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simulation-machine · 3 months

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SIMS RELATED PROJECTS/UPDATES

My spring break is coming up in a week and holy crap do I have plans on plans on plans, especially since my summer is gonna be full of school + internship + HOPEFULLY friggin' graduating with a BA in Psychology so that I can start applying to grad schools.

Read more iffin' you'd like! It's long! Here's a picture of my golden retriever napping on her brother's food bowl to entice/entertain you:

god she is so precious i would literally kill for her

GOAL 1: MASTER GSHADE/ReSHADE

I know that some people are sticklers for this but my thing is that I had no gee-dee clue what I was doing with ReShade, whereas Gshade just kinda clicked and worked for me? That said I have a bunch of resources for learning ReShade so I might end up moving back to it at some point.

My main issue is figuring out the order of all the different effects. It obviously matters, I'm sure people smarter than me have tried to use presets only to be like "why tf does this look absolutely nothing like the baller screenshots this one cool Simblr has?" Annnd it turns out it's order + remembering to turn off certain graphic settings. Also photoshop, but that's gonna take a lot longer for me to figure out lol.

Like I'd been struggling to figure out why @gunthermunch's gorgeous Lithium preset wasn't looking as sexy as it did before annnnd it's because I forgot to turn Edge Smoothing off when switching to it. Jesus wept at how dippy I am sometimes.

Eventually, what I would like to do is maybe make my own preset at some point? I would be kind enough to show the effect order too if I did so. But this requires so, so much more shader knowledge than I currently have.

FUN FACT: My first ever degree was in art, I even went to a very fancy and private art school (School of the Art Institute of Chicago if you're curious)- I dropped out after one semester because uhhh that shit is expensive. Ended up finishing my degree at a much cheaper location in MN. That said, my art was 100% analog and 2D, and it turns out it did not translate super well into trying my hand at graphic art.

It's funny because I've been gifted really neat stuff for graphic art (like a really nice Wacom tablet and Adobe subscriptions), like people just expected my mixed-media ass would know what to do with it. NOPE! But yeah, Sims is sort of my excuse to try my hand at this stuff again, especially since I have a bit more energy now that my soul is not regularly being drained out of my body by customer service and tech support jobs.

GOAL 2: GET CRACKIN' ON ANOTHER DOOR

This one is hard because I am only on Gen 2 of the Orsons and it's sort of hard to justify starting up another story while that one is less than 1/5 of the way done.

THAT SAID, I don't plan on posting Another Door until I have a decent chunk of it done. Since it's not a casual gameplay story nor a legacy challenge, I plan on editing the bajeez out of the screenshots for it, really honing in on the aesthetic. I want it to look and feel very different from my random legacy challenge.

Fortunately, this story has been fucking up my sleep schedule for *months* now and I have a lot of the writing for it done. The hard part is translating that into the Sims, making sure I get the right poses and stuff, maybe even learning how to make some super easy CC (like, posters and stuff), and stuff related to GOAL 1 above.

What I'm saying is that it's going to take a bit. But I'm super serious about sharing it because it's my obsession and honestly the first time a story of my own design has possessed me in literal years.

Also, I want to make sure I have a significant backlog of the Orsons before I start seriously simming for it, because I don't want to screw over my favorite little pixel babies. This legacy challenge is going to be the one, I have done so much to keep my save files to keep it safe from harm (ask me how many backups I have of the save files. JK don't, the number is frankly silly).

GOAL 3: START YET ANOTHER MASSIVE CC PURGE

Y'all, my CC folder for this game is honestly an embarrassment. I go so hard on CC shopping because this community is stupid-talented and I like giving my pixel babies nice things and cool looks. When I'm bored and not quite in the mood for gameplay, I just like making neat-looking sims that I do absolutely nothing with because I love fucking around in CAS.

I have built my own PCs since I was 17 years old, and when I first built COMPUTERMACHINE (current rig) back in the autumn of 2018, it was with the goal that it would run Sims 4 flawlessly no matter what I did to it. It's got ridiculous amounts of RAM, I religiously update parts for it. And to be fair, even with the current 6,907,907,890 TB of CC I have atm it runs better than Sims 3 ever had with a measly 50 GB of CC.

But for me, it comes down to finding all the stuff I wanna use. Making myself get rid of the stuff I don't wanna use. Straight up yeeting the CC that I thought was going to look incredible that uh, didn't deliver.

I do CAS CC purges about once a year but have literally never done it for Build & Buy stuff, because OMG some of this shit I've had since 2014. Like when Sims 4 first came out. YIKES. My CAS CC obsession is notable but it's honestly nothing compared to my Build & Buy. Even before For Rent made building lots slow af, my PC was starting to take a solid minute to switch to different buy categories.

It would take a long af time so I want to make sure I have a bunch of content in the queue before I do it. It's gonna be a whole ass thing and be so, so boring to do. So I'm putting it off for when I have a ton of time to do it. Like, oh, my entire Spring Break?

GOAL 4: MAKE A FRIGGIN' RESOURCES LIST ALREADY

This would obviously need to wait until after GOAL 3 is completed, but I wanna make sure the awesome creators whose stuff I use get credit, and that people know where they can grab neat stuff. It would include not only CC but mods, Gshade/ReShade presets, and maybe even lots and sims I've downloaded from the gallery?

(Since I am super anti-paywall and very unapologetic and rude about it, I will also share where one could perhaps get some of these CCs without paying some dip a Trenta Starbucks Unicorn Frappucino amount of $$$)

It's ambitious as hell because *gestures vaguely at GOAL 3* but it would make things like doing WCIF asks and lookbooks so much easier.

Somewhat relatedly, I wanna make a navigation post, especially once Another Door starts getting posted. That story is gonna be a bit huge with multiple arcs that take place over the course of like, 14 years. Plus once the Orsons get to the 4th+ generation, it would be easier to track things down.

IN CONCLUSION...

I have been having so much fun sharing my silly little Sim adventures on Tumblr, so much more than I ever thought I would! You all have been so great to me, and all of this stuff is sort of a way for me to repay that. Ever since I stopped being able to be artistically creative ever since a really nasty depressive spell in 2017, Sims has been my #1 artistic outlet. And having people who are even somewhat entertained by my pixels is incredibly motivating.

Basically, if you read all of this, DAMN would you have been a rad livejournal follower of mine circa 2007. On the seriousness, however, thank you all so much for being rad and encouraging and sweet. I promise to do you all, if not proud, then at the very least not disappointed.

Time to hit the bong and take some pictures of Lou and Tatertot before taking my IRL doggos on a walk~

#sort of an announcement #future plans #sims 4 gameplay #tales from the irl #i love the sims community so much #promises i plan to deliver on (eventually)#playing with photoshop again #talking 'bout doing another cc purge again #posts so long you'll unfollow me (i will not blame you)#tl;dr: folks i'm gonna be doing some stuff #anyways... *bong rips*

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oonajaeadira · 5 months

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State of the WIP Address

Okay, y'all, I've been in a really weird place where I've been avoiding...pretty much a lot of stuff. Dunno if I have to talk to my doctor about upping my meds or what, but this is why I actually went on them--my depression manifests not in laziness, but avoiding things I need to do and things I actually WANT to do. Then I don't do them and it all starts building up. And then the to do pile feels insurmountable, like I'll never get to finish all these wonderful things. So I just...freeze up and roll over. Like a fainting goat. You'd think I'd be like "yay! lookit all the things to look forward to! I have years ahead of me full of things I really want to do! I should never be bored again!" But no. Can't do them Right Now? Fainting goat. It's weirdo. We've all got our weirdo and this is mine.

I only mention it here because I do State of the WIP Address to be accountable. Now, the weird thing is, I don't actually expect anyone to read these posts--they're boring and personal and totally for my own motivation. I just know myself and know if I put something out there, I'll feel bad if I don't do it and that should motivate me to actually do it.

But here's the thing....it doesn't work anymore. I'm no longer fulling for my own snake oil. The placebo has run out. If I know it's inconsequential, then my brain tricks me into thinking that I'm accountable to no one. And, in reality, it's true that I'm actually accountable to no one so the trick doesn't work.

Anyway. Welcome to Adira's brain where she finds her own thought patterns a fascinating psychological study and the lab results are inconclusive.

So I'mma try to twist the experiment a bit. Rather than list the things I know I can't get to right this second and feel bad about it, we're gonna let promises go and do it this way. It's not interesting to anyone but me and anyone who nerds out on process. But rather than listing the things I'm not working on, I'll talk about the ones I am, how it's going, what's in my craw about it, and maybe in my ramblings I'll clear the gears to start rolling again.

This isn't interesting to anyone but me unless you really wanna see how seriously I take my fic writing. Cringe if you want. I'm just being honest with myself. My fic isn't high art, but as with anything I create, I can't half-ass it either. It's "be satisfied with it on my terms" or bust.

STATE OF THE WIPS

I have one million projects happening, but these are the pieces I'm actively thinking about and working on at the moment.

SECRET SANTA Where it's at: I'm writing for someone I think is a wonderful person and want to do right by them, so the pressure's on. But at the same time, it's not. Because I know how accepting and lovely the person is and they gave me a lot of prompts and options and like a lot of the things I do and seem to like a lot of the types of things I like to write. I also know that this doesn't have to be over-complicated, that I can write my heart and it will please both of us. While I haven't actually opened up a doc to start, I know that it's the type of thing that if I have a little uninterrupted block of time, I can just sit down and it will flow. I won't say much about it here, but I will say that while it can 100% be read as standalone, it hits on a character/series I'm currently writing and acts as a kind of prequel, a reason for loving the reader as he does. It's something that is kind of missing in the planned series and I think this would be a nice opportunity to explore it before moving forward (and maybe helping propel that series a little) while also touching on one of the characters my giftee likes, a genre they are interested in that I hadn't considered with this character, and it will have a tone I think they'll appreciate. So while it's for them and being written with their likes in mind, I thank them, because it's also a little gift for me and my yearnings. What's stopping me: Time constraints and general anxiety.

TROPE FIC: MODERN DOM!PERO Where it's at: This one got a little sloppy and I'm working on it. I've been following @max--phillips' entries about what defines certain types of kinks and while my thoughts on dom!Pero started as true dom, they swung wrong when I started working on this, and now I'm just thinking myself back to the definition of dominant. And while I may still be missing the mark, it's helping me to think more about how I want to explore and frame this dynamic. It's also giving me a little trouble in that it's not coming out chronologically which causes me to waste time jumping around and retrofitting things. What's stopping me: I put this one on hold to start prioritizing the Secret Santa piece.

TROPE FIC: SEX POLLEN!OBERYN Where it's at: This piece is flowing chronologically. It's going to be longer than I anticipated and the first draft is about 1/3 done. I already know that after the first draft I'll have to do some shaping and I think maybe I got overwhelmed with the task I set for myself and that triggered my avoidance. I know where it's going, I'm excited for it, it will flow easily if I let it, I just have to do it! What's stopping me: I put this one on hold because I got distracted by tasty Pero thoughts. I blame @perotovar for the thots, but not the stopping. That's all on me.

TROPE FIC: ALPHA!JAVI Where it's at: I'm about 1/2 done with the first draft. Again, this one will be longer (and also more angsty) than I anticipated. I love love love where it's going though and reader and Javi's history is beautiful and sad and complex; I really love that half. I'm just now switching into the modern day section of it and have to make a few decisions about how I actually want it to go. My mind is over-complicating the story and I'm trying to wrestle it down a softer path. What's stopping me: I got distracted by the Oberyn story which is why this one's on hold and now this is all Inceptioning on itself.

GOOD. THINGS. TAKE. TIME. Where it's at: The asks are all sorted, there are only a few more sessions left before chapter 4. I just have to write it. What's stopping me: Here's the thing about PATS. If I was out for notes, I'd be pounding on this series, because it's my most popular one. But... really, I'm just here to dream up stories I like to tell. I put PATS down not consciously and not because I don't love him, but I got excited by other ideas. I want to finish it because I don't like having a bunch of unfinished projects lying around, but I also don't want that to be my #1 motivator for writing him. I want to enjoy it. I did enjoy putting the latest installment out, but I also don't feel like I'm letting anyone down if I don't hurry it, just because engagement is low. Again, I'm not here for the notes, I truly love the connection and the squeeing and sharing a yearn. We're all so busy now that it's tough to get to everything and the mutual timing is a bit off. That's okay. It's planned out, it'll get done, I just have to do it when I'm feeling it.

LEAVE OFF YOUR WANDERING: WINTER Where it's at: Finished plan. Yet to begin writing. What's stopping me: I was wrestling with this one for a bit because I had two directions it could go--soft and fluffy without much meat, or weaving all the details together and serving a story that gets rather dark, a little sad, and serves as a fix it. On one hand, I felt like I would be betraying readers by not keeping the euphoric escape. But I would also feel like I built this whole backstory that needed to manifest itself in a test for Joel and Meadowlark, as well as the fact that--other than backstories--there hasn't been any canon hardship or violence displayed. It's like I'm missing a huge chunk of who Joel and Meadowlark are. In the end, that's where the story wants to go, so I'm going there. And I have to not think about what anyone else wants, just me. Not just for selfish reasons, but I know that's when I do my best. It doesn't mean there won't still be fluff and a happy ending. It just means I have to write darkness and perhaps it will serve me better to do it in the season in which it takes place.

#state of the wip address #wip wednesday

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peridyke · 4 days

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How many comics do you have? and where can I find them?

thank you for asking!!!!

sadly right now i don’t have any finished comics to show off as I only recently got the time to seriously work on my art BUT i do have a variety of projects that i can show off! there’s some stuff i’m actively working on and other stuff that’s more of a back burner thing but let me list out everything i’ve done/have planned on doing

1) angel bites

ok so my current project i’m working on right now is called angel bites and it’s actually going to be a fun lesbian erotica comic about an angel girl and devil girl who are bandmates and who secretly hook up on the side. i’m currently in the process of thumbnailing this one and i’m guessing it’s gonna be around 60 or so pages. once im done i’m gonna have the comic up on patreon/have it for sale digitally on a platform like itch.io BUT the first 20ish pages are sfw so I will post those publicly for free so i can show off my work and characters.

i designed these in universe pin ups that i haven’t posted publicly yet and even though i wanted to wait until i finish the third one in the series that’s a little sillier theyre my most recent and best looking art of the characters

2) sacrificial lamb

sacrificial lamb was my main focus for a bit but i’ve taken a break from it for the time being to work on other projects. it’s a more serious project than anything else i’ve been doing but it’s one i’ve been planning out since 2021 and that i do want to seriously look into getting published when it’s finished. it is a lesbian horror comic about a butch lesbian rabbit whose femme cat girlfriend gets sucked into the darker side of new age spiritualism. here is my WIP of the cover and a finished page

3) claw wrench

this is a lower priority project of mine but one i still want to make exist in some form one of these days. it’s about a teenage cat named milly going to live with their estranged super genius mad scientist half sister named mindy and her robot assistant mr. rogato. it would be a newspaper strip style comic with a few larger plot threads. i might start it up one of these days after i’ve gotten some other comics under my belt and i feel like i have a better mental image of what i want the writing to be like. here’s some designs i did in 2021

4) be mine, valentine

this is a project featuring characters of mine who i’ve had for a few years but only recently decided i wanted to turn into a short story. it’s about a peryton coder named cupid who is unbeknownst to herself a trans girl egg discovering her identity after being hired by a trans girl sex worker unicorn named valentine to help build a website for her work. it’s a short but sweet little love story that i have to plan out better before i seriously work on it but i can see it being something i make in the near-ish future. there will be some nudity and sexual themes but nothing pornographic so i will upload it for free online when it’s done ^_^ sadly i um…don’t have a sfw drawing of valentine yet LOL so you’re just gonna have to deal with a cropped pic

5) thalassophobia

this is probably most relevant to peoples’ interest who follow me and something probably remember. thalassophobia is a really big steven universe fan comic i started writing to give lapis a more complete arc. i had a lot of passion for it back in 2022/23 but steven universe hasn’t been on my mind as much recently so it’s gone on the back burner. still i put a ton of work into it so i’d like to come back and finish writing it one day, although for the actual comic process i might see about getting some help on pages and colors and such since considering the scale i think it’s way too big for me to do solo. here’s a cover and a few test pages i did

I HAVE ONE MORE COMIC TO TALK ABOUT BUT IVE USED UP THE IMAGE LIMIT i’m gonna finish in a reblog so give me a second

#askz #peridart #thank you for asking!!!!!

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twinkboimler · 2 months

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🍄💾♻️ (hi this is margot ❤️)

hii!!! thanks!

🍄Describe your wip/one of your wips in the format of “___ + ___=___” Place Your Hand In Mine is Academy Era!Bones + Rom-Com tropes = a hot fucking mess created out of Bones' self-destructive tendencies and his disgust in any of that sappy bullshit

💾What is your document of your wip/ a wip called? (not the stories actual title but what you’ve saved it as) "Eoom + AOSR" which is short-hand for some discord servers, since the doc was originally created to hold fics written for people/events in said servers. I tend to just... throw all my shorter fics into one document until any of them get longer than 30k and then I finally separate them out. But I use headings and titles like crazy so it's y'know... an organized mess at least

♻️A scrapped idea for your current WIP For a little bit, I considered ending chapter 2 of Place Your Hand In Mine with Bones catching Jim lying about his plans for the evening when he looks out the window and spots Jim with Gaila. I decided to cut the idea because the tone didn't really feel right and I thought it would be a stretch that Bones would see that and not immediately put 2 and 2 together about who's been writing him those secret admirer notes. I'll put the original ending to chapter 2 under the cut so you can compare it to the actual ending if anyone's interested!

CUT ENDING TO CHAPTER 2

Leonard’s cut off by Jim standing suddenly. He watches as Jim finishes scarfing down the contents of his bowl before Jim steps over Leonard’s legs towards the sink, placing his bowl inside. “Sorry, Bones,” he starts, and something deep in Leonard’s gut twists painfully.

“Let me guess—another meet-up with Gaila that you forgot about.”

Jim seems to freeze, his brows furrowing together. “No. I’ve got a group project to work on for my Command and Control class. I forgot we were meeting at the main library tonight.”

Jim looks like he doesn’t know what to do with himself. Leonard wonders if Jim is considering whether or not to stay.

Leonard sighs, shaking his head. “No, no, it’s fine. Your courses are more important than some stupid reality television.”

“Bones, I—”

“Seriously, you’re fine,” Leonard says, flashing him a smile that doesn’t quite feel like it reaches his eyes. “And thank you for dinner. It’s delicious.”

Jim bows his head a little, the way he always does when Leonard gives him a compliment, and it makes Leonard feel all warm.

But then Jim starts to shove his shoes on, grabbing his bag from by the door and a coat, and Leonard is surprised by how quickly the wave of disappointment crashes over him.

“I won’t be gone for too long,” Jim says. “See you, Bones.”

Leonard can’t get his throat to unstick in time for him to give Jim a goodbye in response. He hears the sound of Jim’s footsteps grow fainter and fainter as he walks away until Leonard is left only listening to the silence.

Leonard can’t bear it. He turns on the show with the wedding dresses, just so that the noise will fill the room.

He’s finished his second episode when he stands to take his bowl to the sink. He stretches, his joints cracking as he straightens. He carries his bowl to the sink, filling a glass up with water while he’s over there.

He returns to the couch. His thoughts wander. He thinks about how it felt to have Jim’s face smushed against his arm, listening to Jim’s soft snores. Leonard swallows thickly, then turns away from the couch towards the window.

He walks over to it and glances out at the road several levels below. The sun has set but the street lights make the people walking on the sidewalks visible to his eye. He scans over the groups of people, looking at the men walking their dogs and the people chatting on benches below. The weather is nice this evening, still chilly but not wet and rainy.

Leonard starts to turn away when something—someone—catches his eye. On a bench across the road outside their apartment, Leonard spots a jacket he recognizes and a woman with green skin—

Oh.

He stares, taking in the scene below him, making sure it really is them. Jim is gesturing emphatically, moving his hands in such big movements that even Leonard can see that Jim must be agitated. Leonard watches as Gaila reaches out and puts a hand on Jim’s shoulder.

Leonard feels like he’s been doused with ice water.

He knows that whatever is going on, Gaila isn’t cheating on Christine. He knows that Gaila wouldn’t do that, that Jim has a whole bunch of frustrating traits and tendencies but he wouldn’t do that to his friends. They’re just having a simple conversation with each other outside.

So, why does Leonard feel betrayed?

He turns away quickly before either person can look up at the window and catch a glimpse of him. He’s not interested in having that conversation with Jim.

Jim’s lying to Leonard now. It’s hard to stop himself from feeling sick at the realization.

If Jim feels he can’t talk to Leonard anymore, then things are truly dire. Leonard drops himself back down on the couch, staring at the wall, staring at nothing in particular.

Jim doesn’t trust him anymore. He’s missed his chance with Jim, he realizes. He never had a chance with Jim at all.

#phebs writes fic #phebs speaks #ask game #fanfic #star trek fic #place your hand in mine #anon #ask

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purrincess-chat · 2 years

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Newbie author, here! Do you have any tips for me? I end up piling too many wips and find that I can't step away from one wip before finishing it. Am literally obsessed with writing a story until I get it done. Do you think I should spread my schedule and include other works (longer wips) even though there's a big chance I might focus on it too much or begin to neglect the other work? I don't want to be that one author who abandons a work. 😭😭😭

That's so exciting! Welcome to the writing community. I am probably the best and also the worst person to come to for this lol. The best because I have a lot of experience with multiple WIPs, and also the worst because I have a lot of experience with multiple WIPs. Here's what I do.

Now, I want to preface this by saying that this is just my system that works for me. Part of writing is discovering what methods work for you and developing your own process along the way, which unfortunately just takes trial and error. I recommend looking into several options to find what fits you best. That being said, I currently have 6-7 active WIPs, meaning I have posted at least one chapter of them, that I intend to finish (and several others I have abandoned indefinitely, which I'll talk about later). I also have 2 big projects in the planning stages as well as a handful of other small projects that I want to do eventually. Plus, I'm participating in the ML Big Bang again this year, so I'm working on a decently small project for that. (Like less than 20k) So, I do know a thing or two about having tons of projects open, and I'm not going to lie and say I handle all of them well all the time, but I've been getting better at managing my projects. Here's some tips that I've picked up over the past few years.

Outlines.

I know, I have been singing their praises a lot lately, and some writers like them, some don't, but seriously, if you're juggling multiple projects, outlines. When you have multiple WIPs, especially for the same fandom or similar concepts, outlines will save you from getting stories mixed up and forgetting things. Even if your outline is just a doc that you dump everything you have in your brain about the story in one block paragraph, do that. Don't rely on your memory of what you want to happen because you will forget. Write it down somewhere, so you have it to come back to when you're more ready to tackle it.

If you're like me and have more ideas than you know what to do with, I usually will dump everything about an idea that I have somewhere be it in a tumblr post or a word doc or a deranged series of rambly messages to my beta. Once I have it written down and out of my head, I can usually assess whether or not it's something I want to actively work on right now. Sometimes we get really excited about a concept because it's really fresh in our mind, and we want to see where it goes. Just writing down a detailed summary or even outlining can be enough to get over that initial impulse to start something new. This can help reduce taking on more wips than you can handle at once and potentially abandoning the one you're trying to work on. If you have an idea written down, you can always come back to it later when you've cleared up some more time and space for it.

Try to set a schedule.

I admit, I'm not the best at adhering to a schedule, but it can be helpful to make them. And you can make schedules for various different things like, I want to post this story on this day every week or every month, or I want to work on this idea around this time every day or on a specific day. Schedules can be very helpful at keeping multiple projects organized.

Work on a few at a time.

As it stands right now, even though I have a lot of open projects, I'm not actively working on all of them all the time. I tend to pick 2-3 of them to focus on at a time, and even then, that doesn't mean I'm actually writing all of them at the same time. Right now, I am actively writing my BB story (already outlined), my Ladrien enemies AU (already outlined), and I just finished writing KEWK, which is a WIP I've had open for several years that I finally got bothered enough with how long it's been open to finish. I'm also actively outlining My Dearest Buttercup (trying to figure out where the hell I want to take it), as well as a project I haven't announced yet.

Typically, I have one or two stories in the active writing stage, and one (maybe two) in the outlining stage. Outlining helps because it keeps the impulse at bay just enough because it tricks my brain into thinking I'm working on it (I mean, technically you ARE working on it, just not actively drafting). It's also helpful when you actually do get to the point of writing it because you've already made a bunch of executive decisions that could have slowed down your drafting process. Overall, it makes things run smoother.

I try to balance project lengths as well. I try not to take on two big projects at a time, or if I do, I only work on those two, no tiny projects. If I've got one big project open, I may work on a few small projects (one-shots, drabbles) or one medium sized project (like a shorter multi-chapter) along side it. The longer the project, the longer it's going to take you to finish it, so if you have two big projects open, it's going to take you longer to clear those from your plate and allow for time for other projects.

That's why I try to keep smaller projects in rotation while working on bigger things, so I can work through ideas faster and eliminate more things. I tend to have a lot of small ideas that pile up, so it helps ease some guilt to be able to clear those out. If I clear out a bunch of tiny projects, I might add in a bigger project if the first one is nearing completion. It's a delicate balancing act that I've only recently started getting better at. And again, not to sound like a broke record, outlining can help you determine which stories to rotate because you can kind of guestimate how big/long a project is going to be, so you can determine whether you want to take on a big project or focus on a smaller one.

Abandoning stories isn't the end of the world.

I know you expressed fear of abandoning stories, but sometimes it just... happens. I mentioned that I have numerous projects that I've put off indefinitely. Some of them I may go back to eventually, others I may just leave be. Sometimes you move past an idea or a concept or you lose interest in a particular story. It happens, and it's not the end of the world. Sure, some readers might be disappointed if they liked a story, but if your heart isn't in it, then you're not going to be satisfied with it (and usually your readers will be able to tell). Most of the time, my readers are very understanding if I say I don't intend to finish a story (though, it depends on the story, but I've never actively abandoned any extremely popular stories of mine).

It can make you feel really guilty, and it can make you feel like you've failed for giving up on something. But truthfully, writers do it all the time. Inspiration is lost. You realize that maybe a story just isn't working right now. I think for me, I tend to focus on how I've grown as a result of writing that work. Sometimes calling it quits can be a sign that you've grown enough to recognize that what you're working on just isn't for you anymore. Writing is a journey, and sometimes it's better to tread a new path. The act of writing is a labor of love, and if you don't love what you're writing, then you don't have to keep doing it. Allow yourself that kindness, and writing becomes a lot less stressful.

For you, I'd recommend trying the outlining method. If you've got another idea while you're working on something, spit it onto a page in some way, then decide what you want to do with it. Having multiple projects going on isn't a bad thing, and sometimes it's necessary. For my projects, I don't always work on the stories I'm actively drafting all the time. Sometimes I focus more on one than the other. Sometimes I bounce back and forth between them. Just depends.

Hopefully you found any of this helpful. If you have any more questions, feel free to send them!

#cat replies #asks #writing #writing tips #writing advice #writing help #writing ref #writing reference #cats writing advice

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techtalksfics · 1 year

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The E-11 Blaster - Tech x F!OC (Part 2)

This story is a slow burn but I thought the rescue would be important! Sorry if it's boring. But it will definitely heat up in the next chapter!

Warnings: One swear word, maybe a little violence, but I would argue that most of it is poorly written!

Word Count: 3,084 (whoops)

Part One

Kelsa was sat on the floor of the Marauder, her heart racing at the loss of her friend. Her back rested against the wall and she had raised her knees towards her chest. She fiddled with the silver ring on her finger as her hands rested on top of her knees.

Tech was walking through the plan, in excruciating detail.

She hadn't realised a plan of smash, blast and grab could even be so detailed. She wanted to bang her head against the wall - this was taking too long.

Echo, Wrecker, Hunter and Omega had all gathered around Tech's datapad, which projected the holographic layout of the palace they had scouted earlier.

"It should be a simple extraction, based upon the intel gathered by Kelsa and I earlier today." He gave her a brief glance, though his face seemed expressionless. "Kelsa is insisting upon joining us. But, based on her history with Commander Cody and General Obi-Wan Kenobi, I cannot see that this would jeopardise the mission at hand. Obviously, we work better alone but -"

"Obviously," Kelsa snorted. "Look," she sighed, "I'll follow orders from all of your. As far as I am concerned, even Omega is my current commanding officer. There will be no freestyling. I won't go rogue. I will be very boring and well behaved. Just think of me as the newest member of the Bad Batch." Tech blinked at her, perhaps I said something to irritate her?

"Right," Tech finally said, after an excruciating moment of silence, "exactly." He gave Kelsa and his brothers a curt nod before closing the holoimage. He retreated back to the cockpit and began their entry into the Wayland system.

"Don't worry Kelsa," came the soft voice of Omega. Kelsa had been too busy fidgeting with her ring to notice the child approach her. She felt a warm hand settle on top of hers, stopping her fidgeting fingers. "We'll get your friend back." Kelsa couldn't help but smile.

"Thanks, kid," Kelsa chuckled, "I appreciate it."

The shuttle landed about 60 clicks from the main bridgeway. Geared up, minus the helmets, and raring to go, the clones began to disembark. All except for Wrecker, Tech and Kelsa. What had stalled their exit was Kelsa's own gearing up process, namely her body armour and rifle. She wore a black body piece and vambrances, both made of beskar, and she had slew her E-10 rifle across her shoulder. She had gently begun removing her hair from underneath the back of her armour before turning to look at the clones. Tech decided to put his helmet on whilst she was getting ready.

Wrecker and Tech were staring at her. They were staring for far longer than would be considered normal. Tech could feel his cheeks heating beneath his helmet and it was not caused by the armour. I will have to check my vitals later, something is amiss, he thought.

"What?" Kelsa asked, putting her hand on her hip. She stared purposefully, her eyes lingering on each of them for a few seconds.

"UH-" Wrecker started, rubbing the back of his neck, "it's nothing. Jus' never seen a pretty girl in armour before." Kelsa laughed, an uproarious, and to Tech, mortifying laugh.

"That's not why I was -" Tech began, his finger raised.

"Seriously boys? You've never seen a woman in armour before? And that does it for you, does it?" Kelsa shook her head, her laugh even louder than before, and star

"That's not why I was -" Tech began again but Kelsa was already off the ship before he could finish his thought. He sighed heavily. Great.

As Kelsa approached Hunter, he raised his fist in order to halt the team behind the tree-line. A small battalion of clone troopers, six to be precise, were walking across the bridge and out into the green field that lay before them. One by one, they lowered themselves down and readied their weapons.

"How good is your aim, Seargent?" Kelsa whispered. Hunter's head whipped around and saw that she was holding an EMP grenade. He quirked his lips into a smirk and said, "good enough to hit one of those. How good is your aim?" She rolled her eyes.

"Good enough for this." Hunter nodded to her and gave the order. Tech was now crouched behind Kelsa, fully aware of what needed to be done. But she said it nonetheless, clearly not used to the intelligence of an enhanced clone. "Reckon you could give me some co-ordinates, Tech?" With a nod, Tech lowered his visor and replied "75, mark 191."

75, mark 191, Kela thought. She closed her eyes for a moment and centred her breathing. She had one shot. So, she stepped out, throwing the EMP. Hunter fired a second later. It was a direct hit.

The blast hit all six troopers. Falling to the ground, writhing from the shock. The troopers shook for a few moments and then stilled. Stunned and incapacitated. The team pushed forward. Kelsa grabbed one of the E-11 blaster rifles as they passed.

Six troopers down.

Only seven remained outside. They couldn't confirm the numbers inside the palace doors.

But outside, there were five on the bridge and two at the door.

Sneaking forward, bodies low to the ground, the group divided and took cover behind the marble statues on either side of the bridge. Remember, Kelsa thought, follow the orders. Don't deviate. I can't lose Beatiza. She steadied her breathing; it had been a while since she had been in any active combat. Not since the end of the war. Of the clone war anyway.

The troopers were marching down the bridge. She could hear their heavy boots crash in unison against the floor. It was an unsettling sound. She had no more EMPs. She only ever had room in her pockets for one. She didn't have the luxury of clone weaponry, despite her title as a weapons specialist.

That was not going to be an issue. Hunter gave Wrecker a command on their side of the bridge. A signal was given, a signal she obviously didn't know.

But Wrecker did. It was Wrecker's favourite order. Smash.

And so, with the gusto of a raging bull, Wrecker charged down the bridge. Kelsa desperately wanted to see what would happen next but Echo took point and was blocking the view.

She could guess what had happened next thought. There was the sudden sound of blasterfire, clones reporting a breach. The fire was shocking, speedy but brief.

The next sound she heard was that of screaming. Well, more like, screaming whilst falling would be the better way of putting it.

She laughed to herself quietly. "Wrecker is incredible," she whispered to Tech behind her.

"Yes, well, he may not like stealth. But he is more than equipped for a brawl." She laughed again. Although, that may not have been intended as a joke. Now she knew what that signal meant.

Hunter, Echo and Omega emerged from behind the marble statues and headed towards Wrecker guns raised. She noticed Tech circle around her, gun raised as he looked across the bridge. Only the guards at the door were left, but they had definitely been alerted to their presence. Heavy blasterfire ensued.

Tech looked at Kelsa, who seemed frozen in place. "Hunter and Echo will have no trouble with the guards on the door. We can go." But she didn't move, she wasn't sure why she couldn't move. Fear, probably. He gently offered her his gloved hand, which she took and he hauled her out from behind the statue.

His hand gave a gentle, reassuring squeeze before he let go.

Kelsa was shocked by the kindness of his action. They ran across the bridge side by side. He was right, Hunter and Echo did have them handled.

"AWH," Wrecker bellowed, "was that it?!" She had to admit, it had been extremely easy so far. Too easy.

Tech ran across to the remainder of the bridge to join Hunter and the control panel to the right of the door. The rest slowly closed in behind them.

Then Kelsa spotted him. The lone clone trooper aiming his weapon at Tech, as he worked on the door. Kelsa threw the E-11 blaster at the clone, smacking him in the head. Unsteadied, he fell off the side. One would assume to his death but people have survived worse falls. Darth Maul, for example, Kelsa was unhappily reminded of Satine. And Obi-Wan. A different era.

Tech turned spotting what Kelsa had done for him and offered a 'thank you' before returning to his work. He announced, "they have signalled for back up. We will need to work fast to avoid a real skirmish." Moments later, the door, dividing in the middle, flew open.

Tech turned back to Kelsa and said, "next time, you could just use the blaster to defeat the enemy."

"It was an E-11 Blaster," she said. He looked at her in confusion, so she justified that statement, "such an uncivilised blaster. No finesse. I wouldn't dream of firing one of those." As Tech shook his head, chuckling ever so slightly, Kelsa equipped her personal weapon and headed into the main hall, behind the clones and next to Omega.

As Kelsa looked around, she could not help but admire the splendour of the hall. Even if it was splendour built upon the suffering and enslavement of others. That would dampen her opinion, of course. There was white marble running down the centre of the hall, silver tiles laid in intricate patterns around it. Golden pillars ran alongside the marble steps which ran alongside the central walkway.

Her eyes drifted upwards and she could the light shining through the intricate stain glass window. Flickers of blue, yellow and pink glittered around the room, dancing in the light.

It was very beautiful, except for the next sight she saw. Beside the silver throne, she spotted Beatiza. The sight of Beatiza on her knees; her hands and neck cuffed. Kelsa's stomach dropped. Her friend looked awful. One eye was bruised and swollen. Even from a distance, she could see the cuts and scrapes all over her skin. Her clothes were ripped.

Kelsa's entire body was fuelled with a hot, blind rage. Kelsa tried to rush forward, but Tech placed his hand on her shoulder holding her back from an impulse decision. She looked at him with anger in her eyes but he simply shook his head.

And she knew he was right.

Damn it.

At the top of the room, all near the throne, there were four Zygerrians. Three standing, arms clasped in front of them and one, seated on the throne. That one, she knew. Of course, it would be him.

He stood as the Bad Batch grew closer.

"Ah, welcome." He spoke. "I am Alghom Tromas of the great nation of Zygerria. Thank you for returning my property to me." He raised his has as he spoke, pointing to Kelsa.

"Property?!" She yelled at him, "I am no-one's property!" She aimed her rifle at him before she heard it, the clattering of clone armour.

Damn it all.

Tech stopped her, with his hand on her shoulder again. He reached into her sight with one step and simply used one slender finger to point upwards to the balcony. The balconies on either side housed at least a dozen clone troopers, all with guns aimed at the team.

This was no longer the simple extraction they had hoped for.

"Return my friend to me, Alghom. We have no business with you." Kelsa knew this statement wouldn't work but she thought, fuck it.

"You promised to acquire my property, Kelsa. A contract was formed and you failed to deliver." Alghom stated and he seated himself back down on his throne. "That makes you my property by right, as forfeit." He raised his leg over the side of the chair and chuckled as he sat back. "Now, come. Join your friend in servitude. There is no need for your new friends to get hurt."

Kelsa looked at Hunter, hoping he had an idea. He returned her look with confusion, clearly relating to the statement Alghom had made. His eyes then drifted to the troopers, as if counting them.

"Any bright ideas anyone?" Kelsa tried to whisper. She flinched when it echoed around the barren hall. Thankfully, Tech then quipped, "I have a bright idea. Though, I fear you may not like it."

"So long as it works," Kelsa looked at Tech, ready to do whatever he asked. He nodded his head and continued, "for now, myself and the others will require some cover but we cannot do so without a distraction. You are a significant distraction."

Kelsa was going to try and not read into that statement too much.

"I need you to play along with his desire to capture you. Do not worry, I will not let him hurt you. Please, put down your rifle."

She lowered her blaster to the floor, the other hand raised in defeat. "Alright A-Alghom," her voice broke in fear, "you win. Just please, let my friends leave in peace. They have no quarrel with you." She stood up straight, hands raised and walked down the centre of the room. As she did so the Bad Batch retreated back, slowly, towards the pillars at the back of the room.

Alghom sneered with delight, swinging his legs together and leaned forward as if inspecting her. It was working, he certainly was distracted. "I don't want any more trouble. I - I just want to protect Bee." She used the nickname for damsel in distress emphasis.

"Come here, little one." He demanded. So she did, she continued to walk towards him. The lights from the window glittered across her skin. One of the three Zygarrians beside Alghom walked towards her and cuffed her hands. Another had procured chains which dangled beside them.

Kelsa was afraid now. What if the clones just left? She had given them the perfect opportunity to escape further battle.

As she knelt before Alghom, she looked back at the Bad Batch. Fear drenched her features and Tech could see it and he wondered if she thought they would leave. Certainly not, he thought.

With that thought in mind, he nodded to Hunter and Wrecker. Without another second passing, Wrecker had picked up Hunter and thrown him towards the left balcony. Gun in hand, Hunter took out two clones and his body pelted another two to the ground. Withdrawing his knife, he threw it at the remaining clone.

Blasterfire now echoed through the hall. Hunter managed to get one shot in to the other balcony, narrowly missing a trooper before taking cover.

They need a distraction, Kelsa realised. Something to draw their fire.

Without thinking, she charged at the three Zygarrians to the right of the Alghom and rammed two of them to the ground with the full force of her slight body. The clones were tasked to defend the Zygarrians so their fire was drawn to Kelsa.

Echo and Wrecker realised they had their opportunity and, from the corner of her eye, Kelsa saw Echo being thrown to the right balcony. He took out the remaining troopers with ease.

However, Kelsa was now stuck. Ducking and diving away from the attacks of the Zygarrians. She ducked and a dived as best she could but as they reached, punched, kicked and fought her, she realised she was outnumbered and Tech was occupied with the troopers who had come through the side door.

She was trapped.

Until, with the last of her strength mustered, Beatiza jumped on the Zygarrians, tackling them to the ground. Kelsa and Bee fought to keep them down and Alghom has risen. He had his whip in hand but seemed to frightened to use it.

As the blasterfire ceased, and the clones approached the throne, Alghom dropped the whip and raised his hands.

"Just," he sneered, "take them."

Tech held Kelsa up and held undo the bonds on her hands. He held her hands gently in his as he inspected her wrists for damage. Wrecker had picked up Beatiza and was already walking towards the exit.

As they all turned to leave, they could hear the shout of Alghom, one last time, as he warned, "BUT KNOW THIS, I will come for them and I will come for you, clones."

They made if safely back to the Marauder. Wrecker had placed Beatiza in a chair and was removing the bonds that held her captive even still.

Kelsa couldn't believe it. It had worked. Beatiza was finally safe.

As soon as the shuttle took off, Beatiza threw her arms around her friends neck. Kelsa melted into the embrace. She was safe.

"I didn't think I'd ever see you again," Beatiza confessed, a tear running down her cheek. She buried her head in Kelsa's neck, who only pulled her friend closer.

"You think I'd leave you behind?" She gently moved Beatiza back, getting her to look at the soft expression on her face, "never."

Suddenly becoming aware of the group of onlookers, Kelsa jumped back and smiled at them in thanks. "Of course, you will be wanting payment. It is well deserved." She started fidgeting as she stood up and hugged each of them. None of them quite knowing what to do with the hands, heads or just their whole bodies really.

She headed to the cockpit and sat beside Tech. "You'll have to head to Alderaan for payment," she looked at him to find he was already facing her. "But you will receive what you are owed." Tech nodded before returning his focus to the shuttle, laying in a course for Alderaan. Once Kelsa was sure everything was sorted, she asked Tech to stand.

Sheepishly he did so. She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him close. She thanked him, like she had the others. He was awkward, like the others.

And yet, she held him closer than the others. Held him longer than the others. She kissed his cheek softly, unlike the others.

When she pulled back, she saw his confusion and laughed. "Thank you Tech." He pushed his goggles back up his nose and said "that was not quite as simple as we'd originally hoped."

Kelsa laughed and softly said, "no it wasn't, was it?"

As they approached the apartment door of Kelsa and Beatiza's home, the Bad Batch were surprised to find that they lived in the affluent area of Aldera. It was certainly a step up from their temporary home in Ord Mantell. The front door was painted a dark green and was numbered, '99'.

An odd coincidence, Tech thought.

Wrecker carried Beatiza's sleeping form inside, doped up from the pain relief Tech had given her. He lay her gently at the far side of the sofa.

As Kelsa laid down her weapon against the counter, she turned and found the rest of the Bad Batch loitering at the door, sheepishly. She sighed softly before announcing that they should come on in.

"It's been a busy few days, so please come in and take a seat. Relax, make yourselves at home." She busied herself in the kitchen, pulling out two bottles of Alderaan Twist and some glasses. "Please have a drink. It's the finest twist you'll find." The statement confused the clones until Tech sighed and confirmed "the drink is called an Alderaan Twist. It is a delicacy here in Aldera among the high elite."

Tech wondered why Kelsa would have it. It didn't seem to fit the persona he knew. But the boys filled their glasses and settled onto the sofas and chairs, waiting for their host to return.

Kelsa entered her bedroom and fished under the mattress for her hidden credits from recent missions. She found a spare pouch in her bedside drawer and emptied all of her credits into it. She sighed knowing that three missions worth of credits were now gone. But that didn't matter Beatiz was safe.

As she walked back out of her room, her heart was warmed by the sight before her. Beatiz was awake but still lying on sofa, showing Omega and Hunter a trinket that she had picked up during our mission on Coruscant. Omega's looked of wonderment was incredibly sweet.

Wrecker and Echo were hunched forward in the two lounge chairs deep in discussion, clearly discussing the taste of the drink. Based on what she could hear Wrecker saying. She couldn't hear Echo.

Her eyes then trailed to Tech, the man she believed was truly responsible for saving her friend from, what Kelsa could only describe as accidental enslavement. Her eyes softened, he had the PADD in hand, leaning back on the sofa, reading. She would love to know what he was reading. Perhaps a question for later?

She gave a slight cough, to get their attention and the room quickly fell silent. Hunter stood and approached her, "your friend is a little bruised, but Tech thinks she will be fine with a bit of rest."

"Thank you," Kelsa smiled, "your payment." She dropped the money into his hand, and covered it with the other. Hunter frowned, he no longer felt like they should take the money for freeing an enslaved girl. She grasped his hand tight, knowing what he was thinking. "Please, " she whispered, "just take the money. I am a weapon's specialist and there is still a war brewing. No matter what the Empire says." She let go of his hand and he nodded.

They re-joined the group in the lounge area. Hunter resumed his position beside Omega, his hand clutching the sofa behind her in a fatherly fashion. Beatiza has switched to stories of their antics and Kelsa hoped she remembered to keep the stories...'child friendly'. There are some stories that no child should hear. God, even she wishes she didn't know them; let alone lived through them.

"If you're not in a rush to get back to Ord Mantell, I'd like to cook you a fresh dinner," you announced, look at Tech with a soft smile, "as a thank you."

"YEAH!" Wrecker yelled and bumped Echo's shoulder.

She could tell that they clearly did not often get home cooked meals. She could also tell that she wouldn't need to ask twice.

"That would be appreciated," Techo said. "I have some questions I'd like to ask you." "Okay..." Kelsa raised an eyebrow.

"Forty-seven questions, to be exact."

"Right. Well, you'd better come shopping with me then. I feel like this could take a while."

#tech bad batch #tech bad batch x reader #tech bad batch x oc #the bad batch #tech bb x reader #hunter bad batch #wrecker bad batch #echo bad batch #omega bad batch

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samanthahirr · 2 years

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MI6 Cafe Creators Tag Game

(Thank you so much for tagging me, @silverbrume!)

We’d love for people to keep getting to know each other after this year’s 007 Fest, so we’re starting this tag game!

Rules: Answer the questions, then tag 3 new people to complete this. Also, tag the person who tagged you and @mi6-cafe so we can reblog your response.

Note that when we say ‘fanwork’ in the questions below, that could mean a fanfic, gif, fanart, headcanon, cosplay, crocheted work—any kind of fancreation counts!

1. What work of yours challenged you when you were creating it?

Can I count my ongoing 00Q WIP-epic Off the Books? Yeah, I’m gonna say this is my biggest challenge. I’ve never posted a WIP before, and it’s a much bigger challenge than I anticipated, controlling the pacing, the evolving relationship dynamics, and the gradual reveal of exposition. It doesn’t help that it’s already my longest work to date, and it’s only 1/3 done at 54k. I’ve got reams of notes for this fic and a heavily detailed outline to follow, but I still agonize over nailing all my set-ups and pay-offs. Very challenging project, but my most-rewarding by far.

2. What is a fanwork you’ve seen which gave you a new headcanon about a character?

Queen of Spades by Astolat. One of the first 007 fics I ever read, it took the M & Craig butting-heads dynamic from Casino Royale and amplified their antagonism and manipulations and competition into the stratosphere. I fell in love with Astolat’s headcanons of a Bond who resents orders and leadership but craves M’s approval, and an M who effortlessly manipulates Bond into becoming the agent she wants him to be, and even as Bond sees those manipulations happening, he can only rise to her challenges instead of turning his back on them.

3. Is there a fanwork that you really want to make, but you haven’t started yet?

Yes! I’ve got a pre-slash 00Q fic all planned and researched, wherein Bond’s punishment for a botched mission is bodyguard-duty for Q at a conference in Salzburg. In this AU, Q & Bond don’t know each other well and have an adversarial relationship. En route, Bond mercilessly taunts Q about his blatant fear of flying…until Bond realizes just after takeoff that Q has dosed himself with an anxiolytic/hypnotic to get through the short flight. Now Bond has a heavily drugged quartermaster at his mercy, and he must choose whether to be cruel or kind for the next seven hours. (Spoiler: Bond chooses kindness, and they forge a mutual respect and tentative friendship by the story’s end.) Tentative title “Bases to Guard or Beleaguer.” Just gotta finish writing a couple other fics before I can start banging this one out.

4. What fanwork of yours surprised you, and how?

I was surprised how effortlessly Touch It, Stroke It, and Undress It came together for 007 Fest 2022. In summer of 2021, I came up with a series of vignettes for aromantic!Q sleeping with all the agents, amusingly thwarting Bond’s seduction attempts. This year I decided to flesh the ideas out into a series of standalone smut scenes with an overarching “lovers to friends-with-benefits” arc for Fest, and I somehow cranked out 21k of smut in under a month! Biggest surprises of the resulting fic: A) I haven’t been that prolific in a decade; B) the multiple POVs were an engaging challenge to figure out; and C) once I stopped being self-conscious about sharing all my kinks, the smut became downright fun to write.

5. What themes/styles/subjects are common across many of your fanworks?

I’m all about hurt/comfort (though if I injure a character too seriously, they can’t have the celebratory ‘we survived’ sex, so I tend to go minor-to-moderate on the physical trauma). And I’m currently fascinated with all the possible variations on a drugging storyline, so expect to see that crop up in my next few fics.

6. What other fandoms do you create for, if any?

None right now, but last year I did fics for The Mandalorian and The Man from UNCLE.

7. Is there an artist that you like to listen to while you create? Or one whose work always inspires you?

I can’t listen to English lyrics when I’m writing, so I listen to a lot of instrumental or foreign-language albums. I spent the month of July looping the Argentinian singer-songwriter Federico Aubele’s second album, Panamericana (produced by Eighteenth Street Lounge Music (shoutout Washington DC!!!) so it’s got sexy-chill electro-lounge vibes), featuring Fede’s genius guitar work and hauntingly gorgeous guest vocals over Latin dance rhythms. And now for August, I’m hooked on a YouTube playlist called Tropical Night Bossa Nova that’s all dreamy/beachy guitar instrumentals.

8. Share a fanwork that you’ve found yourself thinking about weeks after reading/seeing it.

In 2016, @beaubete wrote a 300-word piece for Last Drabble Writer Standing called “Property,” wherein Q poses as a buyer to rescue Bond from a slavery ring. I read that fic on June 1, 2021, and it completely rewired my brain. Within four days I’d planned out the entirety of Off the Books, a 150k sequel for a goddamn drabble I’m still writing a year later, and I joined a new fandom, and now I’m a part of the MI6-Cafe. If it hadn’t been for that genius, shocking cliffhanger of a drabble, I might not have started writing in this fandom and meeting everyone in the Cafe, so I’m still so, so grateful that Beaubete’s fanwork exists.

9. Finally, share where you post your works!

My AO3 page

Tagging: @prismatic-bell & @kmk1701d & @a-forger-and-a-point-man

@mi6-cafe

#MI6-cafe #mi6 cafe tag game #mi6cafe community #ask meme

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hollygl125 · 1 year

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Summer Reading / Writing / Arting Tag

Tagged by: @coping-via-clint-eastwood. (Fun! Thank you!)

1. Describe one creative WIP project you’re planning to work on over the summer.

I’m planning to submit a story for the ficwip 5k AU challenge, but I wrote that two days after it was announced (I have absolutely zero control over my mind), so now I’m just waiting for sign-ups and posting. I consider it a pre-canon divergent, canon convergent modification of a coffee-shop AU (not that I’ve ever read a coffee-shop AU). I think it’s pretty cute. But, since it’s already complete, I won’t exactly be working on that over the summer….

I will still be working on my ongoing series. It was ostensibly finished last August, but it’s grown in length by at least 50% since then (by adding to the middle—the end point is roughly the same). I currently have two unfinished sections (sections where I started adding something but need to fill in the rest).

In a dream world I would make a video to accompany the fic series, but I am an extreme perfectionist and don’t currently have the patience, so I think I would likely just drive myself crazy in the attempt.

I’d love to learn to make gifs in Photoshop, with pretty colours and layers and I don't know what…. I made a gif-set in PS once, but the end result was really big and unusable for most purposes because I didn’t really know what I was doing.

I’d also kind of like to embroider something. I bought some embroidery kits while slightly out of my mind during the height of the pandemic, and I think it would be fun to try using them and then, after learning a bit, make up something on my own. (Would it involve bees and butterflies? Probably.)

2. Rec a book!

Fiction: Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland. I haven’t read this in forever, but I meant to recommend it to someone about a decade ago and never got the chance. So I’m recommending it now to y’all instead.

Non-Fiction: Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi, which is about the development of racist ideas and non-racist ideas alongside each other. I think this is one of the last books I read before I broke my brain.

3. Rec a fic (outside your character tag)!

How cute of you, question-asker, to think I read any fic outside GSR!

4. Rec music!

I’m terrible at recommending music, but I do have a Spotify playlist for my GSR series. (The Spotify playlist is only current to the stories I’ve posted so far. My private iTunes playlist has about 100 more songs. The Spotify playlist will get there eventually.)

5. Share one piece of advice!

I did my undergrad in History and English Lit, but I have no background in creative writing (aside maybe from previously running my dog’s Instagram account), so I don’t know if I’m in much of a position to give advice, but I’ll tell you how I approached my writing process (and had a lot of fun with it!), and maybe that’ll help someone.

Writing fan fiction was not something I seriously considered doing until the day before I started doing it. On the day before I started, I thought of it as something I might do quite a ways in the future, when I’d prepared more. But then the next day my brain was like, actually, no, we’re doing this now.

The reason I’d decided to write fanfic was that I had all these little romantic GSR scenarios running around my head at night (and in the morning, and in the afternoon, and in the evening…), and it was getting really tiresome having to recreate the dialogue every night.

When I started I did an outline in a Word doc with story or chapter headings, based on the different aspects of the GSR story I knew I wanted to address. After I had the outline, I didn’t fill in the story linearly, though. I first wrote whatever scenario was most pressing to get out of my head. Then I wrote the next thing, then the next, then the next, all based on what was most urgently trying to escape my head. Sometimes I added more headings when I had new ideas.

But it was never work; it was always fun. I probably looked a little goofy. I kept thinking… oh my god, I can’t believe I’m doing this. (You have to keep in mind that, until January 2022, I had not read any fic since (or before) I read fic for Josh and Donna when they were taking their own sweet time back in the mid-2000s.)

Eventually I had to write some sections that were more functional—stuff that was simply necessary to get from Point A to Point B—but that was really minimal and still relatively enjoyable. (I have a hard time even remembering what those sections were anymore, but I think the chapter explaining how they got from the year of honeymoons to the events of season 13 was definitely one of them).

So I guess my advice would be that you should just do whatever works for you. (E.g., you don’t have to start at the beginning.) I think this works well with c-v-c-e’s advice: “This is art. There ARE no rules, especially ones restricting flexibility and expression.”

And, most importantly, please remember to try to have fun!

Tagging: If you would like to participate, please consider yourself tagged!

#about me #tagged #tag game

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popculturebuffet · 2 years

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Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye Issue By Issue: Issue #1: How To Say Goodbye and Really Mean It (Patreon Review for Brotoman.exe)

Hello all you happy Autobots. I hope you've packed your ready for a long and lengthy quest as today I undertake one of the longest planned projects i've ever done, courtsey of my newest proud patron, @brotoman-exe. It's the first time in a LONG time i've had a new 5 dollar patron and he seems to be in for the long haul as he's requested monthly reviews of a series that spans over 50 issues and goes into a second volume. And that's not getting into if we cover the dark cybertron crossover, the tie in issue for revolution, or the annuals. But it's one i'm more than happy to do for as long as possible and covers a series near and dear to my heart.

Transformers More Than Meets The Eye is one of my faviorite comics again and the work that got me back into transformers. It's a wonderful epic that is in my faviorite genre of storytelling: A ragtag bunch of misfits who often have no buisness doing what their doing let alone being a group becoming a found family of sorts while proving there more than what both those around them and they themselves think. It's also loaded with humor, character, and giant robots, so what's not to love.

It's also a chance to correct a past mistake. See this isn't my first attempt to do a retrospective of this comic. Back in pride 2021, I did a review of the first three issues of this series, as the series is both one I badly wanted to cover and one that is warmly and greatly represntive, using the fact 90% of all transformers are male to be gay as heck. And I did.. but a combination of an overtaxed schedule, a shaky mental state, and said schedule being flip turned upside down lead to me constantly delaying part 2 before scrapping it entirely and planning to cover the series later. So when Brotoman asked me to cover it monthly, I had only one response

So this is the first project i'm doing over again, and hopefully not the last as I intend to revisit New X-Men at some point, and hopefully this time i'll finish what i've started, however many years it takes. So let's get ready to blast off into space as we meet the crew of the lost light again for the first time. Before we get into the series proper we need to cover what lead us here.

Transformers At IDW

For those less familiar with comics, IDW is a third party comics company that mostly focuses on liscened comics, with highlights being reprinting a bunch of european Duck and Mouse Comics, being the current home of Sonic the Hedgehog, and biggest of all, being the primary home of Hasbros properties: Dungeons and Dragons, My Little Pony, GI Joe and many many more (Including everyone's faviorite Space Knight Rom) got comics here and naturally Transformers was one of the first. And to really get this right, they decided to launch a whole new continuity under transformers legend Simon Furman, who took over for the marvel comic and has written tons of transformers since.

And because I wanted to be throughly prepared for the first time I attempted reviewing this run and to know where things had been I read all of Furman's run and the runs after it to have a good sense of history. Here's an archival photo of me after that experince

Yeah I'm not one to take the side door so i'll come right up front and knock: most of the comics in this continuity before More Than Meets The Eye are mediocre at best and downright awful to sit through at worst. While i'm glad I read them all to have proper context for these reviews, i'm also glad I NEVER have to touch these things again.

Starting with Furman's run which took the idea of "robots in disguise" dead seriously. And some of the ideas are good: having the autobots actualyl use their disgusiese more, a shadowy third party in the war that runs out of a company. They even cleverly redo the headmasters, an old toy gimmick that had aliens pilot transformers, by having them be knockoff transformers needing a pilot to work. There were really solid ideas and reworks of various gimmicky toylines. There's also a variety of good one off stories in the one shots, as furman used Spotlight issues (literally called that) to shed a light on other things going on and expand the story past the main minis.

The problem is that while there were good specks of story here and there, in paticular the series made me a fan of blaster, six shot and has an excellent version of hot rod, if not as good as what more than meets the eye would later do but we'll get tot that, the main story is REALLY boring and dry. The characters don't really have a lot of personality , even my boy starscream, the story moves at a very slugish pace and there's just no levity. I'm not expecting it to be joke o clock but I need more to really keep me going. Ther'es just not a lot here to latch onto or really care about. The ideas are there but the end result wore me out by the end.

Sadly things didn't improve all that much with the next era, All Hail Megatron, a 16 issue maxiseries by Shane Mcarthy that was IDW's first attempt at a soft reboot of this continuity. It would be FAR from the last. I went into this one hopeful despite it having a mixed reception, as the premise is badass and one any transformers fan can get behind: After the autobots decided to leave earth unguarded to deal with another crisis at the end of the last series

Megatron takes the opportunity to conquer earth, and uses a reluctant traitor in the autobots to stage attacks on every other autobot garrison in the galaxy, stranding our heroes and having him have won. Or in simplist most bonechilling turns, Megatron WINS.

So once again we have a good concept: Megatron won, our heroes are left trying to find SOME WAY to turn the tide, and earth is left at his mercy. It should be a no brainer.

The first issue was executive meddling: Apparently Hasbro didn't want McCarthy to show too much of the actual destruction and nightmare that would enuse from their takeover.

So shockingly, numbing the sheer terror and nightmare that ensues when a bunch of technicolor evil robots get to run rampant on the world without anyone to stop them , made the story fall flat. We see some of what they do but without any real damage or stakes it just dosen't have weight.

The next issue is the humans. Most aren't focused on enough with only one, Andy Reid, is really getting what the book should have focused on: normal people stuck in the crossfire when evil wins. It's not a bad concept but with the fangs removed we only get to see it from two perspectives. And one of them.. is Spike Witwicky

Spike is every action hero cliche poured into an action figure mold for an off brand gi joe that somehow became a real boy. Spike is a swaggering dipshit who thinks he's the greatest and the narrative agrees because Spike has snipers trained on it's family and if he dosen't call them every four hours they fire. Having one resourceful hero against the decpticons isn't a bad idea but having this guy be at the front yeesh. And somehow he only gets WORSE with each series.

The other problem is our heroes, spend most of their desperate situation... bickering with one another. I get why: one of them betrayed the others, hope is low, and optimus may be dead. It isn't till Hot Rod shows up with his gaggle of intresting autobots that the story gets some life. I don't mind the autobots having to make their way back or be out of the main action on earth, that's kind of the point. I don't mind it being grim. What I do mind is it taking so long for a lot to happen, and for things to really kick into gear. I'm suprised just how tiresome robots bickering gets but here we are.

Not only that the decpticons themselves are just kinda there.. there's a good idea of Megatron pondering what he does now he's actually won, but it goes nowhere. And that's really the series in a nutshell: it has some great ideas it ocasionally captalizes on but ultimately goes nowhere.

The one bright spot is a tie in mini centered around a character introduced in this series. A character a lot of people really diddn't like at the time: Drift. And I see why: In All Hail Megatron he gets a lot of focus. Problem is Drift is an entirely NEW character Hasbro apparently crammed down fans throats. As usual the homer simpson approach to promoting a character failed.

His mini though was one of those bright spots I mentioned; A decently intresting tail about a city that keeps itself out of the war that finds itself hope to one of the worst of the decepticon army and how it changes the future Drift into a better person. There is a decent amount of standard "we can't interfere because we're self righteous morons who will inevietibly be punished for our hubris" stuff, but Drift himself is engaging and the story does challenge that sort of viewpoint. Also said city and society will be important later as Drift is a main characte rin MTMTE , which helped smooth out the edges and made him into a fan faviorite.

So we're onto phase 3, the ongoing book Transformers by Mike Costa. Mike Costa is a good writer otherwise, what i've read of his x-men run being a fun paced action thrill ride. But this book?

Out of the three main phases before the big relaunch here, this is the one people seem to hate most. And it. Is. JUSTIFIED. The premise is the autobots are on earth, trying to repair the damage done but being hated by the US Goverment and seen as no better than the decpticons. Optimus decides he has to go fuck off to space because that worked out so well last time, and leaves it with bumblebee, which leads to shoddy leadership, conflicts with paper thin analogues for foreign countries, and a lot of humans being stupid and not getting that as incompitent as they are the autobots are the good guy and Hot Rod being an impulsive idiot and trusting a guy literally named Swindle because the constructicons came off as the better option compared to the autobots.

It's a murky mess of plotlines and bad decisions that i've mostly blocked out for my own sanity and won't spend forever recapping here. Ya'll REALLY don't deserve that headache.

Once again a mini series was the ray of light here. Last Stand of the Wreckers. Roberts contributed to the story while the writing and art for it were by Nick Roche, a great artist who contributed to the first arc of MTMTE before the stress of doing a monthly got to him. It's a wonderfully gritty tale that succeeds where the other attempts at being darker failed, following the rough and tumble Wreckers, essentailly the X-Force of the Autbots, as they go on a suicide mission to a prison that's been taken over by the Decepticons, lead among them Overlord, a new character and a throughly terrifying villian that keeps slauthering people and doing terrible things so daddy megatron will notice him at last. It's tense, sad and throughly great nad worth checking out. And like Drift and the Circle of Light, Overlord will also be important later. Last Stand is what helped James put his foot in the door.

What solidified things though was Chaos Theory. I plan to cover this series indepedently when we get to the shadowplay arc, as it's sort of a prequel to that and lays the groundwork for the various trips to past cybertron the series takes. It takes place before the war as tensions bubble and a future member of the MTEMTE cast tries to murder megatron in his cell. It's great, and has a great moment with Megatron admitting his villiany that will be mentioned later in MTMTE.

So shortly after that Chaos happened, a messy finale. To make a long story short, Galvatron, who in this continuity is not the same as megatron, raised an army of zombies called sweeps to raze cybertrona nd later merged with something to become an outer god. Megatron one upped him, things sure did happen, and Roberts helped write the script. The important things are that Cyclonus, Galvatron's old buddy who aided him till he realized he be crazy, turned against his friend nad saved Hot Rod's life, Cybertron was radically transformed into a primal state, and Megatron was defeated.

As a result we get what would kick off the next era of IDW Transformers, an attempt to right the ship by doing something radically diffrent: The war the Autobots waged against the evil forces of the Decpticons.. was over. The Decipticons surrendered. The question was.. what now? What do you do next when you've spent CENTURIES fighting a war? Oceans rise, empires fall but it's much harder when it's on your call.

So that's where this era kicked off with the Death of Optimus Prime. I opted to jump into the series instead of this as while not a terrible start at all, it's where I came in as this issue is in the first MTMTE trade, it's more of a pilot for the sister series Robots in Disguise. See instead of having a mini series or just one ongoing, this era had two with the split coming in said one shot.

Death of Optimus Prime follows the title character as he finds despite the war being over.. things aren't great. Like at all> The New Reborn Cybertron is having a temper tantrum and causing earthquakes, disasters and what not with most of it REALLY not being safe and only Iacon, which somehow surivived everything, standing. Not only that most of the cybertronians who opted out of the war or abandoned it have returned.. and blame the autobots for everything that happened. The NAILS, as their dresrively called should have a point, that they didn't want any part of this war. It is perfectly valid to object to a war especailly when it's senseless. In this case thoguh it's sorta like objecting to the allies during world war II: Megatron was not going to stop until he had won and would kill anything non cybertronian.

With Optimus unable to repair things due to the matrix of leadership having split right in half like a kit kat bar, our heroes end up divided on the issue after a map is found inside, leading to the mythical Knights of Cybertron, a group that allegedlys founded a Cyber Utopia: Bumblebee wants to stay on Cybertron and try to set up a goverment despite not being wanted. Hot Rod wants to fuck off into space to go find the knights, hoping they have a way to heal the planet, as well as a way to honor their culture instead of buldozing it. Optimus.. gives them both halves like a parent who just wants his kids to stop fighting and plans to leave, doing so to settle things down since he's the face of war and taking his old name of Orion Pax back.

So the series split into two: Robots in Disguise follows Bumlbee as he tries to make a go of things nad fails as the NAILS won't shut up and Starscream spins circles around him, playing the NAILS well while being awesome because well. he's starscream. He also gets a crown eventually which is wonderful. As you can tell i'm not a big fan of RiD,. RiD is a lot of arguging, people being stupid, and the sympathetic characters being sidelined. It's also a LOT of Prowl who we'll get into in a moment but for now is best summed up as

It gets better in Season 2, with Optimus joining the cast, along with Cosmos a friendly UFO and Sky Linx, whose a giant space dragon thing that's also a space shuttle, as well as Thundercracker and his kitty. But like so many before it's good ideas, bad execution and overall no matter how many times I tried I just couldn't get into John Barbers run. A third mainline book, Windblade (Which later became Till All Are One), was MUCH better and I truly recommend it, with it's writer not only helping fix the verses shaky reputation with women robots (Arcee became one after being born a male transformer via horrifying experiments and became angsty as a result> I shodulnlt' ahve to explain to you why this is bad but someone shoudl've to Simon Furman, who then got into a fight with Windblade's writer over it despite her being objectively right> Their cool now but still.. jesus man) , having fun intrigue and of course my boy starscream in a tiny crown.

So yeah as you can see the IDWverse was a bit shaky, but it had it's bright spots and it's sad it's coming to an end, with it's second reboot having ended after also failing fairly hard and Image now having the rights via it's Skybound imprint. But for all ti's faults, it gave us some bright lights.. and no light was brighter, better, or weirder than the lost one. So with all this exposition handled.. we can finally set off

The Issue Finally

I may comment on the covers on and off, we'll see, and i'll be sticking mainly to the main covers, as there's just so many dang variants and this review is long enough as is, I can't imagine what the others, even withotu the idw exposition, weill be like. This cover is near and dear to my heart, and i'm fully biased on that as it's an homage to one of my faviorite covers of all time that kicked off one of my faviorite runs of all time.

Given the runs are both semi-sitcom (if less so in MTMTE's case) takes on classic properties, it fits like a glove and it won't be the last time we get an homage to this cover as we get two more echoing it: One for season 2 and one.. that I won't spoil because it's a MASSIVE spoiler for the final arc of season 2.

The issue opens with Rodimus giving one hell of a speech to the people of cybertron. It's one of my faviorite scenes in the entire run, and for good reason setting the tone of wonder and exploration that goes in hand with the heart, hyjinks and tragedy of this run.

While he's obviously selling a big epic quest with tons of stakes, what he says there.. and what he says after really underlines the true meaning of the quest

"You Deserve To See The Universe Without A Gun in your hand"

It's a chance for once to enjoy the universe. Even if there's a big, booming underlying goal to everything Rodimus is doing, both the one he says, and the one for his own drive and ego we'll get to shortly, the real appeal to most of these bots watching.. is a chance to start over. No wars waged to destroy the evil war of the decpticons. Just a noble goal, a chance to see the universe, and all the time in the world to do it. It appeals to one of the purest and most loved aspects of sci-fi, what made Star Trek so beloved and what's made works since, from Star Trek's own newest series Brave New Worlds to spirtual spinoff the Orville: The love of exploration, of going out into the world and finding yourself or something new. The wonder of this kind of thing. The fun of setting off into the world and seeing what happens. MTMTE mixes Star Trek's wonder and scope with a bit of Firefly's taking a bunch of scraps from a war and seeing what they do next, and is helpfully not created by a guy who sucks dirty ass in thunderstorms, so that's nice.

Speaking of sucks dirty ass in thunderstorms, watching this along with cybertron is Prowl

Prowl is an overly paranoid, overly fascist police officer who feels the war isn't ended. He also sucks and I hate him. He's with Wheeljack who dosen't suck and in fact has a realy cool helmety face i've always loved. Wheeljack predicts a max exodus as let's face it, who dosen't want to fly up into space in a giant ship and explore the stars. Prowl however thinks it'll be a non event and that his calculations show barely anyone leaving

Yup as usual Prowl is wrong about people, what's going on in the world and the general concept of things, and the next day, the day most of the issue takes place, a GIANT crowd is lined up to board the lost light. IT's almost as if the guy who thinks the war still isn't over can't grasp that people no longer want to fight it and just want to get on with their lives.

We'll resume the "Prowl Sucks and I Hates Him" hour in a moment as we transfer from one of the worst versions of a G1 Autobot to one of the best, as Ratchet is overseeing a NAIL protester who transformed himself to death. While i'll have to admit I hadn't seen really ANY of G1 going into this comic, or into this retrospective , Ratchet already had a place in my heart thanks to transformers animated and the fact he's about the same here, a crotchety old legend who ends up with a bunch of younger less prestigious weirdos for his own reasons, was a big up.

Ratchet admits he could've saved the guy had his hands not been shaky. We also get one of the best terms in all of transfomers

It really highlights roberts approach to the franchise: unlike other works in this verse, Roberts isn't afraid to embrace how silly things are. He got away not only with naming something rigormorphis.. but having the dead body transform wtih the old cartoon sound effects. Yet at the same time it underlines how he treats things: he's not afraid to fully embrace the silliness of the franchise or crack jokes, it's what keeps this work so great.. but he also does everything with a purpose. Rigor Morphis, while darkly hilarious.. is also a geninely intresting concept that fits perfectly with the world. Roberts is dedicated to geninely building up how Cybertronians function, their culture and their unverse and taking it seriously enough to still work, but with enough good humor and sense that this is a franchise built upon selling toys, comics, tv shows and other merchandise to not take himself TOO seriously. It's an approach I hope future shows including the upcoming at the time of this review Earthspark take to heart.

Naturally given he has focus, Ratchet is joining the ship which bumblebee takes with all the grace and civlity of a 12 year old. LEADER OF ALL OF CYBERTRON FOLKS. He needs him here, but Ratchet makes a valid argument why he wants to leave: he's served every prime since Nominus and thus has been at this for a LONG time, and knows his number will be up eventually. Since Rodimus has promised to pick up any strays they find on the way who were lost since not EVERYONE from the war has been found just yet, Ratchet sees it as the perfect opportunity to find and train a replacement, his swan song. It again underlines a common theme with the Lost Lighters and this work as a whole: It's not the journey it's the destination. As we'll see most people join not for the knights of cybertron quest, but simply to find something else. For Ratchet it's a chance to pass his legacy on and make sure his knowledge and skills live on long after what time he has left is gone.

We next meet Cyclonous, who as I said was part of the whole Galvatron mess. He's an ancient warrior, a bot out of time who awoke to find a cybertron he didn't like and that now it's only gotten worse with the primal reversion, the gleaming cities he remembers from Cybertron's golden age now replaced with a nightmarish landscape. Why he's leaving is obvious: On a Cybertron that throws him in with the Decepticons depsite not really being one and that is unrecognizable, what reason has he to stay? He finds signs of life in a cave though that seem familiar and heads to check them out.

We next get more prowl

And this is where he REALLY shows his ass.. or whatever transfomers have that serves as an ass. Point is he's dressing down his old partner in both senses of the word Chromedome for leaving.

Yeah as we'll find out a few issues from now said "talent" is mnemosurgery: Chromedome can break into a bots mind for information, which was used as an interregation tool both pre-war as a cop and during the war as Spec Ops. It's also a talent Chromedome BLATANTLY dosen't want to use again.

He's had to do TERRIBLE things for the war and like most soldiers, especially those suffering from Trauma which Domey canocially does, he's carried enough of the war with him. He's earned a right to live his life without having to keep doing the things that haunt him. This is all recorded by Chromedome's current Conjux Endura, Rewind whose pointedly Prowl's oppisite: he geninely supports Chromedome wanting to get away from what he used to be and heal into what he CAN be, he's a non combatant having as we lean a memory stick for an alt mode, and he's calm and gentle to Prowl raving like a paranoid luantic.. which dosen't remotely let up after

Yeah the table flipping apparently became so memetic it got turned into a running gag as well as canocially just something he does a lot. Bless you James

So as he radios some agents on board the LL to load some cargo, which shockingly is not remotely a good thing and we'll get to much later in the series what that cargo actually is, we can get into why I hate Prowl so much.

Prowl is a narcist,and a facist, the latter terms can be thrown around haphazzardly, so I am treading carefully.. but it applies and is fully necessary here. Prowl dosne't care for anyone else on an emotoinal level, only what they can do for him, only seems to think he's right even undermining OPTIMUS FUCKING PRIME later in the verse, and being blatnatly descrimtory to the nails and decipticoons. I'm not saying either group has issues: The Deciptcons were the bad guys and while some geninely want to reform or not be mistreated, many are just as bad as ever, and the NAILS, while having some valid points, have a majority of them screeching said points. Prowl cares for nothing and nobody except his own warped version of right and wrong that involves tourture, no real cybertronian rights, and Prowl being judge jury and executioner. He's everything wrong with policing wrapped into one character. He dosen't want the war to end because of one sad simple truth: he's obsolete without it. He's the kind of soldier, the kind of cop, the kind of person who fights not because it's the right thing to do, not because there's no better option, not like any of his commrades.. but because he ENJOYS it. He enjoys killing, tourtruing and doing this and framing it all as the greater good when really it's just him wanting to be the hero because without the trappings of war, he's just a bully who refuses to move on like everyone else is trying to do. It dosen't help that as far as I can tell he SURIVIVES the entire run of this universe.

I just.. needed to get my rage out NOW so I can move on and focus on the characters I actually like. Speaking of which next we meet Tailgate, a tiny transformer whose suffering from a bad case of no legs, having fallen down the hole six million years ago and preparing to blow some shit up to escape.

We next meet Whirl. Whirl is someone with severe issues, both with impulse controls and mentlaly a former wrecker fired for reasons that'll be revealed dramatically later who is tryign to talk out his issues.. to a pile of dead sweeps, clones of Scourge, another friend of Cyclonuses.. and why he comes in. Naturally Whirl's first instinct on being found in a room full of sorta corpses is to try and murder the witness.

We then get a bunch of intros, starting with Red Alert, the ships mildly paranoid and gruff head of security who in turn lets three new additions to our main cast onto the ship: First up is Brainstorm, a mad scientests mad scientest who has a neat look and a briefcase that for some reason Rodimus is letting him just take on board without remotely checking which can't posisbly backfire

That Chekov's gun got a WHILE before it fires off though so onto our next crewmember: Swerve!

Swerve is a small, mouthy little autobot who can't seem to shut up. So naturally he's one of my faviorites as just how long this review is this far in should tell you I also cannot shut up. So I relate to him, and parts of his character that come up later, heavily.

Next we have Rung, a brand new character.. though it can be hard to tell. As you can probably see at this point, while James isn't immune to using more prominent autobots (Hot Rod, Ultra Magnus, Ratchet, Cyclonus), he's also fond of taking characters who mostly existed just to sell more toys and really fleshing them out. IT's why many of these characters got new toys and Swerve and Tailgate in paticular were part of Walmart's g1 risues.. still haven't been able to get my hands on those or any of the lost light crew aside from Megatron. And yes Megatron joins the crew in season 2. We'll get to that in a year or so, but yes that actually happens. And it is as awesome as it sounds.

But Rung is brand new, a psyctrist whose alt mode is unknown. That as you've probably guessed by now is also a plot point. He collects models of ships and is an intresting addition that shows Optimus' compassion: While rung was a psychatrist pre-war too, as we'll see in a flashback arc later, the fact Optimus brought one in despite having no combat value shows why he's well Optimus. At least for now> This is pre his "I'm going to conquer earth for the greater good!' phase> Which also happened and isn't as awesome as it sounds. Rung ends up getting knocked over by Cyclonus and Whirl.

Before we get to them though we check back with our main trio. And it's here i'd like to get into how I found this book. See I get most of my comics digtially and through Comixology, a spinoff of amazon that has large amounts of comics digtially at lower prices than retail and that's before we get into the sheer amount of sales. It's more cost effective for me than print so i've been using it for some time now. And if that weren't enough they have a netflix-style subscripton service, comixlolgy unlimited which for 6 bucks a month gives you an ungodly amount of access to tons upon tons of comics. If you want to check out idw's transformers before the lsiecne dries up, this is the best way as pretty much everything from it is on there by now

So when they added the first seasons of RiD and MTMTE I was curious, not only because LIndsay Ellis had mentioned this continuity had gay robots but because both sounded intresting. It was simply a matter of which to read first.. and RiD won for fairly simplye and rediculous reasons: I've always deeply liked hot rod and a comic seemingly starring him seemed great. The fact it ended up ticking a LOT of storyteling boxes I like was icing on an already great cake

As for why the first is the dumbest: he looks dope. I still want SOME non-bay version of him on my shelf. The less dumb reason is that after watching the bay movie as a teen and enjoying it, I hopped on my computer when I got home and desperate for more cool robots, found transformers the movie. It remains one of my favoirite pieces of the franchise and a film I intend to cover at some point as I fucking love it. Keep in mind I went in blind so I didn't know the various dead bodies were actual characters, nor that a lot of the new cast came out of nowhere, but even knowing that now I still have an attachment to the season 3 cast. Not season 3 itself as I haven't watched it and i'm clearly better off that way from what i've seen via Phelous, but thed characters had great design, were fun to watch, and were part of a film I loved> The film's also why I love Grimlock so damn much, as should we all. I have one but I want more because you can neve rhave enough talking robot dinosaurs. Same with STARSCREAM, who I do need a figure of, who is glorious as always.

So having an attachment ot Hot Rod and Ultra Mags, not so much Cyclonus but this comic made me love him so hey, it was an easy sell. And i'm glad I did as this is easily the best version of him i've encountered: James took a character that was hot headed and impulsive and had made some stupid decisions, and decided to lean into it. As such Rodimus is impulsive, egotistical, and when we see it is bragging about hwo many crew he's got like a ten year old who just got a cooler transformer than his most hated friend. He's also endearing: it's clear this quest means a lot to him, he cares about his crew and while he may be an ipulsive hammy manchild, he's a cool one. He's basically james t kirk if he were less horny and more hopped on skittles.

With him are two contrasts: Drift whose been made into a new agey samurai who constantly tries to stay peppy and Ultra Magnus, who in this continuity is a giant stickler to the rules who vies wearing your autobadge at an angle as a high crime, isn't fond of his new crew, and is the defention of hardass. The two ballance him out with Drift being the encouragment Rodimus needs and a reminder of the spirftual part of the journey and Ultra Magnus being the hard nosed voice of reason our hero needs.. while also having such a stick up his whatever a transformer has that substitues for an ass that he's a comedic foil. Rodders and Mags are bascially Jake Peralta and Captain Holt without the father son angle, with drift just kinda there, but still not half bad.

So back at the fight Cyclonus shows his character as he dosen't WANT to do this, Swerve is just trying to you know murder him. Meanwhlie Tailgate has been passing out on nad off for the last 6 millon years and prepares to finally ignite the energon.

As if this wasn't enough, the unambgiously gay duo and Ratchet are heading for the ship, with the happy couple bickering a tad as Chromedome tends to bring up the fact his boyfriends alt mode isn't a vehicle. Thei rinterrupted by the fight, with Swerve having one and preparing to execute cyclonus and blaming him for his own issues.. btu Ratchet isn't remotely fooled, figuring Cyclonus might of done something but can't talk Swerve down. Thakfully a giant energon explosion can and our heros decide to load the two on the ship and let Rodimus sort it out, along with Tailgate who shows up talking about a ship and assuming it's their ship bring him along for repairs. Rewind plans to catch up.. after buying some mysterious but clearly shady discs from Swindle.

Thus we come to our ending. Rodimus prepares to take off and refuses to take a call from Bumblebee and we get some great comedic timing

Shockingly Prowl ISN'T to blame but we'll get to that next issue. The important thing is that cybertron thinks everyone is dead for now.. and blames Prowl because I would too if I didnt know they sere still alive. Hell if I didn't know why the engine malfunctoned i'd still think it was an ATTEMPT to kill them

But it isn't, they simply jumped with their quantum engines (their verision of lightspeed) too soon, so as a result they got shot halfway around the galaxy , the ships damaged and many of the crew go flying out it onto a planet, with Rodimus planning to retrive them. We end the main story on rodimus getting some.. less than stellar news when he sees what he thinks is a meteor shower

The issue itself ends on a message from the future... with a bunch of foreshadowing of what's to come...

Where this is from.. well that's for season 2 to settle as is everything else, but it's amazing just how far in advanced Roberts had this planned out as where it comes from was always intended. As for where.. you'll just have to stay on the ship won't you? One last bit of buisness before we depart though

A Most Precious Soundtrack

So one notable thing about the series is it has a soundtrack, with James Roberts, much like fellow comics mastermind Kireon Gilleon, picking out some tracks for each issue, with a few exceptions, as well as a theme song for each season. So having not listened along in the past as I tend to binge read a lot of the time, I thought it'd be fun to give these songs a listen and see what sticks out, what I think, how it fits the issue etc. I'll dot the character themes in with these early issues, but for now i'll just be focusing on the theme for the season and the two tracks for this issue. I'd also like to thank wadapan over at the transformers community wiki who saved this sountrack for us all , which is what I found via google. Let's begin.

Season 1 Theme/Series Theme: Lost Coastlines- Okkervil River

An upbeat indie song about the band itself struggling to hold it together, using the metaphor about a two sailors going into unknown territory, which fits the comics themes of self doubt, exploration and strife as well as it's tone, upbeat yet full of angst, adventure and longing under the service. I'll likely have this one on repeat post review.

Across the Universe- Fiona Apple

This one I had sought out before for reasons that escape me now. The song itself is a fairly beautiful, very 90's cover. I still prefer the original and version from the movie Across the Universe (Another one for the massive pile of "Stuff I want to review at some point). It's not bad and at first I wasn't sure how much it fit.. but "nothings going to change my world" actually fits the story really well: Our heroes are setting out and get nothings going to change their world. A bit more literal than obviously intended, but still a nice little pun.

Fun fact, the image for this on youtube and likely other services is from the Plesantville soundtrack, a movie I do want to see at some point and sounds fairly good about two teens ending up in a black and white sitcom. But the cover is uh.. it's a lot folks.

Like I know a gimmick of the film is characters going into color but... why does someone set a tree on fire. Why are they making out in front of it. Are these characters even in the movie? I have all the questoins about plesantville, this soundtrack and its marketing team and none of the time to answer them.

Absent Friends- The Divine Comedy

Now this one fits way better. It fits the hustle and bustle, the idea these characters are leaving and may never come back (and with the issue ending explosion it's thought they won't). I really like the western tone of this, it's really neat and I may have to check this band out more. Cool stuff

So with that we're finally finished. This review was a lot and a lot of fun and next month we see who lived, who died and meet Swerve. So till next time thanks for reading, follow for more and consider joining my pateron yourselves. Later days!

#hot rod #transformers #more than meets the eye #idw #ultra magnus #swerve #drift #tailgate #cyclonus #red alert #rung #james roberts #comics #animatoin #robots #lbgtq+

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