Cass_And_Dray

My name is Cassandra Phoenix (She/Her) but I typically go by Dray nowadays, to separate myself from the Casses of the world. I am an adult.

I write, and occasionally doodle, things for a wide variety of fandoms, but I'm typically sticking with Transformers at the moment.

My inbox is open, so feel free to drop me an ask!

To read my main stories and enjoy stories for a more teenage audience, join me on AO3 at Cass_Phoenix

To read stories meant for a more mature or private audience, join me on AO3 at Cass_And_Dray

To find my update list, check here.

Also, I’m using the tag “#fanfic fanart” in order to organize all the lovely works people have done for me. Genuinely, it’s so sweet and makes me want to cry.

I have not. </3 Video games are not something I usually go for. I have a very small collection.

OH. MY. WORD.

That looks SO GOOD!!! I know I said this before but I'll say it again- I'M SO VERY HONORED

Oh man that looks so good. That looks so good.

This is, like, one of the highest compliments a fanfiction writer can get, and I'm ilke. I'm so honored. That is genuinely insane. Thank you SO much!!! <3 <3 <3

1, 10 & 18, pls.

I hope you have/had/continue to have a nice day. c:

1)Orange. I want orange hair so, so, so badly. I had orange streaks for a bit, but that didn't last long. But yes, I'd love to be a redhead.

10a) I have a kitty.... my real dream is to have her back with me, but that's an impossibility. Carmen, if you're reading this, I miss you dearly and cannot wait to give you pets again. I'm sorry I wasn't able to come home in July. I'll be back as soon as I can.

10b) ...but after a cat if I could choose any animal, I would probably get either a fox or a bat. Those are some awesome animals.

18a) Ugh. I hate that the first compliment I thought of was one I got during boot camp, where my Chief told me "You're appreciated. Keep doing good work.". That came at a perfect time for me because I was getting into a depressed spiral of "I'm not good enough and they should just fire me from my job." I was told being fired was basically part of the boot camp experience, and I couldn't understand why I was surviving as long as I could.

So, yeah, that's the best compliment I can think of off the top of my head, because it helped me survive.

18b) Do implied compliments count? Because people keep trying to make me leadership again and I'm NOT doing that again because the stress was actually crippling. Like, glad I'm competent, but please stop trying to make me Important... I'm just a little guy, after all.

I'm only familiar with g1, tfp, skybound eu comics, and the live action movies and I'm not interested in watching TFA (for.. personal reasons) and TF ES (I don't wanna see Megatron being redeemed in any capacity even if it's done good but I also heard that s4 also screwed that over lol) so I'm not too familiar with bad dad Optimus? 😭 WHAT what happened in ES? I've been enjoying your one-shots and since I've never watched ES before I avoided those so I'm REALLY surprised that you've been writing a bunch of bad dad Optimus 😭😭

Hahaha got carried away apologies but- as for father-son Optimus & Bumblebee, this specific relationship is still considered in the fandom as mostly fanon... with Skybound being the first to breach it implicitly how Optimus really sees Bumblebee (his beautiful boy 😭) and how finally landing on Earth, Optimus finally has a word he adopted from humans to assign to his relationship with Bumblebee. His son. Since that's not really a thing on their planet. Where am I going with this...

Ah yeah, in your humble opinion, which continuities do you think it is most understandable why some of the audience would see Optimus and Bumblebee as familial rather than mere mentor/student?

For me (father & son duo to just commander & mere scout):

Skybound >> ROTB >> BBB18 >> Bay Movies >> G1 >> TFP >> TFONE

Hahaha yeah I'm separating the live-action directed by Michael Bay and Travis Knight. They are functionally different in all honesty.

What about you? Since you seem to know most if not all Transformers continuities compared to me :D

Yeah so that's.... kind of hard to explain without watching the show.

But essentially Optimus sent Bumblebee to live in complete isolation by himself for fifteen years?! And then never picks up his calls whether it's just recreational or a genuine emergency?! And then in one episode Bumblebee is beat within an inch of his life and they do a good job in following episodes having him recovering in the background (energon iv) except Optimus never shows up?! Instead Elita-1 does?!

Basically, Optimus forces Bumblebee to be a single parent and then never offers him a scrap of help.

It could just be that he's too dense to realize what he's doing, but accidental neglect is still neglect.

...even if Bumblebee is a grownaft bot.

He got infected by Hate Plague in S3, and even without it, may I just say, what a Valid Crashout. Optimus deserved almost everything Bumblebee said to him because Primus, that was rough.

I really really really like ES, but I do wish they explored his and Optimus' relationship more.

---

I actually have not watched a lot of versions myself, but for me it probably goes (with only ones I have seen myself, even if not to completion. I went to Boot Camp and so my watching experience for Cyberworld and Skybound was interrupted and I have yet to pick them back up):

TFP > TFCW > Skybound > TFES > RotB > BB18 > TFCV > TFO > TFA > WFCT

15) I was hoping for this one! Yes. Yes. Okay yes. So. One time I was laying in bed and I was scared about... something? I felt like something was lurking in the corner of my room. Creepy, terrifying, all that good stuff. Was the middle of the night too and everything!

I ended up rolling over so I was facing my wall, so whatever that thing *was* I wouldn't have to look at it. And I started praying. Praying it would leave, that I would be safe.

At some point I remember praying that, if it was dangerous to turn around, I would hear *something.*

Almost immediately something *knocked* on my bedframe. Like actually knocked.

....I still don't know what the deal with that was. By the time I convinced myself that maybe it was just a family member locked outside and on the patio door instead of in my bedroom, and scurried to go help them, nothing remained.

I was terrified for a long time after that.

29) I spent a WONDERFUL nine days with my best friend ever this year. Second time we ever met IRL. We went on so many trips, learned all the ways our life styles were compatible (social battery runs out at the same time, both want to just write in silence for a few hours every night) and incompatible (I am a touchy individual, she is not.) We went to zoos, went hiking, wasted so much of our money on useless things...

It was an incredible time! Worth every penny.

-🐝

11a) Oh man most of what I listen to as a kid were like... amvs? (Yeah I was a nerd even back then.) Youth by Daughter, No Money by Galantis, It Took Me By Surprise by Maria Mena...

11b) And if we want to go even further back then that? 10,000 Reasons by Matt Redmen(?), Amazing Grace, and my big personal favourite, Build Your Kingdom Here by Renn Collective. I'm a Christian girly. <3

16) Either Hersheys or M&Ms. Traditional milk chocolate variety.

26a) Be positive. Everything is a lot better when you're positive and focus on the good aspects. Maybe it was a mix of good RDCs and being overly mentally prepared and being positive, but... I attribute most of my success in Boot Camp to being positive. My dad sent me a letter that said "The dogs may bark, but the wagons keep turning" and- gosh, I forget, I would have to dig the letters out. But one of them was basically "if you are negative, the world is negative. If you view the world in a positive light, everything that happens to you becomes a blessing" and honestly I hold to that.

26b) Every experience that happens to you is a good experience because you can write about it. Yeah, it might suck at the time. Yeah, it might be painful. You might regret it happening. But if you can write about it... It makes it tolerable.

4. a) My dad is a huge role model. I've been looking up to him for a long time now, and even though I have moved away from home, I'm still thinking of what he would do.

b) My boot camp Chief. He reminds me a lot of my dad, and had some good advice.

c) My CMC at the moment is so cool?! She talks to us like people and she does stuff that just makes me want to hype her up. She's obviously invested in our success. She wants us to do well. Also she's beautiful. I want to be like her so bad.

13) UGH this is a hard one. It's probably a tie between Lord of the Rings (full trilogy, counts as one movie) and The Incredibles. Honorable mentions include The Wild Robot and Transformers One.

Still love your fic tho! And was wondering how would the terrans react if they knew young mentor bee was only five years old?

Bye have an amazing day!

NOOOOOOOOOO

In this context a vorn is 83 years!!! Transformers just age really slowly!! He's the equivalent of fifteen years olddddddddd

He's not tHAT much of a baby!!!!!!

.....but he was basically fighting since he was the Transfsormer equivalent of three years old. Which. Uh. Doing some quick math--

He was ~27 years old when he started fighting in the war!

:) Well They've Been At War Since They Were One Day Old. I don't think they see much of a difference. They might be jealous he got so much downtime before being thrown into the thrall!

I hope most of my followers already know that. I think I've either mentioned it before or reblogged a few things?

But yeah. I'm still getting back into the swing of writing, despite me being around for, like, a month. I haven't written a whole lot, but I am trying. Some of my WiPs are fighting back against me, and some new stuff took my full control.

Also Tomodachi Life is a lot of fun so that took precedent, too. So if you're mad at something, be mad at Nintendo.

But uhhhh yeah! If I remember, I do have one thing to post tomorrow, but ain't nobody gonna like it (it's not Transformers). That's it for now!

Cya later, hope I get back into writing soon.

Life has been hellish lately and I haven't had much inspiration or time to write, so everything has been very. Slow. Going.

i noticed at certain times bumblebees behavior when you write him is very agere adjacent, in the sense that he does or thinks things in a way that might seem younger or less mature, but as soon as he notices these thoughts he stamps them down and ignores them

and i don’t mean that in a negative light either! i really think it expands on his character and how his childhood being absolutely abhorrent and traumatic really effected him even as he heals

but over all, you have absolutely lovely writing and i was just wondering how you felt about those little moments being interpreted that way!

TEEHEE

I'm so glad you noticed that! I mean, it was something I did originally because it felt like it would just fit him, and then it became A Thing.

...and now I find myself doing it to myself, even though it hardly ever works. I don't know if that's me mirroring my portrayal of Bumblebee, or if I was like that all along and never noticed.

It doesn't come from trauma or anything. It's just come from me learning I'm heavily immature compared to other people my age even though I've never noticed and now I'm struggling to catch up.

I made this buggy fan-design for your fic-

Sorry for the alt mode. I didn't think this through.

Sorry for bothering you. haveaniceday 🌺

I feel little nervous to showing you this... Too nervous actually... LOVEYOURWORKSBYE!!

Sorry for the late response!!

He looks AMAZING!! My little guy… my little blorbo…

I love how he’s got three wheels, and his alt mode is honestly so good, I love it!! Him and his little tricycle box…