TL;DR AHOOOY
Working my way through season 3 of Transformers. I'd put up a spoiler warning, but I'm pretty sure everyone knows Optimus Prime, as robot Jesus, dies during the movie. Along with pretty much everyone else. Except Perceptor for some reason. IDK how the hell Wheeljack and Ironhide and Prowl all kicked the bucket but somehow Mr. I-Turn-Into-A-Microscope lived through the Unicrocalypse. Not that I have anything against Perceptor, but...
...but god I miss Starscream. I miss him like burning. Optimus Prime, too. And Ironhide. But goddamn, I'm missing that little failbucket the most. I think Galvatron does, too, somewhere in that insane mind of his. It's why he keeps beating the crap out of Cyclonus, who doesn't deserve it. Sheer force of habit. Cyclonus' ~*~oh, mighty Galvatron~*~ just isn't the same without the bitter sarcasm.
I'm also finding myself shipping Cyclonus with Ultra Magnus. I--their dialogue in The Killing Jar. I swear. "IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I'VE FOUGHT AN ENEMY WORTHY OF MY...FULL ATTENTION." "WHEN NEXT WE MEET, IT WILL BE AS ENEMIES. SOLDIERS ON OPPOSITE SIDES. /sadface" FML, I SHIP IT. EXCEPT GALVATRON WILL ALWAYS BE MORE IMPORTANT TO CYCLONUS. ;~; IT'S LIKE MEGATRON/STARSCREAM/SKY- JET- SKYFIRE ALL OVER AGAIN BUT WITH LESS DISLOYALTY.
Also, how is Marissa Faireborn so badass? She is the most competent character in the series so far and she's a human chick. She's Lane's mother. I believe this.
KAT. WE ARE WATCHING TRANSFORMERS AND GRAVITATION SOMETIME THIS WEEK. I DEMAND IT.
(no srsly he and Sue can make everyone's lives miserable together.)
Except it grew into a more general high school AU, except it focuses on the arts clubs. Protagonists are in the drama club with the play characters. An important thing to remember is, it is governed by Rule of Funny.
QUICK RUNDOWN ON CANON CHARACTERS IN THIS 'VERSE:
That Terrifying Stage Manager Whose Name I Think Is Leah: Exactly what it says on the tin. She is loud and terrifying and would rule with an iron fist if she could actually control her actors. Do not eat on her stage. Ever. She might threaten you with a mallet. Or a saw. She's a liiiittle crazy.
Caleb: Meek, derpy curtain boy and sole member of the set crew. He's quiet and adorable and drowns his sorrows in Nutella when he's upset. And he's upset a lot, because he has an epic crush on the prima donna --
Olivia: Completely self-absorbed and a terrible actress, she's not a bad person. She's not malicious. She's just in her own little cloudcuckooland where she is the most beautiful and talented actress in the world and just assumes that she will be worshiped wherever she goes. When she's hamming up a part, her voice goes high-pitched and she puts on a cockney accent for reasons I cannot begin to fathom. Maybe it's because she feels it's appropriate to Shakespeare.
Logan: the set builder. He talks in single-syllable words, not because he's an idiot, but because elaborating really isn't worth it. "Sure" and "yup" are pretty much all he does besides paint sets. He'll paint and paint and paint, even if there's no paint on the paintbrush. It's not explicitly stated in canon, but he is, in fact, an android who lives under the stage and eats freshmen.
Andrew: The Sound Tech. Needlessly theatrical, he talks like he's working at the Renaissance Festival, but only when he's been faced with a challenge. Strangely, he has no interest in actual acting. (Also, He's like Don Quixote: born into the wrong time, he engages in overly dramatic battles with the evil witch who controls the day and the night...
Sophie: the Light Tech, because she won't give him her gum. Ever. She is smart, confident, and just a little evil. She always wins the prank wars. Always. She and Andrew are going to get married one day so they can engage in their battles more conveniently.
Zoe: The poor costume designer who has to deal with Olivia. Her patience is worn pretty thin. On the whole, though, she's a decent person, who just wants Olivia to stand still so she can hem the Juliet dress, dammit. She has UST with...
That Other Guy whose name I can't remember. He's a pretty normal guy, the one who plays the extras, or does the prologue. He's completely inexperienced and has trouble remembering his lines. Kat may have more info on him, since she's done AMAZING CHARACTER-BUILDING EXERCISES for these guys which I WANT TO SEE BY THE WAY. /SIGNIFICANT LOOK. Let me know if I got any of these characters wrong.
Anyway, that's all eight. They also have a terrible director by the name of Mr. B, who is fresh out of college and sick of all this. He gets terrible headaches, and does things like pass out in the bathroom on opening night. Just think typical low-budget amateur high school theater and everything that goes with it.
NOW FOR THE FANDOM CHARACTERS.
WE HAD TO PUT SHATTERED GLASS IN THIS 'VERSE. WE HAD TO. THE WAVES WERE TOO GOOD TO PASS UP. TOO GODDAMN GOOD. Shockwave was the worst Hamlet ever. Ever. His speeches were delivered with so much energy, he made them inspirational. He totally missed the point of the "what a piece of work is man" speech. DO THE IMPOSSIBLE! TAKE ARMS AGAINST YOUR SEA OF TROUBLES! FIGHT THE POWER!
Soundwave is another sound tech, allied with Andrew in his battle against Sophie. Not because of the gum, but because he's having fun. He also wholeheartedly approves of Andrew's Lady Gaga obsession, and they'll use the sound system to broadcast Telephone and then dance to it on the stage. "OKAY, YOU TAKE BEYONCE'S PART, AND I'LL SING LADY GAGA'S! LET'S DO THIS!" He wears a respirator because of allergies, I think.
I have no idea what Megatron is doing teaching high school math, but he is. I'm guessing the only reason he's there is because Optimus is the librarian, and he's keeping an eye on him. Either way, Megatron shows up late in the game, because he'd fix a lot of the problems in the drama club, and it needs to be complete chaos for a year or two. He had no idea he was going to wind up sponsoring the drama club -- I'm imagining a Glee-like scenario, where he's roped into taking it over (the Waves ask him, or something) to keep it from going under, and winds up really involved in it. He does help the group a lot: he can somehow get Olivia to cooperate, and Leah the crazy stage manager actually likes him. She doesn't like anybody. Starscream...I'm not sure about him, I'm thinking a student teacher in college...? But IDK if I want him much older than the Waves...I'll have to think about this. Optimus creeps on him though.
Speaking of Optimus, he's the scariest librarian in the world. Like, if you don't turn a book back in on time? He will find you and menace you against your locker and ask you if there's something you'd like to return to him, something you shouldn't be keeping. And if that book is damaged...Heaven help you. (There's a student who goes by Blurr. He's missing an eye. There's a rumor that Prime was behind it. No one has been able to prove anything.) He's actually busted about half the drug-dealing kids in the school like this: they think he's talking about the pot in their backpacks. and I ship him with Sue foreverrrrr
Aside from the SG Cons, we've got a few Bleach people in here. Ichigo, who ordinarily would never touch a drama club, was roped into doing lighting tech stuff by Rukia after some kind of accident left her unable to do it. He's not allowed to leave until her arm is fully recovered and she can do her part in setting lights and working the board. He tried to stay aloof from the Light vs. Sound prank war, but when he got hit by the crossfire, his pride wouldn't let him back down. Strangely, I could totally ship him with Sophie, but I think they're just epic bros. Ishida is one of the costume designers, and they can see ghosts. Hollows do happen, but the major Bleach plot does not. We basically stop things right before the Soul Society arc, because Rukia isn't from Soul Society.
This applies to Watanuki as well, from xxxHolic. He's one of those poor guys who's been in drama since his freshman year, but never gets cast as anything but an extra. He does make delicious food, though, when rehearsal goes late -- they never have to order pizza. Nobody wants to, because Watanuki's food is so delicious. Doumeki is a stage hand, and gets along with Logan perfectly. Their exchanges go like this:
LOGAN: Brush.
DOUMEKI: /silently hands him one
and then they resume painting. It creeps Watanuki out to no end -- "It's like there are TWO of them!" Himawari's probably in it, and got a part once, but the show wound up canceled, thanks to her being made of bad luck. She and Orihime just do manager things, designing programs (Orihime's programs are so wacky, Himawari designs them and Orihime prints them) and running the box office and stuff. Orihime acts sometimes, too -- she finds getting into character difficult, but once she does, and the character clicks, she gets super serious and is brilliant. It's the same with Doumeki -- no one expects someone so deadpan all the time to be any good, but he's got a surprising amount of talent. But he never gets cast in a major role ever, because Shockwave upstages everyone.
Who else is in here? Oh, right, Kanji from Persona 4. He's another costume designer. He sews pretty dresses and doesn't afraid of anything, and helps Watanuki cook for everyone. There are rumors going around the school that he's gay, but nothing's been confirmed. He had a brief mancrush on Ishida when they were staying late after school to finish costumes, but after getting to know the guy (and how ridiculous he is), Kanji decided no.
Speaking of the Persona 4 people, Rise is another prima donna, though she's a bit more intelligent than Olivia. They would be competitive, but Olivia believes herself completely above any sort of competition a high school could offer, so she doesn't even notice until Rise gets a leading role. Then, Olivia assumes it was some kind of misunderstanding and learns the part anyway. Epic confusion ensues. This 'verse is made of shenanigans. Yosuke is in Watanuki's boat: he always always always tries out, but is stuck as an extra/minor character forever. But by god, those two speaking lines he's got? They're going to be the best lines in the whole play. Yumi is probably in it, competing with Rise and Olivia. Souji is in the band so he doesn't seduce social link with everyone.
And speaking of bands! The Vizards are jazz band. Aizen might run the biggest mariachi band in the country orchestra. IDK what the Soul Society proxy is, we might just not have one. Anyone from Soul Society we want to put in can be a teacher or a policeman. I am sooooo tempted to have Optimus run the Glee club. RULE OF FUNNY. Plus, he and Megatron can have epic rivalry and fight over time to use the auditorium. "No, I'm sure I remember that you get the rehearsal hall tomorrow--" "Your resentment is delicious. >)"
Another note: (ahahahahahahaaaa you get my joke) B is in this 'verse as a total creeper. (do you know how funny it looks to type out the HTML to bold B) He hangs out under the stage and eats freshmen, after washing them down with jam first. I kid, he actually couldn't get away with that and besides, Logan does that already but he's kind of. He. He pretends to be fairly sane, aside from a little eccentric, but he's actually a really creepy sociopath. He defies Leah to eat jam straight out of the jar, and is absolutely freaking genius-level brilliant. There is a plot where he and Ichigo's twin brother (the Hollow proxy in this 'verse, who goes to a different school) team up: Shiro wants to pull an epic prank where he fakes Ichigo's death and pretends to be his ghost, with creepy lighting and stuff in the auditorium, and B wants to troll Naoto. So B drugs Ichigo and hides the body, leaving clues for Naoto to figure out where it is, while Shiro is an asshole to everyone. The prank sooo goes too far, and Shiro gets in trouble for it (though B wriggles out of it scot-free).
This 'verse also has a healthy helping of OCs from other stories: Red's in it as a crippled set designer, Connor is an obnoxious asshole who, along with his smooth ladykiller of a BFFL, Steven, gets cast in most major roles because he's one of the few who can deal with Olivia. (Caleb is jealous.) Sniffy is a sound tech (his name is Sydney, but everyone calls him Sniffy because of his terrible allergies) and always winds up on the butt end of the lighting department's pranks. If they take the legs out of a chair, chances are it'll be Sniffy who sits on it. Lane, a social activist turned chemist and prospective doctor, also helps build sets. He's very serious, and will call everyone (but especially Olivia and Steven) out on their bullshit. He's so frustrated with everything, and all he wants to do is build his sets in peace.
Tio is talented but needlessly aloof. He's actually seriously interested in theater, but he would not be able to take acting opposite Olivia, and has given up on the club as hopeless. He's watching it like a trainwreck, and weeps quietly on William Shakespeare's behalf. There's another stagehand named Tom who is competing with Caleb for Most Adorable Thing In The World. He's a really nice guy, a total sweetheart, who helps Watanuki and Kanji cook and is friends with Tio. The thing about Tom, though, is that he's got two personalities. He started out as a parody of Yugi from YuGiOh, but with cooking instead of card games. Dark Tom is confident, kind of abrasive, and will challenge people to cooking competitions to resolve conflicts. Or just duel them with spatulas. He's kind of ridiculous but has no idea how ridiculous he is outside of a shounen story about cooking.
I think that pretty much covers everyone! Let me see...got the Shattered Glass, Bleach, xxxHolic, Persona 4, and OC casts...did I miss anyone? GOD I AM SUCH A LOSER I CANNOT BELIEVE I ACTUALLY JUST TYPED ALL THAT OUT. I CAN EXPLAIN MOAR ABOUT THE VARIOUS CHARACTERS IF IT IS NEEDED.
...but god I miss Starscream. I miss him like burning. Optimus Prime, too. And Ironhide. But goddamn, I'm missing that little failbucket the most. I think Galvatron does, too, somewhere in that insane mind of his. It's why he keeps beating the crap out of Cyclonus, who doesn't deserve it. Sheer force of habit. Cyclonus' ~*~oh, mighty Galvatron~*~ just isn't the same without the bitter sarcasm.
I'm also finding myself shipping Cyclonus with Ultra Magnus. I--their dialogue in The Killing Jar. I swear. "IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I'VE FOUGHT AN ENEMY WORTHY OF MY...FULL ATTENTION." "WHEN NEXT WE MEET, IT WILL BE AS ENEMIES. SOLDIERS ON OPPOSITE SIDES. /sadface" FML, I SHIP IT. EXCEPT GALVATRON WILL ALWAYS BE MORE IMPORTANT TO CYCLONUS. ;~; IT'S LIKE MEGATRON/STARSCREAM/SKY- JET- SKYFIRE ALL OVER AGAIN BUT WITH LESS DISLOYALTY.
Also, how is Marissa Faireborn so badass? She is the most competent character in the series so far and she's a human chick. She's Lane's mother. I believe this.
KAT. WE ARE WATCHING TRANSFORMERS AND GRAVITATION SOMETIME THIS WEEK. I DEMAND IT.
(no srsly he and Sue can make everyone's lives miserable together.)
Except it grew into a more general high school AU, except it focuses on the arts clubs. Protagonists are in the drama club with the play characters. An important thing to remember is, it is governed by Rule of Funny.
QUICK RUNDOWN ON CANON CHARACTERS IN THIS 'VERSE:
That Terrifying Stage Manager Whose Name I Think Is Leah: Exactly what it says on the tin. She is loud and terrifying and would rule with an iron fist if she could actually control her actors. Do not eat on her stage. Ever. She might threaten you with a mallet. Or a saw. She's a liiiittle crazy.
Caleb: Meek, derpy curtain boy and sole member of the set crew. He's quiet and adorable and drowns his sorrows in Nutella when he's upset. And he's upset a lot, because he has an epic crush on the prima donna --
Olivia: Completely self-absorbed and a terrible actress, she's not a bad person. She's not malicious. She's just in her own little cloudcuckooland where she is the most beautiful and talented actress in the world and just assumes that she will be worshiped wherever she goes. When she's hamming up a part, her voice goes high-pitched and she puts on a cockney accent for reasons I cannot begin to fathom. Maybe it's because she feels it's appropriate to Shakespeare.
Logan: the set builder. He talks in single-syllable words, not because he's an idiot, but because elaborating really isn't worth it. "Sure" and "yup" are pretty much all he does besides paint sets. He'll paint and paint and paint, even if there's no paint on the paintbrush. It's not explicitly stated in canon, but he is, in fact, an android who lives under the stage and eats freshmen.
Andrew: The Sound Tech. Needlessly theatrical, he talks like he's working at the Renaissance Festival, but only when he's been faced with a challenge. Strangely, he has no interest in actual acting. (Also, He's like Don Quixote: born into the wrong time, he engages in overly dramatic battles with the evil witch who controls the day and the night...
Sophie: the Light Tech, because she won't give him her gum. Ever. She is smart, confident, and just a little evil. She always wins the prank wars. Always. She and Andrew are going to get married one day so they can engage in their battles more conveniently.
Zoe: The poor costume designer who has to deal with Olivia. Her patience is worn pretty thin. On the whole, though, she's a decent person, who just wants Olivia to stand still so she can hem the Juliet dress, dammit. She has UST with...
That Other Guy whose name I can't remember. He's a pretty normal guy, the one who plays the extras, or does the prologue. He's completely inexperienced and has trouble remembering his lines. Kat may have more info on him, since she's done AMAZING CHARACTER-BUILDING EXERCISES for these guys which I WANT TO SEE BY THE WAY. /SIGNIFICANT LOOK. Let me know if I got any of these characters wrong.
Anyway, that's all eight. They also have a terrible director by the name of Mr. B, who is fresh out of college and sick of all this. He gets terrible headaches, and does things like pass out in the bathroom on opening night. Just think typical low-budget amateur high school theater and everything that goes with it.
NOW FOR THE FANDOM CHARACTERS.
WE HAD TO PUT SHATTERED GLASS IN THIS 'VERSE. WE HAD TO. THE WAVES WERE TOO GOOD TO PASS UP. TOO GODDAMN GOOD. Shockwave was the worst Hamlet ever. Ever. His speeches were delivered with so much energy, he made them inspirational. He totally missed the point of the "what a piece of work is man" speech. DO THE IMPOSSIBLE! TAKE ARMS AGAINST YOUR SEA OF TROUBLES! FIGHT THE POWER!
Soundwave is another sound tech, allied with Andrew in his battle against Sophie. Not because of the gum, but because he's having fun. He also wholeheartedly approves of Andrew's Lady Gaga obsession, and they'll use the sound system to broadcast Telephone and then dance to it on the stage. "OKAY, YOU TAKE BEYONCE'S PART, AND I'LL SING LADY GAGA'S! LET'S DO THIS!" He wears a respirator because of allergies, I think.
I have no idea what Megatron is doing teaching high school math, but he is. I'm guessing the only reason he's there is because Optimus is the librarian, and he's keeping an eye on him. Either way, Megatron shows up late in the game, because he'd fix a lot of the problems in the drama club, and it needs to be complete chaos for a year or two. He had no idea he was going to wind up sponsoring the drama club -- I'm imagining a Glee-like scenario, where he's roped into taking it over (the Waves ask him, or something) to keep it from going under, and winds up really involved in it. He does help the group a lot: he can somehow get Olivia to cooperate, and Leah the crazy stage manager actually likes him. She doesn't like anybody. Starscream...I'm not sure about him, I'm thinking a student teacher in college...? But IDK if I want him much older than the Waves...I'll have to think about this. Optimus creeps on him though.
Speaking of Optimus, he's the scariest librarian in the world. Like, if you don't turn a book back in on time? He will find you and menace you against your locker and ask you if there's something you'd like to return to him, something you shouldn't be keeping. And if that book is damaged...Heaven help you. (There's a student who goes by Blurr. He's missing an eye. There's a rumor that Prime was behind it. No one has been able to prove anything.) He's actually busted about half the drug-dealing kids in the school like this: they think he's talking about the pot in their backpacks. and I ship him with Sue foreverrrrr
Aside from the SG Cons, we've got a few Bleach people in here. Ichigo, who ordinarily would never touch a drama club, was roped into doing lighting tech stuff by Rukia after some kind of accident left her unable to do it. He's not allowed to leave until her arm is fully recovered and she can do her part in setting lights and working the board. He tried to stay aloof from the Light vs. Sound prank war, but when he got hit by the crossfire, his pride wouldn't let him back down. Strangely, I could totally ship him with Sophie, but I think they're just epic bros. Ishida is one of the costume designers, and they can see ghosts. Hollows do happen, but the major Bleach plot does not. We basically stop things right before the Soul Society arc, because Rukia isn't from Soul Society.
This applies to Watanuki as well, from xxxHolic. He's one of those poor guys who's been in drama since his freshman year, but never gets cast as anything but an extra. He does make delicious food, though, when rehearsal goes late -- they never have to order pizza. Nobody wants to, because Watanuki's food is so delicious. Doumeki is a stage hand, and gets along with Logan perfectly. Their exchanges go like this:
LOGAN: Brush.
DOUMEKI: /silently hands him one
and then they resume painting. It creeps Watanuki out to no end -- "It's like there are TWO of them!" Himawari's probably in it, and got a part once, but the show wound up canceled, thanks to her being made of bad luck. She and Orihime just do manager things, designing programs (Orihime's programs are so wacky, Himawari designs them and Orihime prints them) and running the box office and stuff. Orihime acts sometimes, too -- she finds getting into character difficult, but once she does, and the character clicks, she gets super serious and is brilliant. It's the same with Doumeki -- no one expects someone so deadpan all the time to be any good, but he's got a surprising amount of talent. But he never gets cast in a major role ever, because Shockwave upstages everyone.
Who else is in here? Oh, right, Kanji from Persona 4. He's another costume designer. He sews pretty dresses and doesn't afraid of anything, and helps Watanuki cook for everyone. There are rumors going around the school that he's gay, but nothing's been confirmed. He had a brief mancrush on Ishida when they were staying late after school to finish costumes, but after getting to know the guy (and how ridiculous he is), Kanji decided no.
Speaking of the Persona 4 people, Rise is another prima donna, though she's a bit more intelligent than Olivia. They would be competitive, but Olivia believes herself completely above any sort of competition a high school could offer, so she doesn't even notice until Rise gets a leading role. Then, Olivia assumes it was some kind of misunderstanding and learns the part anyway. Epic confusion ensues. This 'verse is made of shenanigans. Yosuke is in Watanuki's boat: he always always always tries out, but is stuck as an extra/minor character forever. But by god, those two speaking lines he's got? They're going to be the best lines in the whole play. Yumi is probably in it, competing with Rise and Olivia. Souji is in the band so he doesn't seduce social link with everyone.
And speaking of bands! The Vizards are jazz band. Aizen might run the biggest mariachi band in the country orchestra. IDK what the Soul Society proxy is, we might just not have one. Anyone from Soul Society we want to put in can be a teacher or a policeman. I am sooooo tempted to have Optimus run the Glee club. RULE OF FUNNY. Plus, he and Megatron can have epic rivalry and fight over time to use the auditorium. "No, I'm sure I remember that you get the rehearsal hall tomorrow--" "Your resentment is delicious. >)"
Another note: (ahahahahahahaaaa you get my joke) B is in this 'verse as a total creeper. (do you know how funny it looks to type out the HTML to bold B) He hangs out under the stage and eats freshmen, after washing them down with jam first. I kid, he actually couldn't get away with that and besides, Logan does that already but he's kind of. He. He pretends to be fairly sane, aside from a little eccentric, but he's actually a really creepy sociopath. He defies Leah to eat jam straight out of the jar, and is absolutely freaking genius-level brilliant. There is a plot where he and Ichigo's twin brother (the Hollow proxy in this 'verse, who goes to a different school) team up: Shiro wants to pull an epic prank where he fakes Ichigo's death and pretends to be his ghost, with creepy lighting and stuff in the auditorium, and B wants to troll Naoto. So B drugs Ichigo and hides the body, leaving clues for Naoto to figure out where it is, while Shiro is an asshole to everyone. The prank sooo goes too far, and Shiro gets in trouble for it (though B wriggles out of it scot-free).
This 'verse also has a healthy helping of OCs from other stories: Red's in it as a crippled set designer, Connor is an obnoxious asshole who, along with his smooth ladykiller of a BFFL, Steven, gets cast in most major roles because he's one of the few who can deal with Olivia. (Caleb is jealous.) Sniffy is a sound tech (his name is Sydney, but everyone calls him Sniffy because of his terrible allergies) and always winds up on the butt end of the lighting department's pranks. If they take the legs out of a chair, chances are it'll be Sniffy who sits on it. Lane, a social activist turned chemist and prospective doctor, also helps build sets. He's very serious, and will call everyone (but especially Olivia and Steven) out on their bullshit. He's so frustrated with everything, and all he wants to do is build his sets in peace.
Tio is talented but needlessly aloof. He's actually seriously interested in theater, but he would not be able to take acting opposite Olivia, and has given up on the club as hopeless. He's watching it like a trainwreck, and weeps quietly on William Shakespeare's behalf. There's another stagehand named Tom who is competing with Caleb for Most Adorable Thing In The World. He's a really nice guy, a total sweetheart, who helps Watanuki and Kanji cook and is friends with Tio. The thing about Tom, though, is that he's got two personalities. He started out as a parody of Yugi from YuGiOh, but with cooking instead of card games. Dark Tom is confident, kind of abrasive, and will challenge people to cooking competitions to resolve conflicts. Or just duel them with spatulas. He's kind of ridiculous but has no idea how ridiculous he is outside of a shounen story about cooking.
I think that pretty much covers everyone! Let me see...got the Shattered Glass, Bleach, xxxHolic, Persona 4, and OC casts...did I miss anyone? GOD I AM SUCH A LOSER I CANNOT BELIEVE I ACTUALLY JUST TYPED ALL THAT OUT. I CAN EXPLAIN MOAR ABOUT THE VARIOUS CHARACTERS IF IT IS NEEDED.