Dracoplot Cut Content

This is going to be presented in the order that I remember it with as many details as I can remember.

These are characters who have been considered for ZFRP by me at some point by cut for a potential variety of reasons.

~

Name: Viridi

Source: Kid Icarus Uprising

Season: 5, 6

Viridi was considered as part of Deceptiplot. Instead of coming to Earth and Columbia, the Decepticons would have gone either to Sky World, the setting of Kid Icarus Uprising, or a newly-created planet that Viridi was trying to use as basically a giant Bonsai tree, trimming and pruning it for relaxation. She would've gone to Earth to find Pit and/or Pittoo (Dirk) to get one of them to kick the robots off the planet for her.

A Season 6 appearance was considered with a similar plot, except against the Dark Axis (more on them later) instead of Decepticons.

I'd asked SteelKomodo if it'd be alright to use her, but if I remember correctly he indicated a possible desire to use her himself so I cut out the Viridi angle from Deceptiplot, had the 'Cons go to Columbia instead, and Parsee ended up dealing with them.

Name: Koakuma

Source: Touhou

Season: 6

Koakuma's inclusion in my roster was inspired by the way Parsee was introduced: I was making a character for a Pathfinder game and she happened to be the closest image to what I had in mind for my new character...

ZELDOTEN RENSTIM.

...but then I remembered that, although it was a brief appearance, Harpy had already RP'd as her and, despite assurances that it'd be alright, I decided to drop her.

She would have left the Scarlet Devil Mansion due to frustration with being saddled with both Sakuya's duties and Patchouli's duties while everyone but here got to leave the house to have fun at the King of Beasts. She would've gone back at the end of each day, but she would've eagerly thrown herself at adventures.

And then I brought Zeldoten in with an original character image I'd found on Danbooru.

~

Yes, I started this post off with two characters I ended up not RPing because I didn't want to step on any toes. This was solely my decision and not because anyone said "No, don't." I started with them because they're who I remembered first. The order is not intended as commentary of any other kind.

~

Name: The Dark Axis (as represented by Zapper Zaku)

Source: SD Gundam Force

Season: 5, 6, 7

To begin with, this idea hasn't ENTIRELY been absent: the Zakos from my voting gimmicks in Seasons 4 and 6 were part of this group.

What hasn't appeared is everything else: Zapper Zaku, his allies Grappler Gouf and Destroyer Dom, the horde of Zakos, or anything else. They would have had a plot revolving around them in which they begin an invasion of Earth, starting small by using Bagu Bagu, tiny robots based off the Bigro mobile armor, to begin destroying organic life on the planet, eventually leading to a showdown with their leader, Commander Sazabi. I would've drawn mainly from Season 1 of the SD Gundam Force series, saving Season 2 for future seasons of RP.

I don't remember exactly what else would have happened in their Season 5 appearances, but if they'd been around for Season 6 they would have come into conflict with Viridi (mentioned above), though their first "arc" would've been the previously mentioned Earth invasion. Cutting this plot turned out to be a good idea, because Dracoplot ended up taking most of my available time and Deceptiplot, another plot about evil robot invaders, took up the rest. This plot would've featured Nu Alex in some way since he's a Gundam.

Although Season 7 hasn't occurred, they're already cut content. I briefly considered having them appear again, but as I'm trying to focus on either short miniplots or just one bigger plot, there's already not enough time to develop them as I'd want.

Name: Tengus

Source: OCs/Pathfinder characters

Season: 5

I briefly considered bringing in my Pathfinder Society characters into ZFRP. They would've been Kobber (a sorcerer named for the Kobbers), Comer El-Cuervo (a Bard), Calgon (a Druid) and Allison (his companion), and Wren Savage (a wrestling monk). They would've been friendly adversaries, causing trouble for some reason. I don't remember actually having a purpose for them and the setting was shifting away from the Fantasy setting they would've been more appropriate for.

Name: Bagon

Source: Pokemon

Season: 5

As a dragon-type Pokemon, he was briefly considered for Sealander Squad. He was cut because the Sealanders already had more than six Pokemon.

Then I added Alakawhat, Kyurem, and Arbok anyway. Go figure.

Name: Opal

Source: OC

Season: 5, 6

Not completely cut - she is briefly mentioned by Draco-Chazor during Dracoplot in Season 6. A daughter of Draco-Chazor, she would've come to Las Vegas with her brother Calvin, who appeared in Season 1 as a baby dragon, to establish herself as a baker with the gimmick of dragon fire-baked goods. Her main goal would've been to eventually challenge Celestia to a bake-off in order to avenge Draco-Chazor's loss to Sarah ages ago. Might have tried going on some plots, but mainly would've been around to shove baked goods at people.

Name: Skullmageddon

Source: Double Dragon Neon

Season: 6, 7

My Secret Fiter for the Big Bar Brawl 6. I told myself that if he made it in, he'd stick around for the rest of the season complaining and making bone puns. Maybe he'd try and join the Lightning Bolt Society. He didn't make it in though, so he won't be appearing under my banner.

Kamen Rider Hime Vol. 2

After a cult following somehow cropped up, the writer of Kamen Rider Hime was convinced to get the right to the series back and has self-published Volume 2 in an all-digital format. Somebody is equally convinced this is a bad idea, but is keeping shut.

~

Volume 2 begins in a small convenience store in the middle of the city and its blond-haired, green-eyed clerk, Parsee. Wearing a smart vest, she eagerly sits there trying not to stare at the customers who walk around the store, be bored, or fall asleep. She takes a moment to clean up something behind the counter, silently complaining about how boring her job is when someone enters: her best friend Yuugi (a short brunette for some reason) and Yuugi's friend Suika. The two wave hello and run to the back, leaving Parsee to wonder if they're just here on a beer run.

They are.

Two more customers enter, the Shine Maidens, and they ask for directions to a local landmark, the Reiuji Nuclear Power Plant. The ever-helpful Parsee jots down a note while Raymu wants a coffee. The Shine Maidens have no money though so Raymu blasts another customer and takes money from them. They leave after giving an incredulous Parsee money for the drink.

Parsee wonders about them, finding something odd about the pair. Not blasting a customer; people here did that frequently. No, what was really odd was...how round their ears were. She gasps as she realizes the problem: humans! In Bridge City!

Someone ought to do something about that.

But not her.

Parsee begins sweeping the floor, leaves for a moment, and then returns as Kamen Rider Hime rides past outside on Envy Driver, her motorcycle.

The two Shine Maidens are slowly causing havoc as Raymu gets annoyed easily walking through the city. Sunae makes a joke about buying myTunes and heXBOX cards as they zap Youkai passerby. Eventually they reach the power plant, which looks like a giant nest with an egg in it.

The two Shine Maidens raise their palms and fire some kind of beam, but Kamen Rider Hime arrives and blocks the shot with her FIST.

She fans her scorched hand and curses. Then she looks at the two and asks why they're trying to destroy a nuclear power plant. Sunae replies with a brief speech about environmentalism and how the power plant is bad for nature.

Kamen Rider Hime counters by saying destroying the power plant will irradiate Bridge City.

Raymu answers by saying they only care about the surface environment and starts a fight.

Kamen Rider Hime manages to go toe-to-toe with Raymu, trading blows like it's nothing, but then Sunae joins in and hits the Rider in the kidneys with a mystic staff. It's a dicey fight with two managing to overpower one until Hime manages to slug them both in the gut, knocking them back long enough to use another special attack, the Cedar Ashes attack which causes a pillar of flower danmaku to burst from the ground.

The Shine Maidens fall to the ground. Raymu stands up, sighs, and picks up Sunae to leave. With a shrug, Kamen Rider Hime lets them go and drives back to the convenience store. Aside from reliable clerk Parsee, the store is empty. The Rider changes back into Parsee, asks how the store was, and absorbs the Parsee behind the counter with a wink before she starts cleaning the floor.

Just in time for a handsome, dark-haired stranger with antennae to enter.

~

The last page of this volume is a 4-koma comic: http://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/2166455?pool_id=10027

Ticker Quote Archive 2016

Mostly complete archive of RP ticker quotes for 2016.

~

"INITIALIZING POINT AND LAUGH.EXE. HA. HA. HA. HA."

gatorade (red)

No matter where she lived after the season, or what she did, she knew nowhere would let her have her own petting zoo.

"Caw! CAAAAW!... Hello. Who are you?"

"Stay with me, Cookie Monster."

"Oh, god, Alternate Me is Sumireko."

“But... but I love the Trans-Siberian Orchestra!”

Save perhaps, for a very very quiet sucking noise.

"And that's not all! Meet the murder weapon!"

"Yer all fukkin' shite!"

"Is the vice president A DRAGON?!"

The Mellow Yellow vending machine she was unburdening herself to sat there and did nothing.

"Hey! I'm having a nice moment with my belle here, goldenrod!" "I don't care."

He was a Blood Angel.

"fuck it, cowboy time."

"I-I can't eat anything made by a MURDERER!"

"Any you'd like to share? Greasy places, I mean?"

"Those darn Waddle Dees are in my way! The day cannot save them- and we own the Night!"

"The worst part is, I still don't know if I like candy corn or not!"

And then cake. Yay, cake!

And sheep shearing. And cobweb gathering. And weaving and weaving and weaving...

"I can at least make every effort to be ... not forty three is blackbirds on a shelf looking into seven roads by seven and one behind."

Ignore the OHOHOHOHOHOHOing in the hallways. And the flower petals.

You may think I'm pandering to the audience, but nothing could be further from the truth.

"Are there nukes in here?"

A tiny ship is peirced by lasers and falls into a potted plant.

She smashes through and into the floor. It was a hologram.

BECAUSE YOU'RE GARBAGE!

"W-w-wagh"

"Hey! I said, 'you're safe at last!' Get back here!"

"?DISNEY'S HALLOWEEN TREAT?, I CHOOSE YOU!"

"You'reanadultYou'reanadultYou'reanadultYou'reanadultYou'reanadult..."

"...SPAAAAACE HEROOOOOOOES SOLVING PROBLEMS WITHOUT KILLING ANYONNNNNNE ALSO NO TORTURE"

"touching my sister caused him to burst into flames."

"those are your legs, right, you're not borrowing them?"

But it's five dollars from a middle schooler!

"FREE JACKSON HOWARD! FREE JACKSON HOWARD! GET YOUR FREE JACKSON HOWARD HERE!"

"I would explain, but I missed my falling lesson this morning!"

"THE HUMANE SOCIETY ALLOWED ME A SPECIAL AUDIENCE TO PLAY WITH THE TINY PUPPIES! WHY HAVE YOU INTERRUPTED THIS IMPORTANT TASK?"

"i am my own original character, jingle the puss puss"

cocoa nut juice

special guest Appule

Queen Parsee, ruler of Dronetopia, pulls up in her chariot.

"Can you make it fancy and wrap it in some Christmas lights?"

"Meh Burger's made me forget there are words for things having taste!"

"I HAVE FOUND THE NEXT GENERATION THING."

All Kappas are friendly, adorable, and helpful

"That woman was wearing actual peaches."

"I have acquired the oyster, and with it, the world has opened up to me."

“I... but... that... wh...”

"I'm not surprised that the drug robots made it."

"Don't you have anything better to do than discuss your work with stuffed animals?"

"Who am I? What am I? Am I me? Who's me? What's me?"

"HE'S AN EGG"

he stomps on a tile that opens the DLC Outerworld access.

Fighting all your old friends can't be that different, right?

"Store-bought? I'm not THAT low on cash."

"For we are here to destroy-" "The world?" "What? No! We are here to destroy your chances of winning the championship!"

"Now I just sit back and wait for the part where I'm showered in fried chicken!"

"We were helpful! We were helpful!"

"What'd ya do this time? Do I need to expect the cops again?"

MOM?!

"Squid monsters always have mind powers."

"YOU THINK YOU CAN HIT ME?...Oh, you did hit me."

"...Yes, exactly. 'Nother scorcher'."

"Ah, I see. She didn't come here to be moralized at, but she had no problem lecturing us. That's just adorable!"

Frisk, stop holding that sign up over his head. That's rude.

"I hope the hospital has pudding cups!"

"Keep it up like that, and I won't go full little-league coach on you again."

DK SMelS

Kasumi looks at the turnip with a bit more respect.

"Luckily most our investors were dead or evil, or both"

"I’m a Batman-Ironman Hybrid." Codd adds for no discernable reason.

shining blue marble of frustration

"my beloved masculinity has been shattered"

"Finally we can beat Jeffrey and his stupid puma!"

"I'll make sure to evaluate you fairly and critically. ...So don't expect a vote."

They probably just wandered off to do nerd shit and make nerd noises.

"But the black tentacled porno store say no!"

"You're truly are irreplaceable..." "So Tut-Tut, the replacement's all lined up, right?"

"It's good to finally be able to embrace my inner nudist!"

...'cause yeah, it still exists...

"YOU SAID I COULD TEAR YOU APART!" "I DIDN'T THINK YOU'D DO IT!"

worst mistake of its' life: It stole Kisume's bucket.

What if... Sonic Man WAS Niles Nemo?

dump a body on her lawn to get her to heal the person

It was time for more fighting over pits of gravel.

By the way, Tank is alive.

"I still spend my waking hours powernapping"

Then, with a flourish, she tried to conjure some super magical trademark weapon. When that didn’t work, though

she sheathed her sword and shimmied in satisfaction.

He’s not thinking about the toy – it’s the same as every other one they’ve ever sent him

black egg-shaped monoliths

poured himself a drink in memory of the robot - although he immediately forgot why after he'd downed it.

"Thatcher's is piss in a bottle!"

She could admit when she'd had a bad idea.

Joshy had never stopped driving.

"Big,

Ribbit!

-Froggy"

"setpehn,

hahahaha you shacked up with thle lgorillaz guitarist you sly motherfucker

have a ccoholatve fountain because i htave like fucking ten dof thoose

i'm svery drnufk

drik"

"and you," he went on, pointing at the still-laughing Murdoc, "look like the grandma that got run over by a reindeer."

Kamen Rider Hime Vol. 1

The following is a summary of the first - and only - volume of Kamen Rider Hime. There was only a single, short print, leaving possibly - at most - one-hundred copies. Estimates are difficult to make due to the non-euclidean method of procurement practiced by the Manga Carta collectibles shop.

~

Welcome to Bridge City! Anyone familiar with The Underground will recognize it as the Former Capitol except with a bright, blue sky, fluffy clouds, and a shining sun. There are also more paved roads. The narration establishes the city as a hub of activity, the largest city underground (there are visible cave walls and ceiling in the distance despite there also being a visible sun) and a really nice place in general.

A small explosion is heard! A bank is being robbed by the infamous Kappa Mob led by the equally-infamous Kappa Boss Ni. As the narration explains, they're a small gang that specializes in stealing technology and, when they're broke, money to fund Ni's sinister experiments.

Police arrive at the bank to stop the gang, but the right-hand Kappa, Mi, pulls out a bazooka that launches a giant ice cube, freezing the cops in their tracks as Ni, Chi, and Ki run out with huge sacks of cash. The gang begins to flee, firing more ice cubes as more squad cars pull up.

Maneuvering through the streets, Kamen Rider Hime arrives on her rider machine, a motorcycle called Envy Driver, and begins bantering with Ni. The other Kappa back into the van while Ni uses the bazooka. Kamen Rider Hime weaves around the shots until she's close enough to kick the front driver's side wheel to crash the van.

Three Kappas are flopped around the crash site with spiral eyes while Ni climbs out, shaking her head. Kamen Rider Hime taunts her foe and she climbs off her bike and then looks a little surprised when Ni suddenly sprouts robot armor that resembles Hisou Tensoku. The two come to blows until Kamen Rider Hime manages to trip Ni onto her back, trapping her like a turtle as the police arrive.

Kamen Rider Hime gives a quick speech and rides off. From a nearby tower, the infamous "legitimate businessman" Satori watches the scene with interest as another panel establishes two more enemies making their way into Bridge City: the Shine Maidens Raymu and Sunae.

~

After the real Kamen Rider Hime lost her Fite against Hecatia on live television, the publisher immediately ordered the current printing of Volume 1 ended and all copies destroyed, then canceled future volumes, citing predictions that the target market would not materialize.

Plot Wrap-up Season 6

Dracoplot

Dracoplot 2016 is the amalgamation of five years of characters and plot points established in prior seasons but never followed up on for one reason or another throughout the years. After getting the confidence to think I could do a better plot after 2015, I decided it was time to finally wrap up these things in one big plot. Particulars of the plot, like Cobra and the Metal Wolf Chaos inclusion, weren't conceived until they were needed.

MALP Draco: The "Mammals Are Lazy Patrol" universe was established by Jumpropeman in the first season as an alternate universe where the group formed by Draco, James, Jumpropeman, Air Man, and Erebus became a Kobber-esque group after finding James' trainer and continued solving problems and fight villains until they went their separate ways. I don't remember if each of them forming an empire was in the original plan. Oh well.

Upon learning of this alternate universe, Draco Prime got furious at his counterpart abandoning business for heroics (later proven a mistaken assumption) and began forming plans to travel to the MALP-verse and slap some sense into MALP Draco, sparking the trip to Dimension X to get the Technodrome (also when Air Man picked up his claw) and preparing a corporate takeover of a company called Studio Nue (the animation studio behind Macross) to acquire their spaceship. This plan was put to a halt by his Fite and (at the time) permadeath at the hands of Sarah. The plan was confirmed abandoned when Draco Prime and his mate Fergie was reincarnated during the finale of Zoofights 7.

Unbeknownst to him though, the MALP-verse was planning a counter-invasion, leading to...

Hyde: In Season 3's half sci-fi/half fantasy setting, I briefly introduced a group of characters who walked in a trio and traveled Porphyrion in search of antiquities. It was briefly revealed that this group was actually a Hydra using magic to disguise most of his body, but after that reveal he never appeared again that season. Still the son of MALP-Draco, he would've eventually gathered up an arsenal of anti-dragon weaponry covered in hydra venom and challenged Draco Prime to a fight. The plan at the time was that Draco Prime would hire Hyde and use him as a source of info on the MALP-verse.

Verne: Introduced late in Season 5 selling Metal Gears to interested corporate groups, Verne was created to be the right-hand man to MALP-Draco, interacting with potential buyers and the hired help. Basically the second-in-command of the MALP-Dra Co. Some backstory I never got around to in RP is that he is both the greatest success in MALP-Draco's breeding program and the second-biggest failure, cloned by combining MALP-Draco's DNA with a humanoid's to create Wyvarans, the most intelligent and cunning of Draco's progeny. It was to MALP-Draco's shame that he was only able to create a worthy successor by introducing mammal DNA.

Beth: Beth was created to be a big, dumb warrior. A cross between MALP-Draco and a Final Fantasy-esque Behemoth, she came out of the iron womb as a loyal, bloodthirsty brute with no interest in business at all. She was kept around as an enforcer, which she was good at, but always essentially kept on a leash because she couldn't be trusted with anything that didn't involved intelligence. She appeared a few times as Dra Co muscle, but fell out of sight due to not being, more or less, trusted on the furniture until Dracoplot DLC when there was nobody left but her and Levi.

Levi: A spur-of-the-moment creation, Levi was made up when Parsee was accidentally sent to a deserted island by Dawn after showing off her Persona. I'd intended him to be the least Draco-like dragon I could think of: aquatic, amiable, and a bit dopey or foppish. Slow to anger and more interested in actual business than economic domination. I think I briefly touched on him being considered the biggest failure of MALP-Draco's breeding program for his lack of aggression combined with, as a result of combining Draco and giant squid DNA, being only barely amphibious, requiring vast amounts of moisture to keep his gills moist out of water.  He and Verne being MALP-Draco's least favorite children made an alliance between them feel kind of natural.

And there IS a naming convention to the names of the Dracolings, even the non-canon Gwen that appeared in one barpost: all the names are based on what kind of dragon each is supposed to be. Wyvaran, Hydra, Behemoth, Leviathan, and Duinuogwuin (a race of sentient space dragons from Star Wars).

Labrys: Admittedly, I was kind of scrambling for a reason to bring Labrys back after she'd gone to Washington DC to try out politics and making her formerly a tool used by MALP-Draco to cross into other dimensions that got lost seemed like a good way to do it. Coming up with the Alternate Dame alias was mostly for fun and a thin kind of way to hide her identity. I liked the idea so much I had a picture of Alternate Dame drawn.

She got a lot of random backstory to tie in how she's related to MALP-Draco and giant robots buried underground and I have been using the reality-manipulating powers she displayed in the Persona 4 Arena game is a lot of weird ways, I'll admit.

Draco Prime: As soon as I came up with the idea that Dra Co had been taken over by MALP invaders, I knew I needed to think of something for Draco Prime to be doing in the meanwhile. Figuring that he wouldn't just sit back and let someone else run his company, I began coming up with ways for him to be trying to take it back. My original concept was that he would use magic to disguise himself as a Kobold grenadier leading a resistance group that was actively bombing Dra Co facilities. In this original idea, Armor, Cloak, and Goggles the Kobolds would've had a bigger role in fighting this resistance group to prove that Kobolds still had a place in Dra Co. Around Christmas '15, I received Fallout 4 and was introduced to the in-universe fictional character of the Silver Shroud, a radio serial hero who gunned people down, so I eventually molded the Kobold resistance group to being Draco Prime as the Silver Shroud and Labrys as Alternate Dame.

The resistance group concept spawned a second group: the anti-Dra Co group that Yamame was a member of.

Mecha Kobbers: Over the years, I've made pictures of Gundam versions of several characters, either on my own or as Christmas requests to y'all and I wanted to find a way to use them in RP. An early concept for Dracoplot '16 became that MALP-Draco would have recruited Robotnik to make robot versions of Kobbers to use as weapons against the real Kobbers. The Robotnik angle seemed unnecessary and yet another bad guy to talk about when I already had so many to use and not a lot of time. They were used mainly to pad boss fights except for the last and most dangerous of them all, Mecha Tut-Tut, which almost didn't appear at all.

Dracoplot DLC: One day, RubyChao joked that Dracoplot and Deceptiplot were actually connected, so I began plotting the end of Deceptiplot around the idea that it would also set up Dracoplot DLC two weeks later. I literally rewrote that ending at the last second; I had the post typed up and ready to hit Post when, as a result of the controversy surrounding Cornwind's Aggie plot, I decided that the original ending of MALP-Draco taking over Deus and going to Luxendarc was no good and improvised the "we gotta get Spongebob back destroy Deus before it wakes up" ending.

This necessitated a lot of reworking to Dracoplot DLC. I couldn't cancel, especially after having established that Dra Co invaded the planet with local help, and I scrambled to find a reason why the invasion would still be happening without MALP-Draco to push for it. This also meant I needed a new opponent for Kamen Rider Parsee to fight at the Great Chasm, so Mecha Tut-Tut was brought out of storage.

One thing that had been planned from the beginning was that, like Yamame, Levi would've been able to be talked down if anyone really tried.

Parsee:  I enjoyed RPing her in '15. Wish I'd thought of more things for her to do.

Kamen Rider Hime, Parsee's new Kamen Rider form, came about as a result of me wanting to actually give her some cool to do after more-or-less having her serve as a butt monkey on my cast. Originally, she was going to take on MALP-Draco by herself, using her Touhou canon powers, Kamen Rider Double (somehow obtaining the Heat, Metal, Luna, and Trigger Gaia Memories so she and five clones could each use a Kamen Rider form to fight), and the Envious transformation I'd introduced in '15. Having her use so many powers and transformations felt like it would've been a huge, bloated filler.

So I conceived of the Henshin Device being broken and her having to jumpstart it with her own power, commissioned an artwork of Kamen Rider Hime, and spent a week writing the speech she gives when transforming.

Yamame: Yamame's role in Dracoplot went through a lot of writing and rewriting. I think I'd decided in December I was going to include her in RP if only to give Parsee someone to talk to. Originally, she was going to be more like Sarah and she turned out to be not much like her at all. When I hit on the idea of having Dra Co-sponsored terrorists blowing up Dra Co stuff, she seemed a good fit, joining for thrills. The sponsored-by-the-enemy angle was part of the plan all along, but the original idea is that eventually Verne would reveal himself and order the team to keep the Kobbers from attacking Dra Co. That particular idea got modified extensively. One draft had the entire squad refuse and be mind-controlled by MALP-Draco. Another had Yamame get recruited to fight Kobbers as MALP-Dra Co's Greed shrine maiden (based on the Touhou concept of gods getting power from worship). None of the scenarios I initially came up with seemed likely since Yamame cares more about friendship and her pals than money or power.

Talking about her backstory in RP gave me the idea of having her be kidnapped after the Brawl and bribed into fighting the Kobbers with the promise of perfect children. I had plans for that event if there'd been a fight or talking; a fight would've been Yamame doing only defense rolls due to realizing that it was wrong of her to destroy the Calico family in exchange for one of her own. In the end though, there was no fight because nobody but Raspberry tried attacking.

Glorimame was not planned from the start, but grew from Gloria beating Yamame at arm wrestling. As it developed though, I deliberately wanted to avoid mentioning Yamame particularly liking boobs or butts; her natural form is an arachnid, which has neither or those, so she instead likes Gloria for things she can relate to: enjoying cookies, friendship, and intelligence. The other things are nice bonuses though and Parsee writes her best flirty lines for her.

Some of Yamame's backstory and the image for her spider form come from a translated doujin I saw on Danbooru. Long story short, Yamame is heading to the underground when a firefly asks her to help an insect youkai that turns out to be Wriggle Nightbug. Yamame is impressed with the power this insect youkai and gives it a cloak that allows it to hear the appreciation of all the insect souls for caring about them.

Deceptiplot

I wish I had given this plot more attention this year, but the blogpost I'd written before the season started put me in a bit of a corner: Decepticons wouldn't go to Earth and Kobbers wouldn't be asked to join the war effort against them. So the war itself went mostly unmentioned and the Sealanders made few appearances prior to the end of Dracoplot. This was intended to be the Sealanders' send-off: finish destroying all the Decepticons and go back to how things were before crazy robots got involved in their lives. This plot got to combine a lot of random things together: some OCs of mine, Tenchi Muyo (no relation to Tenshi), Transformers, the Bolo book series, and Xenogears, a mecha RPG from the 90s.

Borodan: For years, I've had a picture of a Gigan-styled Transformers sitting on my computer and I decided I wanted to do something with that, so he got to be the guy who actually enforced the Brandes/Scourge treaty forbidding Kobbers from going to the war and Decepticons from coming to Earth. The position of "Duly Appointed Enforcer" comes from IDW's Transformers comics; Ultra Magnus is an appointed enforcer of the Tyrest Accord, which enforces certain codes of military conduct between Autobots and Decepticons. He got to be an honorable, law-abiding warrior - something rare amongst Decepticons - to get him out of the way of Scourge's less-than-honorable plans and because a jerk-ass would've gotten himself blown up ages ago.

Gigatron and the Predacons: Aka Megatron from the early 2000s "Robots in Disguise" cartoon given his Japanese name because ZFRP already has a Megatron. I brought them in because Scourge and Team Ruination also came from that show and Scourge had tried to overthrow Megatron in the show. Intended to show that Dra Co was trying to move into space in exchange for supplying the Decepticons with technology, it ended up being the only crossover between my two plots. Gigatron's appearance as a King Ghidorah Predacon also came about because I had a picture of such a thing on my hard drive and one of his original forms was a two-headed dragon.

Scourge: Not a lot to say about this guy. Rather ordinary Decepticon tyrant. Even allying with humans isn't unprecedented in Transformers history. The biggest changes I'd made to plans involving him were adding in the Space Godzilla transformer I'd found a few days before and, at RubyChao's request, Kiss Players to give Scourge a little extra energy to kill folks with!

Lumen and Baffle: The last two members of the Beatbox crew ended up getting diminished roles compared to what I'd planned, but then I realized I didn't have time to really do much with them. They'd both been fought in Season 4 as part of the Deceptiplot finale then and showed up briefly at the end of Deceptiplot in Season 5. Since they didn't take over the army like Quick Fix and Breech had, Lumen became a glorified errand girl and Baffle became the heart of the Decepticons' flagship, Pia Decem, which I picked because it'd been King J-Der's evil counterpart in the GaoGaiGar FINAL OVA. They each got their chance at fighting during plot events so they didn't just disappear. Lumen had originally been planned to survive her Kobbering in her original Minicon body so she could backstab Scourge for marginalizing her and Baffle, but then Utsuho made a point of vaporizing her body. I was pretty satisfied with their endings though.

Deceptiplot Finale: Originally conceived off as just a one-day thing. That changed when I realized that two boss fights was too much for one day. The original ending of this event, as joked by RubyChao, was that MALP-Draco would've planted a Phylactery on the Siebzehn before selling it to Scourge and would've had it inserted into Deus somehow, giving him a new body to terrorize Luxendarc with. I had the post for it all written too, including an image for the new Mecha MALP-Draco: https://youtu.be/BTMgFynIrC0 , but decided to scrap that because it would've cheapened the ending of Dracoplot and there would've been some grumbling over this guy showing up and not being able to punch him for two weeks.

And The Rest

Zeldoten and Nibbles: The dynamic duo was originally conceived for a Pathfinder game that ended up not happening. I didn't have any particular plans for her besides being a less-than-heroic figure, someone who went on plots for the sake of finding loot and not helping folks and actively talked about her illegal activities and other things. Then she somehow won the Big Bar Brawl and started appearing slightly more often. The only things about her I really changed for ZFRP were some of her abilities that didn't translate well to freeform RP and I gave her a Cadillac that was retconned with RubyChao into being stolen from the Elvis Impersonator.

Aside from the Brawl, her most significant contribution to RP was being used as a victim for Mulcifer, an act I do regret because I try not to deliberately torture my characters and she stopped being relevant to events once Mulcifer ditched her. It felt to me like no matter what happened to Zeldoten, it would have literally no effect on how the plot turned out.

DeMonde and Nurse Teacups: Another Pathfinder character, except one that is actually in a game. I brought her in to give Zeldoten a way to revive after the Brawl, sent her home after Zeldoten won, and then brought her back for Mulcifer because I felt nobody else had a good reason for wanting to find Zeldoten. She ended up sticking around to poke at all the weird creatures in Las Vegas, including Pteron. She never went on any plot with the intention of combat because she's a Level 16 character and there was no way the tractor would allow her to be as badass as I think a level 16 character should be. She went looking for Zeldoten and to keep Pteron from getting himself killed looking for Armstrong.

Heart of Steel, Heart of Glass

Atom Cats Garage, Southeast corner of Boston, MA

Clad in a suit of power armor salvaged from the Brotherhood of Steel, Vina stepped forth with determination to challenge an enemy she had never faced, one that made her nervous beyond anything she'd seen before with few exceptions: freestyle poetry night with the Atom Cats. Sammy was spending the evening with her sister and most of the Pokemon had chosen to roam the wilderness; only Shaggy lay in the back of the improvised stage as a small gathering of fellow power armor enthusiasts waited patiently.


"When I wear my plates, I feel as if I could move the Earth,

No bullet can stop me, no blade can pierce,
Yet when I think of love, the thing that is of most worth,
Armor cannot guard from a pain most fierce.

My dearest fights in the depths of space,
She rides a horse with silver wings,
But I know she yearns to return to this place,
And out to her, my soul doth sings.

Thank you."

Vina stepped down from the hand-built stage as her audience politely clapped and cheered, many of them wearing power armor suits of their own. She murmured thank yous as she took a seat next to a being in a suit of T-60 armor with red flames painted on it; his name was Duke, if Vina remembered correctly.

"Far out poem, pal," Duke said with a nod.

Vina nodded back. "Thanks. Never tried poetry before."

"Could've fooled me," the Atom Cat answered with a verbal grin.

Vina leaned over and began scratching one of Shaggy's heads while another visitor began reciting something about the joys of personalized armor. She politely clapped along with the rest of the group when he finished. Everyone took a turn reading, a generally-positive atmosphere purveying, until throats were dry and fonts of inspiration dryer. Once the event turned to mingling, Vina turned to leave, whistling to Shaggy before leaving the garage.

"You can read a poem next time, Shaggy," Vina promised. "Might even get you a suit of your own."

The Zweilous snorted.

Making a Treaty with the Devil

Princess Sasami's fleet, Rebecca Brandes commanding - Deep Space

Following the victory over the Decepticon supply depot, Rebecca was prepared for more boring cruises through space. The grand offensives against the Decepticons and - to her surprise - their allies from a presently-undetermined organic race were being fought by the regular Juraian military. Fleets of Juraian cruisers and battleships were on the front lines, engaging Decepticon ships in captured territory and unclaimed systems the robots had begun colonizing for their war efforts. The irregular fleet Rebecca commanded, consisting of the Juraian Soja-type battleship that served as the princess' flagship, the J-Ark, and a dozen-plus Mandalorian vessels, was being used to patrol the outskirts of the Juraian empire's territory for enemy incursions. The robot aggressors seemed content to avoid Cybertron and other Autobot worlds, preferring instead to plunder the resources of unaffiliated planets teeming with uptapped resources.


That made for pretty boring patrols, but things were about to get more interesting.

Rebecca, currently commanding from the flagship's bridge, was in the middle of studying a map of the overall war effort when an alarm began to ring.

"Enemy fleet incoming!" an officer reported. "Estimated strength twenty Supreme-type vessels and one unknown!"

"Give me a visual of the Unknown," Rebecca ordered, her curiosity piqued. "And put the fleet on yellow alert."

The bridge crew was clearly puzzled at only going to yellow alert with enemy ships in sight, but complied. The image of a large vessel, almost resembling Terran aircraft carriers, appeared on the screen with the now-familiar Decepticon emblem painted on its bow.

"Calculate their speed and trajectory," Rebecca continued ordering. "Have they launched any fighter analogues?"

"Direct intercept course for our ships, no fighters deployed, and..." the officer paused for a moment. "They're coming in at a cruising speed, not a combat speed."

"Enemy flagship is hailing us, sir," the communications officer reported. "Their leader says he wants to parlay."

"Oh, great, some random flunky probably wants to challenge me to a duel or something..." Rebecca sighed. "Prepare cannons and..."

"Negative, Admiral!" the officer rudely interrupted. "It's...it's their Emperor, Scourge."

Rebecca's interest was really piqued now. A personal chat with the bastard machine who'd helped Quick Fix almost drop a giant floating island on Las Vegas?

"Well, I'll take the call this time," Rebecca feigned nonchalance. "Main screen turn on."

Moments later, the metallic visage of Scourge appeared. The would-be Decepticon Emperor of Destruction sat comfortably in a chair almost ostentatious enough to call a throne, his posture casual.

"Greetings, Admiral Brandes. I thank you for taking my call!" Scourge beamed, gesturing grandly.

"I still have a few minutes left on my cell phone I wanted to use," Rebecca deadpanned. "May I ask the purpose of this social call?"

"Ah, straight to the point. Excellent." Scourge rumbled happily. "I have come to negotiate a treaty with you."

"Ending the war so soon?" Rebecca gasped melodramatically. "Unfortunately, the only thing I have the authority to offer you is a prison cell and three Energon cubes a day."

"Generous indeed," Scourge answered. "No, this is not to be a treaty between the Decepticons and Jurai. This is one you have all the authority you need to negotiate."

"Oh, now I AM interested in this," Rebecca chuckled. "Alright, Emperor, what are your terms?"

Scourge's throne moved to the side and a display appeared, showing the planet Earth.

"They're quite simple: Decepticons of all factions, not just my own, will avoid Earth for the duration of the present Decepticon/Jurai war. I will even appoint an Enforcer to the planet to uphold my end of the agreement."

"Why should I care if Earth is neutral?" Rebecca asked. "I don't live there; I just visit once in a while."

"Ah, but your Conjunx Endura, your....spouse, I believe you would say, currently resides there, does she not?" Scourge countered. "Not to mention dearest Princess Sasami."

The display changed from Earth to a live image of the Royal Pain, showing Vina giving Sammy a lesson in how to use a Power Armor frame. The two practiced martial arts for a moment, pulling at Rebecca's heart until the moment Scourge returned the focus to him.

"As you can see, my agents are already watching them," Scourge continued. "Maybe they could repel the ones I have in place now, but what about the next?"

Rebecca gripped the armrest of her chair until she hurt, using that pain to keep a straight face. "I see. It's obvious how I and Jurai would benefit, but what good does it do you to stay off Earth?"

"Quite simple: it doesn't. The planet is rich in energy sources, which is why Decepticons have been drawn to it for decades. However..." Scourge began.

The tyrant rose from his throne.

"In exchange for the boon of leaving Earth free of Decepticon influence, you - in turn - would not be allowed to call upon your Kobber friends for assistance in our war, no matter how vested an interest they might have because of Beatbox and Quick Fix."

Ah, so there it was. Forfeit any possible assistance from a living, breathing, drinking group of living weapons and the robots would ignore Earth until the Juraians were crushed.

"An interesting proposal. Please give me a moment to consider it," Rebecca considered, trying to keep panic from her face.

"Take two," Scourge added as the channel was cut.

There was no way she could realistically believe that a robot called a Decepticon would do anything BUT deceive her. She could hardly believe he'd keep his word to keep robots off of the planet and definitely believed he'd made this proposal to keep Kobbers from wrecking his fleets. On one hand, she hadn't even PLANNED to ask them for help. On the other hand, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea. Indeed, she could agree to the terms and violate them later; it wasn't a binding agreement between two governments. More like a gentleman's agreement that both sides knew the other was going to violate eventually. Not to mention, if Scourge DID gun for her family, he'd bring the Kobbers upon him, treaty or not.

"Open the channel back up," she ordered. "Emperor Scourge, I accept your terms. Decepticons will leave Earth alone and Kobbers will leave the Decepticons alone."

"Excellent! I'm quite pleased to find you so...reasonable about this," Scourge beamed, clapping his hands together. "Then the...oh, it needs a good name...the Brandes Accord has been struck. I shall immediately appoint an Enforcer and send him to Earth."

"And he'll just be there to keep other Decepticons away?" Rebecca asked.

"Of course," Scourge answered. "Well, he will also be there to make sure your Kobber friends don't try interfering. Enforcement DOES run both ways."

Rebecca rolled her eyes. Of COURSE it did. "Very well. Who is he?"

"You may have seen him in action once already in one of those Fites. He is Borodan the Hunter and thoroughly and bafflingly-incorruptible."

"I'll send word ahead to expect him then," Rebecca nodded, satisfied.

"Very good, and in the spirit of parlay, my fleet shall depart this system immediately," Scourge stated, waving to one of his officers to carry out an order. "I expect, in turn, for you to honor our parlay and not seek to strike while our backs are turned."

"Of course. Good day, Emperor."

Rebecca motioned for the connect to be cut and muttered under her breath, "Arrogant bastard."

On board his flagship, Scourge muttered, "Organic twit."

~

Las Vegas

A Gigan-shaped robot approached the Den of Lions. He had received word from his Emperor and immediately set out to begin his assignment.

The Postsee

Parsee

Obligatory Parsee Blogpost

parsee is (probably) alive

~

Explosions! Chaos! Anarchy!

All of these described the movie Parsee was spending Saturday morning watching. Despite having the occasional attack by Middle Class extremists and strange demons, Las Vegas was considerably more boring since "Kobber Season" had ended, giving her plenty of time to catch up on movies people insisted she needed to see. She still wasn't sure what the movie was about but, as the end credits began to roll, she began to wonder how bad the Lost World could be if this Warrior could find a cabal of psychic monks to fix his robotic motorcycle.

She briefly considered asking someone to build her one of those motorcycles, but decided the dump truck with the flamethrower - "Megaweapon" - would be more interesting to drive around.

She soon put the DVD back in its case and went back to planning a birthday party for Cian, Vanessa, Alvin, and any of the other former Sins who happened to be hanging out at the time. She didn't know if it really was their birthday - they probably didn't remember either - but it was a good excuse to have a party.

Then she took a nap. The end.

What? They can't all be about assassinations and space wars.

Escape from DC

Several days had passed since Labrys and the President of the United States of America had almost been assassinated mid-meeting. The FBI, CIA, and Army had all launched investigations into the events, including beginning technical analyses on what was left after Michael Wilson had single-handedly disposed of all three robots with a suit of power armor. Labrys, in her guise of Larissa Joyce, had been interviewed no less than eight times, each by a different agent of each branch. She'd given them as much information as she could without compromising her own identity, but she was quickly running out of things to say. She also knew she was, to a limited extend, under surveillance from numerous agencies; she'd managed to spot agents from at least three foreign agencies, based on their methods. She also knew she was poorly-trained in the art of non-electronic surveillance. Thus, she'd taken to keeping her disguise on at all times and maintained what she calculated to be the minimum number of appointments she needed to make to keep from arousing suspicion.

Thus she found herself in the middle of preparing another speech, this one to some corporate bigwig who was vacationing in the nation's capital for some reason; she hadn't yet tried to find out why but at present it seemed like a minor concern. Admittedly, she was distracted by the need to keep a sensor open for potential threats.

Thus, when someone knocked on her door, she did a backflip over her couch and reached for an axe that was hidden in her closet. Fortunately, to her knowledge, there weren't many things currently in DC she couldn't crush with her bare hands if need be.

She briefly considered getting out her bear hands, but that was a joke for another blogpost.

She answered the door like a normal, semi-frightened human being, but was surprised when there was nobody at the door. Had she been....PRANKED?! Dang kids and their not having anything better to do...

"Good evening, Miss Joyce," a voice said from behind her.

Labrys once more did a backflip and, out of reflex, fired a rocket punch behind her, hoping she'd remembered to shut the blinds. The figure, an anonymous humanoid in a concealing dark trench coat and fedora, behind her dodged out of the way and grabbed the chain of her Chain Knuckle.

"Be at peace, Labrys. I'm an ally," the figure said.

"Oh yeah, eh? Well, my allies don't need ter sneak into me apartment wile I'm answerin' me door!" she countered, drawing her arm back in.

The figure chuckled, a flat, mechanical voice devoid of any way to tell who was speaking. "In this case, yes, I do. Maybe you haven't noticed, but you're being watched."

"I know I'm bein' wotched. It's why I 'aven't tried leavin' tahn yet; they'd follow me wherever I went and I'm not getting me mates caught up in this," Labrys growled. "But woss yor story, guv? 'oo are yer?"

The figure chuckled and adjusted an expressionless mask. "I'm someone who knew you were Larissa Joyce without having to do more than look up your address. I've been around the Kobbers before and I'm here to provide you assistance in getting back to Las Vegas."

Labrys glanced at her windows; she HAD remembered to close them. She made a note to complain about loud neighbors and gaudy signs loud enough that a careful listener could hear her. Then she realized someone probably WAS listening right now. The figure noticed and held up a hand to calm her.

"I'm not unaware of the danger; I'm using a white noise generator to interfere with listening devices. You are still safe."

"But for how long?" Labrys muttered, neglecting her accent.

"Not long," the figure answered. "Some careful infiltrations and sabotage have kept the army's analysts from uncovering the origins of your dopplegangers thus far, but there are too many pieces in too many places to keep your connection quiet for long."

Labrys hesitated. Leaving meant months of work would be undone, her new reputation as an impassioned activist for numerous causes would likely be drowned by the untruth that she was an assassin trying to get close to the president. She felt like breaking something, but she liked her furniture too much. Her place was...homey.

"Fine. I take it you have more for me than just this obvious news," Labrys said, going to retrieve her axe.

"Indeed. I have a plan and resources to get you away from here undetected," the figure confirmed. "Get anything you need to take ready; I've got a distraction coming in five minutes."

"Five minutes?! You just showed up with five minutes and expect me to be able to get ready that quickly?!" Labrys protested.

"FOUR minutes."

The anti-Shadow weapon muttered with annoyance as she packed her most important possessions: a few knickknacks and photos, a laptop computer she'd upgraded extensively, a love letter a secret admirer had slipped her one day. She packed it all into a suitcase and turned to leave, but remembered one more treasure.

In the other room, the figure counted down the seconds until it felt the floor rumble. Right on time.

"Labrys, the distraction is here. A little kaiju called Trespasser is coming to make a splash here, but don't worry; I've also arranged something to stop it."

Heavy footsteps answered the voice.

"I've called in some favors and gotten Yongary of the Neo-Kobbers to appear and battle Trespasser. You can slip out of the city while they're battling; your shadows will be too busy requesting orders and doing what they can to protect the president to chase you."

More heavy footsteps.

"And then you will head south along the coast where a train is waiting...are you listening, Labrys?"

"Labrys isn't here," a deep, male voice answered.

Six feet tall, covered in freshly-plainted, finely-polished, meticulously repaired armor, Labrys entered the room, hefting her axe and her suitcase.

"You can call me Hal, stranger."

War is Hell...if Hell is the line at the DMV...

Unidentified Star System, 1200 hours...

Rebecca listened idly at the announcement that a flight of Mandalorian stealth-equipped fighters had launched from their carrier at roughly the time she had scheduled them to launch, barely registered the announcement that they would be sending back telemetry data to the ships of her fleet, and almost nodded off when her ship's computer reported that missile tubes were being loaded and would be ready to fire when a solid lock was achieved.


"Count on machines to manage to something as exciting as launching a missile so damn boring," she thought to herself, stifling a yawn.

She'd need to issue a few orders personally in a few minutes, but after that there was nothing to do but wait. After her ships had tracked a squadron of Decepticons back to a hidden base, she'd flinched at the sight of the thick asteroid belt. She didn't know how her robotic foes were getting their corvette-sized Sentinel ships through that rock field, but only the J-Ark and her fighters were nimble enough to actually maneuver through without getting pulverized and no way in Hell was she sending unsupported fighters in there.

And so she'd decided on a less risky/more lengthy method of bombarding the enemy base with bunker buster missiles. The only problem was that missiles were too dumb to maneuver through the asteroid field as well. Hence sending out squadrons of fighters with as much stealth and sensor equipment as could be scrapped up, meticulously scanning the asteroid field while the combined processing power of three Mandalorian cruisers tried to forecast the trajectories of a few million...nay...billion tons of rock.

Not to mention there had to be an equal number of ships on the lookout for hostile reinforcements, ships scrambling to bring as many missiles from a supply depot as possible, and a hundred other difficult-to-coordinate tasks, none of which actually required her direct input.

And so Rebecca waited. She tried watching a movie, reading some books she'd downloaded from Gloria's library, and even took a moment to perform a few backlogged repairs aboard J-Ark. That damn water heater would face her wrath. For a moment, she WAS needed and she ran back to her bridge covered in grease.

"Sighted Decepticon freighter, sank same," came back a report from a Crusader gunship.

"Confirm it and get back to me," Rebecca ordered, stifling a yawn until the connection was cut.

Indeed, there was very little for her to do at the moment and, to her later chagrin, she actually nodded off. Fortunately, nobody seemed to notice as a quick alarm jolted her awake.

"Trajectories plotted," one of her calculator cruisers reported.

"All ships, five second laser barrage on target coordinates, then do a wide-field tractor beam sweep followed by a full missile barrage. Fire until dry, then begin reloading," Rebecca ordered.

It was very precise. Her people WERE professionals. She watched as cannons fired, bits of rock were quickly emptied from one cone of space, and thousands of missiles were fired into the gap, with slighly more than half of them actually getting through to the base - better than projected. The principle asteroid determined to be the Decepticon space station began breaking apart, spewing metal into space as robotic warriors attempted to escape. Rebecca's fleet fired again, though she ordered nobody to pursue them further into the field; she'd settle for shattering one of their supply lines if it meant a minimum of casualties on her side. Her comm channel suddenly erupted in Mandalorian battle cries; apparently some of the hostile Decepticons had chose to try running right through her fleet despite her current bombardment.

A chorus of "Oya" and "Kandosii" rang out; hostiles eliminated. There were be songs sung tonight, some tales embellished, and a few more comrades to remember each night.

"Attention all hands," Rebecca said, activating a fleet-wide channel. "Mission accomplished. Stand down to yellow alert and prepare to move on to our next destination."

Rebecca flipped the channel off as the cheers renewed; she wanted nothing more than to share in their enthusiasm, to yearn for the glories of more battles, but she needed to focus. As much as she wanted to chase down Decepticons all day e'ery day, to be back with Vina on Earth, there was too much at stake to be so reckless.

That didn't mean she couldn't still share in the celebrating though. She quickly donned her armor and dashed to her personal fighter.

"Netra'gal with Clan Lok or Tihaar with Clan Tenau? So much drinking, so little time..."

President Evil

West Wing Lobby, White House

Labrys took one more look in the mirror, adjusting her currently-blond hair, her designer makeup, her professionally-tailored skirt. Anything to make sure her disguise was still in place. It was a huge pain to put on actual makeup, actual clothing, and even dying her artificial hair blonde to fit in with her "Larissa Joyce" identity, but she knew her preferred holograms wouldn't work here. Not in the White House.

The friggin' White House.

Ever since she'd created the fictional Corner Consortium and moved to Washington DC after the annual Kobber Split, she'd been working hard to find other ways to change the world without having to resort to Joyce Jr.'s ideas of armed insurrections and Kobber Takeover of the government. She'd been successful thus far, through diplomacy, money, and - from time to time - blackmail. She did what she could to foster change without outright breaking the law. Sure, she'd used her abilities as a digital intelligence to sneak into computer systems, but only when other methods had failed.

It had also been the only way to get an appointment to meet with the president to discuss some of his recent policy decisions. She hoped the Make America Livable Party didn't mind having their appointment mysteriously eaten by the aether or wherever deleted scheduled items went when you hacked into the White House computers and replaced one meeting with another.

Ever since she'd confirmed that appointment, she'd worked furiously to prepare. She'd only managed to secure five minutes with President Michael Wilson and she was determined to make the most of it. She'd even worked in her "sleep", the time she spent in her maintenance chair recharging and receiving repairs, on how the meeting should go. Now she say in the West Wing Lobby making sure everything was perfect: she adjusted her disguise with her body and practiced her speech in a digital Oval Office in her mind. She finally felt ready as an orderly instructed her to follow him to the president.

Michael Wilson, a man who secured national fame by leading the armed forces against a military insurrection several years ago alongside his vice-president Richard Hawk, was known to be passionate, energetic, and direct. A man who appreciated straight talk and directly confronting issues over backroom deals and double-talk.

"Good morning, Miss Joyce. How are you this morning?" the president asked as an aide seated Labrys.

"Oi'm doin' jist gran', sir. 'tis an 'onor ter meet witcha," 'Larissa' answered.

"So what can the White House do for you?" Michael Wilson asked with maybe a touch of weariness, as if anticipating more partisan dealings or lobbyist meddling.

"Tanks for meetin' wi' me, sir. Ah've cum ter yer ter explain de corner consortium's growin' concerns over de condishun av several key american 'ighways an' freeways. dees strategic roads clap a combined eighty...do yer 'ear somethin'?"

Labrys' advanced hearing could barely hear the incoming attack moments before they struck. The windows behind the president's desk shattered as three slender figures JUMPED into the room. Labrys managed to duck behind the desk and the president had quick enough reflexes to avoid being shredded as well, but the attackers ignored them, first rushing out into the hall to disable the guards stationed right outside. The president began shouting for guards and hit a button, but Labrys lay there unmoving. For one thing, Larissa Joyce wouldn't be expected to get up and fight assassins; she'd have to wait until nobody was watching or she had no choice otherwise. Another thing though shocked her into further inaction: all three attackers looked almost identical to her. They didn't even pretend to wear clothing and their eyes were a lifeless shade of grey, but they moved just like her and carried axes just like hers, which coincidentally was back at her apartment.

Gunshots rang from the hallway, but none of the robots sounded stopped. One popped back into the Oval Office - presumably to actually murder the president - but it quickly fell to the ground as the sound of a huge automatic weapon rang across the room. The other two robots jumped back in to investigate but they were cut down as well. Curiosity overrode shock in Labrys' system and she peeked over the desk. In the president's place stood a massive blue robot: the president's personal power armor, Metal Wolf.

"I apologize, Miss Joyce. It looks like I'm going to have to cancel our meeting. The guards will need a statement from you I'm sure, but I'll get someone to escort you home."

Metal Wolf looked around the office, picking up one of the ruined robots. If she could have, Labrys would have gulped nervously. Someone was stealing her image and just used it to try murdering the leader of the United States of America.

She just might have to get out of town.

By Popular Demand...

zook is (not) alive

The Adventures of Fleet Admiral Sarah: A Busy Mage

 This blogpost requires some familiarity with  The Adventures of Captain Sarah STO playthrough I've been posting on Youtube. At the very least, you may want to watch the three parts of The End of the World, detailing the final mission of Star Trek Online's The Iconian War storyline.

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DfQ-Li5QBs

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUSKxcMVZtk

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9Ik5gGoJaY

~

Observation Deck, USS Tenshi, Earth Orbit - Approximately 36hours after the Iconian War's end

For the first time since the war had unofficially come to an end, Fleet Admiral Sarah Triden could finally relax. Even though hostilities had ended, ships on both sides of the conflict had immediately engaged in frenzied search-and-rescue operations, sending medical responders and damage control teams to any ship that showed signs of life and signs of catastrophic failure. She had even, after informing Admiral Quinn of the Iconians' peace terms, hustled onto a shuttle and visited several ships. For the biggest moment in galactic peace, the pace sure felt like they were still at war.

But the war had indeed ended. Saying it had been won would imply anything but a miracle had convinced the Iconians to end their attacks. Even as things stood, a significant portion of the Iconian fleet - T'ket and her Heralds - had left Earth orbit for parts unknown to prepare for future battles with the Alliance. But the other Iconians - once Admiral Quinn of Starfleet, Chancellor J'm'pok of the Klingon Empire, and Representative D'Tan of the Romulan Republic had agreed to their terms - were willing to pick up the pieces of their fleet and return to Iconia to begin rebuilding their culture, thanks to the World Heart, the artifact Sarah and her allies had rescued 200,000 years ago.

Sarah chuckled. A war fought 200,000 years ago had seemed like just yesterday because, to her, it had been. Now that the worst of the immediate recovery operations had been taken care of though, she could stop for an hour to simply watch things happen. The Iconians had finished their own recovery and would shortly leave the Sol System. Under the watchful gaze of the Iconian L'Miren's massive dreadnought, the surviving Heralds and other servitor ships began passing through massive gateways that would take them back to Iconia.

When the dreadnought itself finally passed through the portal, every member of the Alliance - Starfleet, Klingon, and Romulan alike - let out a collective sigh of relief. With luck, no Iconian or Herald would be seen for a thousand years.

"Pretty impressive sight, all those ships leaving at once."

Sarah turned to see her tactical officer and older sister Commander Josephine enter the observation deck with a green glass bottle and two drinking glasses.

"There's nothing in that bottle that violates regulations, right?" Sarah asked, smiling.

"I dunno. Are we on a Klingon ship?" Josephine asked, popping open the bottle of wine. "It's...regulation-ish."

Sarah shrugged and accepted a glass from her sister, enjoying the sweet aroma before taking a sip.

"So what's next for us?" Josephine asked, taking a seat.

"Us? You mean me?" Sarah asked. "We're the Others now, Sis; you could get a new position anywhere in the fleet. Could even get your own command if you wanted."

"Yeah, but we're a team! You don't just split up teams!" Josephine protested. "Even if I COULD get a cushy patrol near Romulan space, swing by once in a while to 'resupply', and visit that Subcommander I met on shore leave..."

"It won't work out," a third voice said, that of first officer/younger sister Ariel. "He's got that straight-laced brother that won't abide fraternization."

"Hope you brought your own glass, Ariel," Josephine remarked.

She had, accepting a drink from her sister as she found a seat next to Sarah.

"Anywhere in the fleet I want, eh?" Ariel asked. "Do I get a promotion too? There's a few planets I'd love to clean up, but they don't listen to what commanders want."

"Sure thing. You can be Fleet Janitor of the Galaxy," Sarah answered solemnly. "With a broom made with the finest Iconian technology we can find."

The three laughed, letting out what seemed like a lifetime of tension, stress, and fatigued born from fighting a constant stream of wars against the Undine, the Vaadwaur, and finally the Iconians. It'd been ages since they could stop to drink and chat without the specter of war pushing in on their fun.

"I think I'll stick with you though, if that's alright, Sarah," Ariel admitted. "If I'm getting a command, I want it based on what I do on purpose, not what we somehow stumble into 200,000 years ago."

"Oh thank goodness," Sarah sighed. "Lack of transfer permitted. I'm starting to get tired of doing all those away missions."

"But they do you so much good," Josephine teased. "You get out, run about, and get to earn your root beer floats!"

"And for that matter, we're still not installing a replicator on the bridge."

The three sisters looked up as their other sister, head engineer and oldest sister Gloria, entered the observation deck. Carrying a glass of her own, they all noted.

"What do you mean, we?" Sarah asked again. "Last I heard, you were going to take a command of your own, cash in on being an Other."

"Nah. It was going to be the Carol and she can't take the irony of getting one of your hand-me-downs for once," Ariel joked.

Even Gloria laughed at that one. "I'd considered it, but there's an even greater responsibility for me here: keeping you three out of trouble. You blew up Planet Killers, dreadnoughts, and fleets WITH me here. What kind of trouble would happen WITHOUT me?"

"More of the fun kind," Jokesephined as she fist-bumped Ariel.

And so the four sat for a quiet moment, drinking wine and watching starships fly by. Sarah tutted as she watched several ships crawl along the hull of Earth Spacedock.

"Shame what happened to ESD. Mom had just finished patching it up too," she noted, leaning back.

The other sisters silently agreed. Many had been the time they had docked at Spacedock to receive promotions and a new vessel, staying long enough to celebrate at Club 47, leaving the next morning for some new assignment on the frontiers of space.

"So what ARE we doing now?" Ariel finally asked.

At once, Josephine, Ariel, and Gloria turned to Sarah, looking like they were expecting orders in the heat of battle. Sarah looked back, straightening her uniform robe as she stood up. It made sense, she supposed. Off-duty like this and with such a life-changing decision on hand, Sarah thought for a moment that Gloria would lead the discussion as she had when they were children. But while Gloria had been the de facto leader of the sisters while they were growing up, ever since Sarah had taken command of the Shelby after the Borg attack on Vega, she'd taken over that role with Starfleet approval.

Now, they looked to their captain and their sister for guidance.

"A great captain once asked his first officer 'Remember when we were explorers?'" Sarah said, beginning to pace around the observation deck. "Well, I think we need to get back to that. The four of us and the entire crew of the Tenshi have been all across the galaxy, fighting evil at every turn. Well, now I say it's time to get back to Starfleet's original mission: exploration and knowledge."

Sarah walked over to a large viewport and motioned at a pair of Romulan escorts towing a Klingon cruiser.

"Our actions have had amazing results. We're back at peace with the Klingons and at peace with the biggest Romulan faction in the galaxy. We've protected billions of lives and brought peace to distant corners of space! The wars are over; now we can get back to peace.

To that end, I've requested a transfer from the Tenshi."

That last statement brought surprise to her sisters' faces, but Sarah continued.

"We've had a good run with the Tenshi; it's survived more scrapes than her builders imagined she would. She's a vessel of war though, a carrier designed to bring maximum firepower and destroy the enemy.  We're without an enemy though. When the war with the Vaadwaur was beginning, Starfleet was already in the process of building a new class of science vessels based on a Delta Quadrant design. I've already requested command of one of the new ships and it's been granted to me. It's only got a serial number right now, NX-106716, but I get the naming rights. The new ship won't be as big as the Tenshi and it won't have nearly as much firepower, but that's okay. The old girl is already being reassigned to patrolling the Dyson Spheres; she's not retiring any time soon, just taking it easy until we need her again."

Sarah sat back down and took a sip of her wine.

"Knowing this, you're all still welcome to request transfers. Maybe one of you can have the Tenshi and go busting around the Dyson Spheres."

It took less than a moment for Josephine, Ariel, and Gloria to look at each other and nod.

"Nah."

"We're in."

"Sounds fascinating."

Sarah nodded. "Then start suggesting names for OUR new starship. Now that we're not pouring all our resources into fighting ships, they'll have it ready in weeks. I mean, it WAS going to take a month, but being the Other has its perks and..."

Suddenly, another new voice interrupted.

"This is the last new voice in this blogpost or I'm walking," Ariel muttered.

"Bridge ter Admiral Sarah. We've got two shuttles on approach and boff are requestin' dockin' clearance. The passengers are boff askin' ter meet wiv yer at yor earliest convenience too."

Sarah shrugged. It had been a nice reprieve from duty and it was good to know she had her sisters backing her up, but it was time to get back to work, she supposed. "Who are they?"

"One's a shuttle from the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, Admiral Celestia pilotin', and the uvver is from the USS Excalibur bearin' a Chief Petty Officer Alex...didn't give a last name."

Sarah suddenly let out a very un-officerly squeal of glee and rushed off for the shuttle bay. Ariel sighed, Josephine chuckled, and Gloria activated her combadge.

"Bridge, this is Commander Gloria. Grant both shuttles permission to dock, but Commanders Josephine, Ariel, and I will be meeting with the Admiral. The CPO is...ah...a priority guest of Admiral Sarah's."

"Affirmative, Commander. Bridge out."

The three sisters still in the observation shared a laugh as Sarah's footsteps faded. Whatever was in the past and whatever the future may hold, they were still together, continuing a tradition of boldly going where no being had gone before.

The Home Guard

Masaki Shrine, Okayama, Japan

At 7 AM, a woman and her daughter ran around a lake. Behind them were dragons, serpents, and a golem. It was a peculiar sight in most places...or would have been if anyone else were around. The sun rose and the chase continued. The woman shouted: encouragements, curses, promises, and threats. Of all the myriad beings involved in this affair, only she was used to doing it every day. It wasn't until they'd all moved to the region that she'd begun rousing them all for the chase.


"COME ON, YOU SLUGS!" Vina Sealander shouted, running backwards for a moment to watch her Pokemon.

A Zweilous, a Gabite, a Fraxure, a Dragonaire, a Gyarados, a Golurk, a Noivern, a recently-purified Arbok, and a Juraian girl all looked up from their impromptu rest break to keep running after their cruel mistress who insisted they train now that their other mistress, Rebecca, was off in space. Only Bruticus the Golurk failed to look winded and that was likely because nobody was sure if he even could be winded. The ambiguously-alive construct-like Pokemon simply stood in place before running again.

"Are you kidding me?!" Vina called out from a distance. "I'm an old lady! None of you should have trouble keeping up with me!"

The eight Pokemon and the girl looked at each other and nodded.

Then took off running.

"That's more like it!" Vina cheered, laughing as they all passed by. "Final stretch, buckos, then breakfast!"

It had been a few months since the Kobbers had scattered to the four winds and Rebecca had gone to space to battle the rampaging Decepticon armada. Vina, Sasami, and the Sealander Squad had stayed in Vegas for a time, leaving only once all of Yagren's Pokemon victims had been purified and adopted, save for Jorge the Arbok, who had elected to join the Squad, and Alakawhat, who preferred being a Lovecraftian demon who enjoyed exploring the other dimensions with his mind while sipping lemonade.

Alakawhat had also decided not to join the exercising.

Since then, they had moved their starship, the Royal Pain, to a remote rural area in Japan where Sasami's sister was living with a distant relation of some sort. Vina didn't understand the situation completely, especially when it also involved the relation's grandson and five other woman pining for him and...well, there were politics involved that'd threatened to engulf her until she'd shown off her wedding ring.

The morning was off to a good start though. Vina had gotten the rest of her workout done before the run and would make the Squad breakfast once they got home, followed by instructing Sasami in physics and history and...

And the house was on fire. Fortunately, the Royal Pain had been parked AWAY from there.

"I swear, this had better be an alien invasion and not..." Vina muttered.

"I SAW THE WAY YOU LOOKED AT TENCHI!" a voice shrieked. "THAT LEVEL OF LEWDNESS IS DEMEANING TO A MAN OF HIS STATURE!"

"Lighten up, Princess! Like you wouldn't look at him that way if nobody were watching!" another voice taunted back.

Vina sighed. It was, in fact, Princess Ayeka and an alien space pirate named Ryoko fighting over some imagined slight or more posturing for that boy Tenchi's affections.

"I shouldn't do this, but then they'd want to bunk on the ship," Vina groaned. "Iku, go douse the flames, then we do breakfast."

The Gyarados complied, spraying the house - and the two quarreling women - with her Hydro Pump as the rest of the squad settled in for breakfast. For a brief moment, long enough to bring a pang of longing to her heart, Vina wondered if Rebecca didn't in fact have the safer job at the moment. She shrugged the thought away, serving up sausage and eggs.

She briefly considered doing something about the quarrel, but chose instead to sit down and eat. Then she got a great idea. One that was surely great and wouldn't make Rebecca freak out if she knew about it.

"Say, Sammy, how would you like to start learning to use Power Armor today? I think I looted a suit from the Brotherhood of Steel that'd fit you..."

Super Sentai Squad!...sans the super and sentai part...

Warning

The post you are about to read is canon.

Teknowledg-E Industries factory, India

With the stealth of a tornado sneaking through a trumpet collection, the six figures broke into the old factory. The security guards patrolling the facility were quick to respond, but just as quick to flee when they saw what kinds of horrible creatures were attacking. Horned, multi-colored, and reptilian, the invaders helped themselves to whatever pieces of technology they could find. The leader examined each device carefully, looking for sophisticated computer machines to put his plans into action. His companions, save the most elderly of the group, quickly grew bored of this exercise and began tossing things around in search of...well, not even they knew for sure except for the largest member of the group, who continuously asked if anyone saw a vending machine.

The Deadly Six, a team of six extraordinary beings called Zeti, had arrived.

"When do we get to smash stuff?!"

"I'm not carrying anything, right? I'll chip a nail!"

"This is all so pointless."

"Duuuuuhhhhh........does anyone else smell toast?"

The leader quickly grew agitated and snarled, bringing the four into line.

"Go to the upper levels and keep an eye out for the authorities," he ordered. "Master Zik and I will find our objective."

The leader slammed his fists together, cracking nearby computer monitors with a sonic wave.

"Now we shall get the real work done, yes?" Master Zik, the elderly Zeti, asked.

"Indeed we shall, Master," Zavok, leader of the group, responded as he set a device aside. "These components are more than suitable for repairing the scraps Eggman left behind for us."

The two continued to search the factory, quietly scavenging even as their companions continued to complain about being assigned boring tasks. The stream of complaints ended suddenly though, replaced by the sounds of hand-to-hand combat and gunfire. Moments later, the largest reptile, Zomom, came crashing down.

"Uuuuuuhhhhhh.....Boss, someone's attacking us."

Zavok facepalmed at how obvious the statement was. The sounds of his other minions, Zazz the Wild, Zeema the Vain, and Zor the Depressing, engaged in battle echoed across the factory. Other voices rang out as well: a gruff, commanding voice giving out orders as a chorus of high-pitched voices, something in German, and a strange roar answered back. There was also, oddly, the sound of a monkey.

"Continue your work, my student," Master Zik said. "I will see that you have time to find everything and leave."

Zavok nodded and turned back to his work. "I entrust our success to you then, Master."

With deceptive speed, Master Zik and Zomom leapt into the air and back towards the battle, where Zazz found himself being pummeled on three sides by a soldier with a shotgun and a cigar and a strange, masked alien with dreadlocks while Zor tried to escape the alternating curses and bullets of an insane robotic doctor. Zeema, meanwhile, was dodging around a purple-haired human girl with a hammer and fire magic, pausing only to throw something at the girl. Master Zik immediately launched a kick at the alien, catching it in the chest while Zomom tried to tackle the soldier to no effect.

The alien quickly rose to its feet in time for Master Zik to launch another fierce kick, except this time the Zeti was stopped mid-air as he found himself engulfed in some kind of webbing.

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAA! I gots me a biggun', Sarge!"

Master Zik quickly removed the webbing from him as he was attacked from above by a human girl almost as short as he was. The girl moved quickly but shot webbing from her hands in a very UNhuman-like fashion.

"Don't get cocky, Kurodane!" 'Sarge' shouted back. "These guys are almost tough enough to make me sweat!"

"Arrogant children!" Master Zik spat. "You shall have a lesson in respect beat into your heads!"

"Gotta hit me first, you prune!" 'Kurodane' taunted.

The elderly Zeti launched a flurry of punches and kicks at the girl, but her giggling never ceased, even when he did manage to land a hit. The girl was fast, but speed alone was nothing. She also had the annoying habit of bouncing off of walls, leaping high into the air, and at times outright flying.

"Need me to slow down?" she giggled again, evading a strike from Master Zik's staff.

A moment later, a burst of light shot from the first floor and struck the girl in the side.

"No, I don't think I will," Zavok stated matter-of-factly. "In fact, you may want to speed up. Deadly Six, we go!"

The other Zeti, bleeding and nursing wounds, were quick to fall back as their leader began spitting lasers and fireballs at their attackers. 'Sarge' and the alien returned fire, but the reptilians were quickly out of sight.

"Damn, almost had 'em....E.M.E.T., get over here! Kurodane's injured!" 'Sarge' ordered.

"Yes, Sergeant Johnson! I am right here!" the mechanic doctor E.M.E.T. responded, rushing over. "DAMMIT there's not even any interesting burns! Oh fucking well, deploying Healing Buoy."

Yamame Kurodane sighed as she felt her wound patching up. She'd let another badguy get the drop on her.

"Don't sweat it, kid. We'll fight 'em again," Sergeant Johnson said reassuringly. "Meanwhile, Predator, get on sentry duty. See if you can find them. Lucca, you figure out what those ugly geckos were after."

The excited chirping of a monkey interrupted the execution of Johnson's orders. Data the Monkey, a mechanical simian, trundled over.

"Orders from the patron, sir," Data reported. "Local authorities are en route. We are to return to the safe house for further orders. Another team will investigate the enemy's objective."

Johnson sighed. He didn't like leaving an unsecured combat zone, but orders were orders. "Alright team, pack it up and let's move out. Payment's waiting at the base."

Yamame sighed as the rest of her team left the factory the same way they'd come in. She wanted to punch something and vent her frustration, but settled for trying to imagine what Zeti blood tasted like as she crawled out into the night.