's but it was hard to tell based on how time worked in these places. Even so something about her captivated him.

"What the-this is no place for someone like you love." he said gently. Lowering himself to her level so she wouldn't be too afraid. He made a decision then and there, and maybe it was because the group back at home had rubbed off on him, he would help her out of here. Holding out a hand to her "Come with me I know a place where there are people who can help." he kept his voice low and as soft as he could manage.

She blinked at him and took his hand "You're savin' me?" her voice was soft as well and sounded like she hadn't used it in a while. He also couldn't ignore the Texas twang that chopped off the 'g' so much like his own accent. Carefully he supported her, noting how fragile she was and how she practically clung onto him. There was something in how she entirely relied on him that warmed him, metaphorically anyway, it was almost like having a soul again...almost.

"yeah, guess I am. Been doin' that a lot lately," He laughed "Saving people. What's your name love?"

She licked her lips nervously watching him intensely, "They call me Fred, I think that's my name. Or part of it anyway." her brown eyes held his own blue ones in a moment. He enjoyed the way they seemed to have flecks of gold in them as the two stepped into the sunlight. "What's your name?"

"Spike," he smiled at her in what was hopefully a reassuring manner "you ready to run, Fred?" he enjoyed saying her name.

She nodded and through the dirt over her face he could catch the hints of a blush. He took off to where the joining point to the two worlds were.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(copied directly from the Drabble)

The trees blurred into blackness and suddenly we were in the middle of an open field at night. He looked up and then glanced around "Good, no one saw us." he remarked I could feel him start to release my hand but I clung on tighter. He glanced at me and nodded softly "I won't let go." smiling he made a grand sweeping gesture with his other arm "Fred I would like to welcome you to Sunnydale." He looked down at me and laughed softly.

I giggled softly in response and something seemed to light up behind his eyes.

"C'mon I  have some people I want you to meet. They'll help you get fed and bathed properly. Readjust to life on earth stuff." He laced his fingers through mine as we walked. Soon we arrived at a house that only had a few lights on inside. "Can't be that late..." He trailed off as he knocked on the door.

A young woman opened it her red hair was curled at the bottom but cut short. She sighed and crossed her arms "We were just settling down what-" she seemed to finally register me standing there "Spike whose this?"

"Willow this is Fred, I found her when doing some er...business in Pylea." he scratched the back of his neck nervously. "She needed rescuing and I couldn't just leave her in that cave."

The woman, Willow apparently, immediately softened  stepping back "oh jeeze ok yeah, lets get you something to eat first then a bath. You can use the guest room, we did have plans for that room but that can wait for a bit." She lead the way inside though I still clung to Spike using him as an emotional anchor. As I looked around my memory for what certain things were called slowly seemed to seep back in. "Forgive me if this is an insensitive question but do you remember why you were in a place like Pylea?" She asked as she dug around in the fridge.

I thought carefully for a moment as I sat at the counter "not really... I just know it was against my will."

"That's perfectly ok, memory can be a fuzzy thing." she smiled gently at me as she pushed a plate of food to me.

I tried to take my time eating, some part of me knowing that if I ate too fast it would only be worse for my stomach in the long run. Once I had finished I pushed the plate back towards her and she took it and placed it in the sink. "Alright lets go start you a bath." She stopped in the doorway when I didn't move from my chair.

"Um can Spike do it?" I asked quietly.

She looked nervous "Sweetie I don't know if you want-"

"He saved me, I trust him."

She glanced at Spike biting her lip nervously.

"I'll be respectful of her I promise." he said standing up.

Willow sighed again "Alright go ahead."

I smiled brightly at her and let Spike lead me up to where the bathroom was.

[fasterthanmydemons]

Mantis’ antennae became droopy when Pietro said he and Wanda were orphaned. She didn’t think he’d want her compassion, so she said nothing. A small chuckle left her when Pietro asked if he should run from Gamora. “Only if you don’t want to deal with the deadliest woman in the galaxy. But… I also think she’s the prettiest,” she said sincerely, smiling a bit. Mantis felt very sad for Pietro when he said he would rather be with his sister. “Yes, I know… I know you’re not here willingly, at least not completely, and it is not fair that you have to be in this situation. But I still hope your stay here is comfortable. Even if you had joined in better circumstances, your life here still wouldn’t be ideal. We don’t… do ideal.”

She barely stifled a giggle as Pietro said his sister was dating a robot. “Oh, a robot? Really? I’m sure the ‘robot’ is more than that. If he made your sister feel something, he must be more than just a robot.” Mantis didn’t know Vision too well, but the Guardians caught him staring at the Benatar a few times during the couple of days they remained on Earth. Probably because Vision wanted to see if the Guardians were a threat.

“He’s there, watching us again,” Rocket had pointed out, baring his teeth as he spoke, arms crossed. “The fuck is he lookin’ at?”

“Chill, Rocket,” Quill replied. Both were outside the ship with Gamora, all three of them leaning against it, looking at Vision from afar, while Mantis was inside with Drax and Groot, looking at Vision through a window. They were blasting Word Up! by Cameo at the behest of Quill, who insisted it would serve to 'assert dominance’ over Terrans - despite being one himself - before Mantis renamed it as 'evoking sympathy’ since Cameo was a Terran band. “This song is a masterpiece, and it attracts attention,” Quill added. “That’s why people are watching us.”

Gamora narrowed her eyes, fingers fiddling with a switchblade. “Or maybe it’s the fact that Drax thought we landed for a battle, and immediately started screaming and wielding his knives while chasing Terrans,” she said with an annoyed huff. It was true, and Quill, flying with the jets attached to his boots, had dropped Mantis onto Drax so she could put him to sleep, before the two of them dragged Drax back to the ship as they offered apologies to the affected humans.

“If you’re here for the music,” Rocket shouted, loud enough to be heard by Vision, “we’re not gonna turn it off, ya hear me?”

“Rocket.” Gamora’s tone was stern, just not enough to stop him.

“He’s not goin’ away.” Rocket tilted his head. “Should I blow him up?”

“No!” Quill exhaled loudly, shaking his head at Rocket’s suggestion. “We don’t blow anyone up, we say hello.” With that, he lifted his arm and waved at Vision, palm open, greeting him with five fingers while Rocket greeted Vision with only one.

Mantis clapped her hands, smiling when Pietro seemed to like the comparison she drew between him and silver linings. She didn’t know if she was shining a light as much as Pietro said she did, but she was happy to make him happy; the perks of her empathic abilities. “You feel better because you let yourself do so. It’s okay to feel negative emotions sometimes, there’s no use in forcing your mind to think positively all the time. Sometimes you just need to let yourself feel everything, the good and the bad. But all that negativity… takes you nowhere after a while. What you’re feeling is normal, and being far away from your sister is going to be very hard for you, and for Wanda too. I wondered why she didn’t join us as well, but if her lover is on Earth, I suppose that explains it. It will be hard… but like I said, your stay should be comfortable, at least until it’s safe for you to return with your sister. We may not be what you want, but… give us a chance.”

After saying she had to tell him something, Mantis glanced at him and caught sight of dark, long eyelashes that almost seemed to flutter. Wings of a butterfly. They distracted her, so Mantis turned away from Pietro, walking in the opposite direction, where another window was parallel to the other to look at space from a different angle. The empath squeezed her eyes shut. “I made you soup!” She said it like she was confessing to a horrible crime. The tone she used whenever she tried to be kind to Ego. Failing to inherit his Celestial light was a mortal crime. “I made it after Quill showed you your quarters and you locked yourself inside. I brought it there and I was going to knock, but… I got scared. I suppose I did not want to come across as too intense too soon. And you really looked like you wanted to be left alone, so I left to tend to my plants and pilot. Um, not at the same time! Although… I have done other irresponsible things,” she added unhelpfully. The poor guy was probably regretting his decision to join the team. Mantis didn’t need to read his mind to suspect he was, possibly, damning the minute he boarded the ship, for now he was stranded in space with a handful of idiots.

Mantis scurried away, returning moments later with the soup, a spoon, and a sheepish, almost sad gleam in her eyes. “I hope it is acceptable fare. I made it with edibles Rocket stole from your planet. He has a tendency to steal things. I’m sure these aren’t the only things he grabbed from Terra…” Although none of the Guardians were familiar with those ingredients except Pietro himself and maybe Quill, the speedster would be able to taste chicken, tomato and onion broth with small star-shaped pasta. Mantis, like most of the Guardians, could cook fairly well; they had to feed young Groot after all. “You don’t have to eat it… It’s probably cold by now. I can heat it up, um… Unless you don’t want it.” Truthfully, it was not cold, since the ship had plates of different materials to allow food to remain warm, but Mantis was nervous. She expected Pietro to dislike it, if he tried it at all. He was wanted by law worldwide on his home planet, away from his sister, treated as a criminal… and all she could do was give him soup. Like a praying mantis offering a leaf to someone who had no use for something so small, Mantis knew it likely wouldn’t help. She could only hope.

(If I remember correctly you said Wanda learned of the GotG through Vision and now I’m imagining Vision on Earth talking to Wanda about them like 'their captain waved at me like an imbecile and a raccoon flipped me off?’ 😭 And Pietro joining the GotG wouldn’t affect the GotG canon because the first two GotG films take place in 2014 - despite the second one being released in 2017 - and I assume this verse takes place in 2016 since it’s shortly after CACW. In terms of timeline, the Guardians aren’t seen again until 2018 with IW, at which point you know the events. The question is if Pietro would stay with the GotG for almost 2 years, honestly I don’t think so… But the idea of an unconscious, unknown man hitting the ship and Pietro immediately going “…THOR?!” is hysterical.)

__________

{ Hahahaha... yeah Wanda’s opinion of them would not be the best or the most accurate if he got it through Vision after THAT kind of interaction. But also that’s hilarious and canon for me now. XD And ohh okay, I am honestly so confused with the timelines because movies overlap and some movies are before, at, or ahead of the current year or the year they were made, and I just... *sigh* I can’t keep it straight. But okay, that puts it in perspective. And hmm I’m not sure? I guess it depends on how comfortable they are with him, if he has a way of communicating with Wanda and if he feels she’s safe/okay, and how dangerous it would be for him to return to Earth. If things are really bad and Wanda seems okay because she has Vision, he might stay that long? It’s hard to say. If he really bonded with all of them, it’s possible he’d want to stay. I really need to catch up on the Thor and GotG movies omfg. }

“Yeah? You think so?” Pietro took a moment to honestly consider Gamora. “Yeah, she is very pretty.” He shrugged. “But personally, I think you are prettier.” He wasn’t saying it to flirt or to flatter her, but rather he was just giving his own objective assessment. However, he then shrugged again. “Is not a competition, though, and being good-looking isn’t everything. You have to be good inside to,” he said, tapping his chest over his heart. 

When she said the Guardians didn’t do ideal, Pietro knew exactly what she meant. Boy, did he ever. “Yeah, me and Wanda, we don’t do ideal either. We’ve been messed up since we were six. Is when the bad things started happening to us, and they pretty much never stopped. Every couple years, boom, new bad experience, new brush with death, new loss, new bad living situation... It has been a lot. So I should be right at home if everyone here is as not ideal as I am,” he said, partially joking and trying to add some levity to the conversation, but partially also really meaning it.

“I think he is a robot? He looks like one? He was made in a tube... sort of... container... thing, I don’t know.” Pietro shrugged again and ran his fingers through his longish hair. “I just... I don’t trust him at all, and I don’t feel good around him. It reminds me of lot of things I want to forget.” He didn’t know how much Mantis knew about what had happened with him and Ultron, so he pushed himself to explain a little bit more. “So... Wanda and I... we helped this robot called Ultron a year or so ago... because he said he wanted to make the world a better place. We thought he meant... you know, that. Make it better. Make it nicer. Help people. No, he meant kill all humans because they’re the problem.  First it was like we  we’re going to scare the Avengers, then it was like okay we’re going to kill them, then it suddenly was... oh, we’re just going to kill everybody and populate the world with robots because that’s better. And Wanda and I realized okay, we’ve made a big mistake here. So that’s when we changed sides and started helping the Avengers to get rid of Ultron.”

He could already feel himself starting to get a little panicky, so he propped his right foot up on something nearby to make his knee a bit bent, resting his right hand flat against his thigh. That would prevent his nerve-damaged hand and arm from shaking as a result of his anxiety. “Anyway, long story short, Ultron wasn’t happy that we betrayed him and he ended up shooting me a bunch of times. With... not like a regular gun, but... with a jet.” He paused and he kindof made a little face like he knew this story sounded like a load of bull. “Sorry, I know it sound crazy, but yeah, I got shot like ten times with these big military jet bullets,” he said, chuckling a little. It wasn’t funny at all, but he was really nervous. He hadn’t ever told anyone this story before who didn’t already know it. The Avengers knew, Wanda knew, but telling Mantis was a different thing entirely.

“So it hurt like a bitch and I almost died and um... I was in coma for like two months, they told me? They had to uh... what did they call it... put me in a medically-induced coma, yeah. Because I needed all these surgeries and so much had gotten messed up. I got shot in the chest and the shoulder and my arms and legs, it was a lot. Even one went right through my hand,” he said, lifting up his right hand that had already been so damaged before this, and now it was even worse. The tremors in it were very apparent, even with the short moment he chose to lift it before laying it back down on his thigh. “But they did it, Ultron was gone, so I was happy to hear when I woke up. Except... now there is this Vision guy. Ultron had wanted a different body, something better than what he had, so he created Vision. Is what he called it, ‘his vision’ of what he could be like if he evolved into something better. And I don’t know really how it happened, but he’s got this stone in his forehead and that does something, and Stark did something, and Thor pumped him full of lighting and that did something, and suddenly okay now there is Vision. And... he creeps me out!”

Was that enough, or was he still not getting his point across? “Is just... I mean, this guy shot me and almost killed me, it was terrible experience for me, and he uploaded his mid, his brain, in this Vision person... everybody is fine with it! Nobody is bothered, nobody is afraid that maybe someday he’ll go nuts like Ultron did, or that he might try to kill me again, is just oh hey, Vision is a such a nice guy. Is he, though? I don’t trust, and I don’t like.” He shrugged, his eyes falling a bit insecurely. “I don’t know, it hurts a little that Wanda likes him so much, like thanks for dating the guy who shot me? No one else sees him that way, but I can’t see him as anything else. He’s got the same mind! He doesn’t act like it, but what else could it be? I saw the computer uploading Ultron’s mind into him. Why does nobody have a problem with this?!”

Pietro stopped then, because he knew he was getting riled up and upset. He took a deep breath, let it out, and shoot out both his arms and legs. “Sorry, I uh... Sorry.” He felt embarrassed that he still was so triggered by thinking about Ultron, but at the same time it felt good to tell someone outside the situation. “Anyway, point is, whether he is robot or not, I am not comfortable around him. Definitely not the way Wanda is.” But then he smiled as she said he felt better because he was allowing himself to feel better. “I think you’re helping me to feel better right now, whether you realize or you want to or not. You are. So thank you. I very much appreciate. And I will give you all a chance. I promise,” he said with a smile.

Her big revelation that she had made him soup, the explosive and dramatic way with which she had announced that fact, her shyness and awkwardness as she said she didn’t know if he wanted it... he didn’t have to eat it... it was probably cold... but she could warm it up... if he wanted... Pietro just. Grinned.

He let her finish, unable to keep from grinning because she was just so damn adorable. And it was very sweet of her to make him soup. The gesture definitely touched him. “Thank you very much for making me soup, Mantis. I would love to have it,” he said gratefully. “Am actually very hungry right now. Am hungry all the time, but... yeah. Because of my high metabolism, I have to eat a lot and very regularly, and I haven’t had anything all day, so... I would be very happy for soup right about now.”

[captainadwen]

random ff7 remake thoughts from 13ish hours in (under cut for remake spoilers for all the ppl like me who are only playing it like a year after its release....)

- overall i am having lots of fun. exploring Expanded Midgar (tm) is so much fun because it is beautiful and I can tell the love that went into every detail. there are potion vending machines and music posters and “clear icicle mineral water” stuffs and also they made the defeat music into a tango and it gave me trauma when i heard it play in an old ppl home (in game)

- that said, im... kinda reluctantly agreeing with someone else who said the best moments are those from the OG game? some of the expanded bits drag a bit long (also i keep getting lost because im adamant about not using minimap if possible), and it feels like a lot of key iconic moments keep getting interrupted by the shades

- like, to the point that when the shades show up it is My Least Favorite because they just interrupt key introductions and whatnot

- i think the game devs tried hard to balance between returning players and total new players but also it just... idk why couldn’t they have left key aerith scenes alone :c

- speaking of, boy this game ships cloti. like, these first 13 hours are really less “cloud joins a terrorist group” and more “which female interaction will make cloud more embarassed or uncomfy”

(its the jesse ones i am sorry but they made me almost as uncomfortable as they made cloud like nopeeee)

- also, im really pissed off that all three female “love interests” do the lean in from side smiley thing that is more aerith’s thing from like... something, not sure what. crisis core maybe? its notable because its ONLY those three that do it and it annoys me like please... you put this much effort into shipping you can at least have different gestures for when they need to lean down and get clouds attention when hes dissociating

- that said, this... is making me ship cloti? i always preferred them as friends but they have like. actual chemistry now. they interact! have jokes! like yes some of it is the limitations of OG but also its just SO much easier for me to swallow clothi in this game than in OG (no one @ me for shipping wars just because i prefer clerith didn’t stop me from going after barret’s date lmao)

- okay no srsly why cant we give the flower to marlene it makes no sense to change that aside from the fact that gold saucer date isnt in this game therefore no date points accrued but STILL it was such a cute interaction

- clouds consciousness from the og timeline is still aware inside cloud?????????? i only know some spoilers about What The Specters Are About but like that surprised me. along w other minor changes that only sorta make sense but mostly feel like done to get the specters in the story....

- when will i go down to the seventh haven basement :’d

- why was reno’s boss fight so fucking brutal

- no twirly sword battle win animation :d

- i still stand that they made sephiroth uglier

- also sephiroth’s weird obsession with cloud is even more hilarious when so constantly re-emphasized like ‘random nobody managed to kill me through the power of sheer rage and physics when i was going insane bc my alien gene donor kinda took over my brain so now i shall obsess over him and only him while i destroy the planet (or maybe not, that was so last timeline ago)’

- for that note, tifa in the remake is also hilarious if you consider the story from her perspective is ‘that loner boy friendly aquaintance/friend of mine showed up looking like he’d been run over by a train claiming to be a SOLDIER and he has the skills and eyes to prove it so i recruit him immediately to join the eco-terrorist bombing missions i dont really support so he can gain Some Monz and then the next day he gets bombed out by a big robot on live tv on a mission he and i weren’t supposed to be on except these crazy phantoms assaulted my team-mates and the next time i’ll see him* is when my fake human trafficking victim scheme hat i employ like the next day after that makes him crossdress to save me’

(maybe i havent gotten that far yet)

- anyway i love carbuncle free gift summon

[thecleverqueer]

Random thoughts during A New Hope:

*Rogue One really did enhance the first scene of this movie for me. They went through such an epic battle to get those plans, and now they must follow through to honor the sacrifice that brave crew made. Get ‘em!

*I just love R2-D2 and C3-PO. Those damned droids have changed hands so many times, and yet, they’ve been kept in the family.

*Leia Organa was the original. She’s such a badass. Smart, snippy, resourceful, all around brilliant character.

*GNK or gonk droids are also amongst my favorite. I wouldn’t want one personally, but I appreciate that they exist.

*I’d forgotten C3-PO’s first job was programming binary load lifters. Holy shit! I’m going to assume because his memory was wiped at the end of The Revenge of the Sith that it wasn’t the same binary load lifters that Ahsoka and Trace chased down in the under city on Coruscant, and none of that was C3-PO’s fault (though it wouldn’t surprise me).

*Owen blatantly telling C3-PO to shut up is peak Star Wars. Seriously.

*That red R2 unit’s motivator blowing at the moment that it did was either a fine example of how coincidentally chaotic the universe is, or how incredibly the force works in mysterious ways… and since this is Star Wars…

*It warms my heart that Luke was still playing with that space ship that Obi-Wan gave him so many years ago.

*C3-PO telling Luke that he’s not good at storytelling is also bullshit. We saw you in The Return of the Jedi telling your story to the Ewoks… with your compelling narrative and your sound effects. Come on.

*Since Owen calls Old Ben a wizard, does this mean Obi-Wan was being ballsy and tinkering around with the force after his rescue of Leia? Is that what the kids are calling Jedi these days? Space wizards?

*I love how Obi-Wan emerges using force scream to frighten off the sand people. That might be a power I would want. I dunno. It wouldn’t be my first choice if choices are given.

*I also wonder why Obi-Wan doesn’t seems to remember R2-D2 and C3-PO. How could he forget them? They were always there running around with him in space…ESPECIALLY, R2-D2.

*Oops. Luke just called the droids “robots”. Close, not quite.

*Leia probably could have resisted it, but I wonder why Vader opted to use drugs to get the location of the Rebel base and not mind probe? That’s a power all good Sith Lords should possess.

*I really wish Disney would release the original versions of the original trilogy before it was digitally remastered. I watched it hundreds, if not thousands, of times on VHS before they did it, but it’s hard to remember and I’d like to.

*Luke’s Intro to Jedi mind tricks.

*Obi-Wan is the undisputed king of chopping off arms.

*You also have to give it to Obi-Wan when he pulls out the lightsaber in the cantina in the first place. Balls. It didn’t seem to bother the majority of the patrons that there was a Jedi in their midst, people looked, the Bith band kicked back up and folks returned to their drinks. Still, there’s always a fascist rat in the crowd someplace that squeals to the Empire. Every. Time.

*”I’m never coming back to this planet again.” -Luke. Don’t be so sure.

*Han shot first.

*One of my least favorite things about the digitally remastered version of A New Hope is the conversation between Han and Jabba in the hangar. Han and Greedo had the exact same conversation in the cantina that he and Jabba had in that hangar verbatim. It’s almost as if Lucas just couldn’t help himself as the Jabba/ Han conversation was probably his original plan that he couldn’t pull off when Star Wars was originally released. And at this point, they couldn’t replace the Han/ Greedo interaction because it is iconic. Now, it all feels like a pointless, redundant afterthought. Also, it’s odd that Han calls a Jabba a wonderful human being. What!?! Jabba is a huge f*^%ing space slug! TF you mean, “human being”?

*The Millennium Falcon is a badass ship. That is all.

*I can’t stand Tarkin. He’s such a f*^%ing fascist asshole.

*Oh Alderaan…. The Empire did that shit on purpose. They blamed / tried to guilt Leia, but I bet they wanted to take out Bail equally bad. RIP Bail.

*”That’s no moon. It’s a space station!” -Obi-Wan. You can feel that HOLY SHIT moment. Yeah. I don’t know. It’s one part Geonosian (because those stupid f*^%ing bugs) and one part Galen Erso… luckily, Galen rigged it to blow. The bugs would have destroyed the galaxy.

*This goes without saying, but stormtroopers are kinda stupid.

*Tarkin says “the Jedi are extinct”. Nah, fam, there are, like, four of them and a part-timer…

*I have to wonder what all the water was in the trash compactor. Was it sewage, or… ? Yuck. Get out of there! There’s some sort of space worm in there amongst human excrements and god knows what else!

*I appreciate the fact that they left the scene where the stormtrooper hits his head on the door in the digitally remastered version.

*Luke tells C3-PO to shut up. See!?! Peak, I’m telling you.

*Vader telling Obi-Wan that he’s the master is laughable. No. You’re still not a master. You’re Palpatine’s bitch.

* Turns out, Anakin was the death of Obi-Wan. Sadly, Obi-Wan becomes one with the cosmic force. It’s okay. He will manifest himself into a force ghost. Now there are three Jedi and a part-timer…

*Does a simulator where you sit in those gunner seats of the Millennium Falcon and blow up tie fighters exist? If it doesn’t, it’s a hugely missed opportunity in every arcade on the planet. What a game that would be! I’d play.

*They’ve got 15 minutes to blow that shit up before it beats them to the punch.

*I feel like Wedge Antilles is an often underrated character. Wedge is an utter badass, and one hell of a pilot.

*Three minutes.

*One minute.

*Thirty seconds.

*”You may fire when ready.” F*^% you, Tarkin.

*Han comes in clutch. Luke blows up the technological terror (and Tarkin). Party on Yavin!!

*I can’t believe that Chewy will have to wait until The Rise of Skywalker to receive his medal.