#rolf maxwell

Thank you! (And sorry it took so long to reply to this ask 😅)

To be honest, I think without having to fight Veloci keeping them together, the squad would drift apart pretty quickly. From the beginning they never really liked each other and kind of teamed up out of obligation. I think some of them would keep in touch for a little bit, but Max and Rodger, at least, would probably transfer to out-of-state colleges, and they'd all lose touch with Caruso within, like, a month. Fiona and Buzz might stay friends, but on the whole I think the squad would fall apart once their mission was complete.

@dinosquad-central

Ms. Moynihan's been around wayyyy longer than Veloci, and might have been the one to turn him all those centuries ago. Both of them are capable of hypnotism, shapeshifting, superstrength, and turning into fog, though Veloci is uniquely weak to the seed-scattering trick and neither of them handle sunlight or garlic well.

Vampires can eat really any kind of animal blood; Moynihan travels far every night to feed from as many sources to minimize damage, while Veloci enjoys human blood specifically because he enjoys draining people dry whenever he can get away with it.

Raptordyne the company is basically a) a front for Veloci's growing coven of vampires and thralls, b) an actual bioengineering company with focus in agriculture and livestock that innovates new technologies, new GMOs, and overall makes Veloci a lot of money, and c) it also runs regular blood drives! How fun!

That focus on agriculture and livestock isn't just to make money btw. It also serves as "preparation for the future" i.e. how Veloci plans to feed the "world of monsters" he's trying to create.

Nobody knows if the Kittery Point Vampire is actually real or just an elaborate fabrication for tourists. Nobody but Joanne Moynihan, who carefully maintains the delicate balance of being just noticeable enough to attract tourists without ever actually getting caught or hurting people.

Veloci’s ooze is basically a curse wrapped in slime. Maybe there’s some sciency stuff going on in it, maybe it’s more of a “magic is a kind of science” thing, either way the batch that the kids swim through was a rare fluke of success that Veloci hasn’t been able to replicate since.

Rump was already Moynihan’s familiar and thus already a little magic, but swimming through the ooze with the kids made him even more magic + able to sort of “match” what the kids are (werebeast, ghost&corpsedog, fishdog, hellhound, creachur). He also dove into the water to try and clear the ooze out there and didn’t mean for the kids to follow him (…or did he? He took Caruso’s jacket, after all!).

Rump’s attempt to “purify” the ooze is why it affected the shark differently to the kids despite being the same batch.

The squad becomes monsters slowly over a period of time. Caruso doesn’t notice because he subconsciously put up a glamour almost from the beginning; Rodger thinks he’s just having wild dissociation episodes until his ghost is hovering over his body; Buzz feels like his body is falling apart until his skin finally splits and the angel emerges; and Max and Fiona experience the partial transformations seen in the show until Moynihan stabilizes them. Either way it’s uh. Rodger and Buzz (and technically Caruso bc he did find out about his horns eventually) would like a refund bc that was horrifying.

They’re all lowkey panicking, slowly congregate together at the beach, realize they’re all going through changes (well. Caruso tries really hard to pretend he’s not but Buzz bursts his glamour on accident), and that’s where Moynihan finds them. She brings them to the lighthouse, stabilizes them, and then explains that they’re all cursed now.

Max & Fiona are the only actual shapeshifters in the group, shifting from human to monster form on a physical level. Rodger simply possesses and depossesses himself, Caruso’s got his glamour, and Buzz pilots/puppets a mannequin the squad found for him. He basically slots himself into a hole in the back and then a glamour sewn into the clothes make the puppet appear human.

Thus when Buzz “transforms” from human to angel he actually just. Pops out of the puppet. He does make it look cool though by making his wings appear first!

Caruso doesn’t need to have a transformation sequence because of the glamour but. Well. It’s Caruso. He’s got several different transformation sequences purely for the fun of it <3

The “failed monsters” that Veloci’s curse makes are unstable, a mess of flesh and limbs that’s thrown symmetrical structure out the window, and often deteriorate into slime instead of firming up into proper monsters. Like John Carpenter’s The Thing had a baby with Flubber that was fed only Eraserhead babies and raised by Uncle Fester Addams. Icky stuff <3

Same two-gun cure, but the Chiller sprays a magic antidote that destabilizes the curse and then the Spiller applies a stabilizing effect to return the now-uncursed victim to normal.

Peter is either another vampire or some type of chimera. Lieutenant Alpha is a vampire.

Caruso’s “true” form, an uglier and far more powerful demonic form, is straight up inaccessible to him until he can get over himself re: his vanity and need to look good. And even when he does use it once it’s still not something he can just call upon at will… nor does he really want to. Think evil goat with wings and attitude.

When Caruso comes out to his parents in “T-Rex Formation” (after spending the episode using his abilities to give all the other players misfortune while only boosting himself a little) they’re initially horrified because they think their baby boy is dead 😞 Caruso has to hurriedly correct that it’s a curse! He’s not dead! He’s just cursed! In the end his parents accept him <3

When Fiona comes out to her family in “Mole Lotta Trouble” they also accept her wholeheartedly. And also still make the “see! I told you so!” remarks. Except they thought she was the werewolf. Terry complains about Fiona stinking like rotting fish in her monster form.

Buzz can see the shrimp colors :] his senses are actually really weird; he doesn’t perceive visible light super well but can see/feel/hear just about the entire electromagnetic spectrum. He actually kind of sucks at healing until he gets a better handle on his senses and how to interpret them, but he’s really good at seeing through and popping glamours from Day One (Caruso is Not Amused).

Max is colorblind now, trading his red and green cones for yellow. In both of his forms :[

I've always loved the intro song ngl. A good intro song makes me love a cartoon. That's how W.I.T.C.H and Huntik got me

Fiona gets to class. Ms Moynihan says she broke three rules. She says this before Fiona bites her apple. Fiona then says that's only two and then misses her shot, making three. This inplies that Fiona either does this regularly, or that Ms Moynihan has some form of clairvoyance.

(The clairvoyance thing could make some absolutely fantastic fanfiction ngl. *writes that down* oooh, I have IDEAS now) anyway, back to episode

The fact that Fiona only took one bite of that apple bothers me

Oh man, that bio class room looks almost exactly like the one I had in high school.

Oooooh yaayyyy! Mah Boi is here!!! Stripey gay boi

Okay, first off:

This place looks like a giant OSHA violation.

Regardless of that (Peter, go fix this giant OSHA violation. Hey, maybe that's why we never see him again, he's too busy fixing the questionable workplace) those scientists look properly enriched.

WHAT THE FUCK ARE THINGS IN THE TUBES THEY LOOK LIKE THEY'RE FROM BEN 10 I SWEAR TO GOD THAT LOOKS LIKE SWAMPFIRE.

On that note, why do we never see Veloci's creepy test tube creatures??? His scientists worked hard on The Horrors

The one on the pink test tube looks like the rose from beauty and the beast

Is that a fucking rail track. I think I remember that one featuring in an ep, but I could be wrong. If I'm right then why was the continuity placed here and not on anything else???

"I got into business to swim with the sharks, not be eaten by them"

Me: Oh, you're declining it? Unexpected.

Peter: I'm in!

Me: ???

That bit of dialogue has always thrown me off. Its the clunkiness.

Bye Peter. It was nice to meet you.

"Break into your usual groups". The dinosquad comes together but kinda acts like they've never interacted before.

Max and Roger seem like they've teamed up before tho.

Caruso at 4:21 is barefoot. He has shoes on at 4:26. We know he had no time to put shoes on and off and on because he's barefoot when he leans over and drops his jacket. When he picks it up he has shoes on again.

...why did they all (I understand Caruso getting his jacket and Buzz getting thrown in) go into the water????

Roger says "nah, I ain't getting in" and then not only gets in the water but throws buzz in.

(The fact that Roger throws Buzz in the water which later results in him becoming a Dino is a great angst fic waiting to happen. If Roger hadn't thrown him in, he would still have been living a normal life)

Ms Moynihan shows up and goes " I thought I made it clear no one was to go in the water"

First off, that was never shown on screen and I don't like that

With the context of dinosquad as a whole, this kind of implies she knows Veloci is dumping his nuclear jizz in the water

I guess it could also be because she didn't want wet students on the bus, but still.

Wait. If no one was suppose to go in the water, and there doesn't seem to be an area with tide pools, then Caruso's stupid sushi list is even more useless since fish don't count.

Anyway, MY BABY RUMP!!! BOOBOO! I LOVE YOU BABY! MY BABY!!!

Hnnngg sexy library I wants please I will crawl into my computer just let me at that library I can live with dinosaur shenanigans. (But can I live with redoing high school? No.)

"Young man, if you don't remember, this is a library 😡 "

My brother in christ, what horrors have you been through that you hear a dinosaur roar and conclude that that is the sound a normal teenager makes naturally.

Caruso's jacket gets shredded. He immidiately blames the dry cleaners. Bro, it was whole when you put it in your locker. What

Fiona gets a tail and it sticks out her truck window. My good bitch, how did you not feel the cold air on your tail???

The fact that Buzz waves his arms while playing video games is kinda adorable

The fact that Ms Moynihan showed them what happened telepathically leaves a lot of possibility for her to leave certain things out and show them only what she wants them to see and think.

And besides that, its also kinda fucked up. There are implications here. My brain is a little fried to parse them all, but there are implications. I know it.

Ohhh!! The cave has a light source! That implies that there are two entrances, which solves my age old question of how tf did they get out of that cave.

Oh holy shit. Young Ms Moynihan is HOT

...she looks a lot like Caruso. Hmmm. Formulating THOUGHTS tm

You think that (if the story she tells is actually true and not her lying to hide a bigger truth that she doesn't want them to know about) Ms Moynihan and Veloci gained the ability to transform because of. Idk. Space radiation or something?

Cuz your genes don't just. Mutate. For no reason. This backstory feels fake af. I think she just lied bc she knew her students knew fuck all about biology and would believe anything

Why did ms Moynihan change foreheads. Did she want to be inclusive and touch everyone's forehead or is she afraid their brains can only handle so much... or did they refuse to hold hands like she asked and now she has to switch foreheads?

"You're a vicious Carnivore!"

"I've moved past that but there is one who hasn't: Victor Veloci"

Might be because I'm getting back into twilight, but this gives off major Vegetarian Vampires vs Normal Vampires vibes.

In this case, Ms Moynihan is Dr Carlisle Cullen and Victor Veloci is Aro Volturi.

"What do you believe?"

Ms Moynihan: "Humans gained dominance because brute force lost out to reason...and love. That's why I parted ways with Veloci long ago."

I smell a Secret. I smell Tea. Spill. I can practically hear tragic dramatic backstory. Was this a "I fell in love story" or a "Veloci didn't care about me" story. Ms Moynihan sounds bitter.

Also, the sheer contempt in her voice when she talks about Victor Veloci. Say what you will about Dinosquad, but it has some pretty good voice acting sometimes.

Max: "I don't want to be a dinosaur"

Ms Moynihan: this is bigger than you, this is about saving the world.

"Can you cure us?"

"Yeah"

Roger: "But I want to stop Victor Veloci :( "

Ms Moynihan mentally: *nevermind, ya'll are too stupid to help me save the world. What was I thinking*

(Genuinely a very confusing arguement. People changed opinions so quickly damn. Not even a line space in between)

"I can't afford all the fancy tech Veloci has" <takes them to her lighthouse filled with huge computers and monitoring equiptment> hmmm. Ms M, I'mma assume you banged some rich bitches in your time and inherited, because no way can you affort a lighthouse on a teacher's salary.

Conclusion: Ms M is loaded.

"The cold forces the Dino DNA to the skin as it seeks warmth" um. That's ominous. It makes the DNA sound like a living parasite. Ugh

Ms Moynihan definitely faked "curing them". She is way too calm about the situation. She was very insistent on them helping her fight Veloci before. And the fact that she could cure literally everything else except for them is sus.

That Megalodon shark was trolling ngl

Veloci sees Fiona as dino: this can only be bc of my experimental dna...or....

That 'or' implies things. Ms Moynihan things.

The fact that Veloci sees the Dinosaurs but not the squad turning into dinosaurs the dinosaurs. Like, by the time Ms Moynihan jammed the feed several transformations have already taken place