Rael

Longtime TF fanthing. Also super gay. Anti-anti. Occasionally (tagged) NSFW.

[raelling]

Hey can i ask which cyclonus figure that is? I'm confused which one i'm supposed to get for the pieces that came with tailgate

Hey, the base figure is the old classics/ universe Cyclonus. The version that came in the Battle in Space two-pack best matches the coloring. You can find one on eBay for about $25. :)

[raelreblogs]

Alternatives to Google Translate Dialogue

・Stylizing non-English dialogue as italic (can be paired with a short sentence before or after indicating the speaker has lapsed into another language) ・Variations on the tried and true “____ said in [language]” ・If it’s a language your POV character can’t understand, it’s often more immersive to abandon the actual words in favor of “a burst of rapid-fire [language]”, “a mumbled curse in [language]”, etc.

Any of these will be infinitely less distracting to readers who actually speak the language you’re trying to use―and to those who don’t as well.

If there’s something you feel NEEDS to be written out in a language you don’t speak, it will be worth the effort to track down someone who does speak the language and is willing to help. (The fandom is large and diverse, and it could be as simple as a quick request to your followers or one dropped in a tag.)

Then, if the language uses a different writing system, please keep in mind that romanized text will be much less visually jarring and disruptive of flow than a sudden spattering of hiragana, Hangul, Devanagari, etc. in a sea of English.

Happy writing!

[raelling]

Sharing on the main blog too because I have Strong Feelings about this. :')

[glovestudiosart]

Carrie Fisher Brain Research Fundraiser #CFBRF

Like many of you. I was shocked and saddened to hear about Carrie Fisher passing away. We’ve lost a lot of great people in 2016, famous or otherwise, yet Carrie Fisher’s passing hit me harder than some others.

Perhaps it was due to a cumulative effect throughout the year, but I think it was also due to the big part that Star Wars has played in my life. Hearing that one of the most iconic creative contributors to the films (along with her many other accomplishments as a writer, actor and activist) had suffered a fatal heart attack really hit home.

So in response, I’m doing what I can to raise funds for mental health research in honor of Carrie Fisher. As many of you know, she suffered from bipolar disorder and was outspoken about it, raising awareness of mental health issues and helping to fundraise for research.

I’m offering Star Wars commissions at $50 each with all profits to be donated to Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to alleviating the suffering caused by mental illness by awarding grants that will lead to advances and breakthroughs in scientific research. (A+ rating from charitywatch)

You can purchase your commission at the following link (List your character request in the notes section during checkout): http://glovestudios.storenvy.com/collections/1452859-charity-commissions

-  Please limit commission requests to Star Wars characters only. (Films, novels, TV shows, and comics are all fine.) Star Wars mashup characters are OK too. (Kylo Ren mixed with Batman, for example.)

- The amount of time it takes for me to get these done will depend on how many commissions I get. (I’m pretty busy with work and commissions for the foreseeable future so these will be done on the side.)

- The size of the commission will be on 9”x12” bristol paper, either a head shot or bust depending on what works best for the character and what inspiration strikes me.

- Two characters together or one full body character on 11” x 14” bristol paper will be $100

- The length of time I’ll accept these requests will depend on how successful it is.

- You can purchase your commission here http://glovestudios.storenvy.com/collections/1452859-charity-commissions and shipping costs will be included at checkout. If you live near me or see me often and don’t need it shipped, reach out to me before purchasing and we can work out payment.

- All funds aside from shipping & handling will be donated to the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation https://bbrfoundation.org/

- Please be aware it may take some time to get the drawings back to people. I’m assuming I would be able to start on some of them in January 2017. My regular work deadlines are my first priority. Have to pay the bills, after all.

- I’ll post the commissions as I finish them on social media using the hashtag #CFBRF (Carrie Fisher Brain Research Fundraiser)

[raelling]

Took a trip to the craft store yesterday. Whoops.

[raelling]

TFcon Chicago 2016 - Voice Actor Script Reading

Video is up! This time around, it was a fun G1/Beast Wars crossover story written by David Cunningham, featuring Garry Chalk, Gregg Berger, Michael Bell, Richard Newman, Frank Todaro, Jon Bailey, Jason Marnocha, and fan participants, including a few members of the Audio Knights Theatre, and also myself as Arcee. :D

[raelling]

Finally slapped some paint on Ratchet (though that shade is more orange IRL), so here’s my #LostLightFest catch-up photo. :B Now what to do for Rung...

[underrael]

Felt fabulous at Anime Weekend Atlanta this past weekend, and met an absolutely amazing Papyrus. 💖

[raelling]

Not Transformers, but just in case anyone wanted to know what I'd been up to recently, putting this together was some of it. ;)

[raelling]

The Super Secret List of fics I’ve had completely outlined/thousands of words down on for years without finishing/posting:

• G1 Blaster/Soundwave - post-war armistice AU where they are forced to treat each other civilly but it’s so hard • G1 Cyclonus/Tailgate - Cyc-finally-gives-up-on-Galvatron-and-then-finds-happiness AU (their love crosses continuities shhhh) • TFP Breakdown/Knock Out - post-war AU where they figure out what the hell to do with themselves now without a war to fight • IDW Tailgate/Cyclonus - TG finds out first hand that members of the Clavis Aurea don’t interface until they find a conjunx endura (*eyebrow wiggle*) • Armada Optimus/Megatron - post-series AU (ignore Transformers Energon boo hiss) where Optimus finds out while out on his soul searching journey that Meg/Galvatron is not actually dead

Maybe someday :’D

[kaysiel]

TFN went really well! Thank you to everyone who came to visit me on my table, I had a fantastic weekend :D

For those of you who couldn’t make it, everything I’ve been working on is now up on my Etsy! Click here to check it out!

As a massive thank you, I’m offering free worldwide shipping on patches, charms and cases ordered during 24th August–1st September :D

On top of this, all the fabrics I’ve designed are now up on Spoonflower for people to buy if they want to make stuff themselves! Click here!

I’m trying a new way to list things on etsy- so all the patches are in one listing, and hopefully this will make it easier to find characters. We’ll see how it goes :P

I sold so much at the con, I haven’t got any items left to take pictures of! So please accept all these temporary phone pics until I can get nice pictures of everything :3

Also, once I’m more settled, I’ll start offering other custom items such as pencil wraps and wallets, so keep an eye out for those soon too!

etsy + spoonflower + twitter

[raelling]

Eeeeey, finally caved and picked up a teal and purple Cygate pouch.

Hey you, go throw some disposable income at her if you’ve got it and get some cute robot stuff because her prices are unbelievably good. :D

[raelling]

MORE ridiculous Cygate fluff

Once again, @spewpew‘s perfect tweets are to blame (this time in the form of art!). I feel like this is well on its way to becoming a thing.

Domestic as all hell, and it can be viewed as a sequel to yesterday’s fluffy nonsense if you like. ;)

When Cyclonus returned to his shared habsuite toward the end of one cycle, the sight that greeted him as he stepped through the doorway was perfectly typical. Tailgate was seated at the console desk, hunched over to fiddle with some project or other, with his head craned around to grab a glimpse of the active screen, presumably for reference.

The greeting Cyclonus received, however, was something he was still trying to get used to. Tailgate called out a warm “Hey there!” and put down whatever he was working on before swiftly rising from his seat, crossing the space to Cyclonus, and encompassing his lower body in a hug.

The expression that Cyclonus could feel shaping his mouth and his eyes still felt unnatural on his face, but he no longer cared—he had, in fact, finally begun to welcome it.  His hand came to rest reflexively on the blue hood that protected Tailgate’s head, and he made no effort to squash his expression into something more neutral when Tailgate pulled back slightly to raise his visor.

“Rewind showed me how to upgrade the storage cache on a datapad today. I think I’ve got most of it down now—it’s just getting everything reassembled right that’s tricky.” He bobbed his head back slightly, indicating a datapad lying on the desk with its casing open. “How about you? What’ve you been up to?”

“Nothing remarkable, though I’ve somehow found myself in demand as a sparring partner for those desiring change of pace.” He shifted slightly in Tailgate’s embrace to initiate the move to a berth.

“Oh?” Tailgate released him and followed his lead, hopping up onto the berth closer to the window. Cyclonus removed his sword, setting it in its usual place beside the berth,  and allowed himself a small wince as he settled into the space beside him.

“It was proclaimed, loudly, that other options were proving insufficient. I found I was not averse to the idea.”

Tailgate cocked his head to the side knowingly. “So you enjoyed yourself, then?”

Cyclonus rolled his shoulder joints slightly. “Perhaps a bit.”

Tailgate gave him a long look, then shuffled up onto his knees to lean against Cyclonus’ back.

“But it seems like you’re feeling it a bit now, huh?”

“I’m fine. Anything lingering will be gone by tomorrow.”

“Uh-huh.” Cyclonus felt small fingers rub against the joins of panels midway down his back. “Sure.” Then those small fingers pressed.

The groan that escaped him would have been humiliating if let out in public (though Tailgate’s ensuing giggle would perhaps have been worth it). He found himself forgetting about Tailgate’s enhanced strength all too often.

“You can’t fool me. C’mon, lie down on your front.” Tailgate backed to the far edge of the berth and firmly patted a place in the middle.

Cyclonus had gotten better about picking his battles, so with only a short grumble of resistance, he did as asked.

Tailgate took a seat over Cyclonus’ hips and set to work on the points where his shoulder panels met, loosening taught tensile cables and tipping hydraulic pistons into resetting.

He slowly worked his way down Cyclonus’ back, occasionally venturing out to his arms before returning, and seemingly challenging himself to wring as many small, pleased sounds out of Cyclonus as he could. Before long, Cyclonus found himself eased utterly strutless into the berth, his optics offline, oblivious to the passage of time. Somewhere along the way, Tailgate started quietly humming one of the songs Cyclonus had taught him ages ago (or at least it felt like ages ago, with all that had happened), back when they’d just begun to open up to one another.

Cyclonus eventually mustered up enough processing power to form a complete sentence. “I don’t understand—mmm—how you got quite so good at this.”

“Heh. Some things you don’t have to learn, I guess.”

Tailgate continued on to his lower back, sparing some special attention for the small area in the center. Once he was satisfied with how thorough he’d been there, he made a quick pass back up, and then over to Cyclonus’ arms, before finally sitting back with one last two-handed pat.

Cyclonus cycled a deep ventilation, but he couldn’t quite manage to lift his head when he mumbled a sincere “Thank you.”

Tailgate nudged him over slightly to huddle next to him on the berth, scooting up so their heads were even. When he was settled, Cyclonus curled an arm around his waist, his forearm snug against Tailgate’s lower back.

Recharge was too inviting to resist, but even as shut-down protocols initiated, Cyclonus murmured a thought that had crossed his mind earlier. “You know, most would have simply acquired a new datapad with better capabilities.”

Tailgate knocked his forehead against Cyclonus’ with a soft clink.

“Maybe, but I like the one I’ve got.”

[raelling]

Ridiculous Cygate fluff,

for which I blame @spewpew and her tweets. Started as a ridiculous premise and remained ridiculous and I do not care. :B

“Thanks again, Ten!” Tailgate called back as he took off down the corridor.

He could barely hear the friendly “Ten!” given in response over the sound of his hoverboard zooming further away.

Caught between apprehension and giddy anticipation, he counted the doors remaining before he’d reach the habsuite he and Cyclonus shared. He wouldn’t give himself time to back out—not this time. He was gonna show Cyclonus his new adornment as soon as he came through the door and see what that tall, handsome—er, what he thought of it, for better or worse.

He hopped off his hoverboard outside the door (he’d gotten so much better at braking!) and dashed inside. Cyclonus was standing at the window again (the ship hadn’t even moved since the time he’d spent gazing out of it yesterday; you’d think there’d be a limit to how long somebody could stare at the same stars before the pattern got seared into their optical input), but his head turned sharply at the commotion.

Tailgate had gotten a lot better at reading Cyclonus’ subtle facial expressions, so he could detect a hint of inquisitiveness about Tailgate’s haste.

“So,” he started, gearing himself up, “the other week, when Nautica was talking about people getting paint alterations depicting things that were important to them, I started thinking. About how cool that sounded, and about what’s really important to me, I mean. I knew exactly what I would get, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so today I went to Ten and got him to paint a design for me.”

Cyclonus seemed to have frozen in place. Tailgate took a few hasty steps to join him at the window. He had made it this far—it was the moment of truth now.

“This is what I got.” He turned around to show Cyclonus his back, and the depiction of the sleek purple aircraft zooming across the lower portion of it.

There was a tense moment of anticipation, and then he shivered as a pointed fingertip grazed over the plating near the edge of the image.

“The, ah, the topcoat is still curing.” The fingertip moved a safer distance away, but didn’t leave his back. Cyclonus still hadn’t said anything, though. Tailgate craned his body around to catch Cyclonus’ reflection in the window, but those red optics were staring at Tailgate’s back like they usually stared at the stars, lost to introspection.

“Well?”

Cyclonus gave a small jerk and seemed to come back to himself. Tailgate turned back around to face him with a hopeful quirk to his visor. “Do you— Do you like it?”

Tailgate thought he heard Cyclonus reset his vocalizer. “I feel…undeserving of representation on your body, Tailgate, and of your regard.”

Well, that wasn’t a rejection at least, right? Right?

“However, I feel you deserve to know that I…” Tailgate may have gotten good at recognizing Cyclonus’ facial expressions, but this was a pretty new one. Discomfiture, maybe.

Tailgate was left puzzled as Cyclonus’ arms reached over his head, hesitating once before continuing on, and removed the sword from his back. After resting it against the wall, he turned away, mirroring Tailgate’s earlier movement, and knelt down and leaned forward slightly. Curious, Tailgate took a step closer.

There, on the center of Cyclonus’ back, right above the start of his tassets, sat a small representation of a rounded, white vehicle.

“Cyclonus!” he gasped. He fought the urge to bring his hands to his faceplate but failed immediately.

“Hmm?”

“It’s me!”

“Yes.” OK, Tailgate could definitely pick up a bit of satisfaction in his tone now.

“How long have you had it?”

“Since, ah, since the week the subject came up.”

“And you hid it behind your sword this whole time?” He resisted the urge to give Cyclonus a swat to his shoulder and succeeded this time. “No wonder I kept feeling like Ten was smirking at me on the inside the whole time—you got him to do yours too, didn’t you?”

Cyclonus still hadn’t turned back around yet, so Tailgate stepped around and planted himself in front of him, meeting Cyclonus’ eyes as the other replied.

“There aren’t many on the ship who are both artistically inclined and discreet.” There was still a slight quirk to Cyclonus’ lips, but it disappeared as his gaze dropped to Tailgate’s hands.

Cyclonus picked them up in his larger ones and just held them there, and Tailgate felt a little like his ventilation system was seizing. This was an opportunity. He had to take it.

“Can we talk? About this? About us? Please?”

Cyclonus brought Tailgate’s hands to his lips and met his gaze again. “I think it is past time we did.”

(Oh look, there’s more!)

[wordmongerer]

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey! We are on the threshold of the first TFNation and I will be colouring sketches like a crazy thing! This is how it works:

1. Bring me your black and white sketch

2. I scan it in and colour it up

3. I print it on glossy photo paper and because I’ve coloured the scan you get to keep your original too.

I’m opening a limited number of commissions and they will be tackled first come first served basis. I will be at TFN from Thursday night and will accept commissions throughout the show until my list is full. Commissions will be done as I get them so there may come a point where no more can be done in time for Sunday and will be posted after the show.

If you know the artist has already done your sketch let me know and I will contact them ahead of time to get scans. If you have sketches from previous years you’d like done you can also send them to me ahead of the show at [email protected] - scans should be 300dpi and greyscale unless it’s a sketch cover in which case full colour.

[raelling]

Transformers commissions from Botcon 2016! Featuring my Armada OTP by Sakamoto Hayato, Getaway (that beautiful bastard) by Alex Milne, and Soundwave with his guilty pleasure by Casey Coller. 

Also shared a lovely piece from Sara Pitre-Durocher over here on my Undertale sideblog.

Time to roll around in all this wonderful art (but not literally--gonna frame this stuff). :B

[raelling]

Aaaand colored. Had a fun time drawing her. :B

[raelling]

Happy birthday to Sakamoto-sensei! (/°▽°)/

[dyemooch]

Hey, you think any chance of getting IDW to drop that facebook asshat a C&D if enough people bring it to their attention?

Not sure, really; the biggest issue is that this person is using personal/fan art mostly(from what I see). IDW will handle it if he’s profiting off their stuff, I think(?), but I’m more bothered by the fan art and print work by fans and professional artists. ):T

[raelling]

Since he’s offering boat loads of IDW and Hasbro-owned art as up for grabs for shirt prints as well (including a bunch of Casey’s covers, for instance), I wonder if a corporate C&D would be enough to get them to quit the unethical business venture all together.

[bill-blue12345]

[raelling]

Needed this on main blog. Too beautiful not to be.