#Autobot Slash

[theaussieva]

Hey! Guess what? I’ve uploaded a new dub on my channel! Go check it out!

Thank you @pandacronic-art for letting me voiceover your work! It’s amazing!

I’d also love to thank @ciipher-arts for voicing Slash in this video, you make the perfect little reptilian gremlin!

[acquired-stardust]

Transformers: Devastation PC 2015

[pocoslip]

Here's my Fave Ship, Javelin and Slash for Pride Month

(I tried to Recreate this Picture but I give up)

[raurquiz]

#otd #transformers #thelastknight #autobot #darkknight #optimusprime #bumblebee #hound #dinobot #grimlock #slash #scorn #decepticon #megatron #nemesisprime #berseker #barricade #actionfigures @Hasbro @takaratomytoys

[askvectorprime]

Is there a Dinobot Scorn in the G1 universe?

Dear Dinosaur Determined,

Indeed, there are many such examples. For instance, in one universe, Scorn was one of two prototype models that Wheeljack and Ratchet had developed, but never completed before their untimely deaths in the Battle for Autobot City. Buried inside the Ark after Trypticon’s subsequent attack, it took a number of years of restoration before they were unearthed. Thrilled at the prospect of more siblings, Grimlock immediately set to work repairing them—or rather, he dragged Brainstorm, Highbrow, and Chromedome to the digsite to repair them for him.

Upon learning of the prototypes’ existence, the Decepticons dispatched the bestial Headmasters to secure a pair of Dinocons for their army. The ensuing battle was devastating, but the Dinobots were able to buy enough time to be joined by Scorn and Slash, and together they drove off the Decepticons.

Grimlock eagerly tried to assert his dominance as the big brother, but Scorn was indignant that, as she was technically an older prototype, she was his big sister. After a brief fistfight, Grimlock agreed to consider it. Slash, meanwhile, was quite happy to be a little sister and have all the other Dinobots spoil her. When she insisted that she was a velociraptor, not the deinonychus that Wheeljack had designed her as, her siblings listened without complaint!

[yuukirita]

Loveeee the Deceptibee AU :DDD Lovely arts too!!

Also the blood thirsty tag yessss people need to see how DOWN Bee was with killing the moment he got his knife-hands.

Guy isolated for god knows how long, got some cool weapons and just began slashing, don’t let that cute face fool you!! He bites!!!

I imagine Bee in this AU is much, MUCH more prone to violence in like a very child-like way since he doesn’t have Optimus around to teach him temperance, Megatron is just glad Bee knows how to defend himself at this point.

Ah yes- em just give me a moment. Where is my pen- Ah!

Bee's gonna kill a few autobots.

He's conflicted about it- just a little bit. Because that's Optimus Prime's team... and he's friends with that guy.

And it's not like he's cruel about it or anything. He's quick and efficient. He doesn't PLAN to murder them... it just sorta happened. They were talking. There was a fight. First guy that went down it was an accident. He swears. His knife hand just activated on its own! Reflex. Oopsie. He tried to say sorry but they were all on him and he didn't have a choice now did he?

He's just a little guy.

[novafire-is-thinking]

Transformers: Prime Decepticons - Hands

So, I was looking at hands, as one does when they’re bored, and I noticed a few things:

Every single ‘Con has claws, except Soundwave and Breakdown.

Megatron, Starscream, Shockwave, Dreadwing, Skyquake, Knockout, and Airachnid have 5 fingers.

Soundwave, Breakdown, Insecticons, Predaking, Darksteel, and Skylynx have 4 fingers.

Vehicons only have 3 fingers.

Predacon claws are flawless in form and aesthetic.

While I know Soundwave has spindly fingers for practical reasons, it’s the perfect symbolic representation of how he declawed himself for the sake of the Cause, giving up much of his power to follow Megatron.

Kudos to the character designers for crafting each Decepticon’s hands to match their function:

Megatron, Dreadwing, Skyquake: Sharp and wide for various combat situations

Soundwave: Thin and straight for work with computers and tech

Starscream: Light and “bony,” perfect for a flight frame

Shockwave, Knockout, and Airachnid: Sharp and delicate for scientific and/or medical work

Breakdown: Wide and blunt for brute force attacks

Vehicons: Useless

Insecticons: Wide and curved for digging and slashing

Predacons: Sharp with additional armor plating for evisceration (help I love this word so much)

The Autobots could only dream of having hands this masterfully crafted ✨

[sleepisapriviligethatidonthave]

Fir the MegOp request: TFA Megatron reaction that TFA Optimus is a space bridge repair worker

Finally I found your ask! I spent a century combing through my notifications XD

Aaaaanyways, here it is! Hope you like it ^^

Megatron swung his swords at the Prime, missing by a wire’s breath when the Autobot ducked and returned the attack in kind. It was a familiar song and dance for the warlord by now, though usually their fights were not so… private.

As luck would have it, both of them had answered an energy anomaly in the forest near Detroit. It had been a rather pleasant surprise to find the young Prime all by his lonesome right after locating the Allspark fragment in the middle of a small clearing in said woods.

“Not too shabby, Autobot. A few more millennia and you might stand a chance at defeating me!” he mocked as he kicked his opponent to the ground. It was almost too easy sometimes, but the Prime always pulled through one way or another.

“I have a name!” snapped Optimus as he rolled just out of reach of Megatron’s pede which left a small crater right where he had been a moment ago, “I am Optimus Prime, and you ought to remember that!” he growled and slashed with his axe at the pede, only grazing the thick warframe armour. Megatron couldn’t help but laugh at the feeble attempt to injure him.

It was always fun to see his enemies infuriated at the fact that he didn’t know their names. He did, but one thing he had learned early on in his gladiatorial career was that an unconcentrated opponent was a weak one. That practice of his had helped him all throughout the war and even after that. It wasn’t often that he met an opponent that kept their cool so well in the face of such disrespect.

“Ah, yes, the rank of Prime. The standards for it have fall quite a bit, haven’t they?” he chuckled with a smirk and parried the angry swing aimed at his helm, throwing the Autobot into the air. Megatron watched with a hint of surprise as his foe flipped in the air and landed square on his pedes, ready to resume their fight. “Or maybe not.” he muttered to himself and went in for another attack.

Few survived an encounter with him and lived long enough to tell the tale. Even fewer willingly went against him again, which made fighting the young mech such a delight.

The little Prime never ceased to surprise. He was always so resourceful and selfless – two qualities he had long believed to be extinct when it came to Autobots. He fought rather rigidly, yes, but he knew when to change tactics in order to secure an advantage. That, he could respect, he could use. If only the Prime wasn’t so foolishly loyal to his rusted cause.

Optimus dodged blaster fire with ease as he shot a grappling hook at one of Megatron’s swords, attempting to seize it.

Megatron grabbed the chord and pulled, sending Prime once again flying through the open sky, but this time luck was not on his side. He smashed against a tree, with a loud crack before falling to the ground, heaving.

“You Autobots never learn, do you? You can not defeat me, even the best of you.” he knew that praising him was a contradictive move, but he had earned it.

It came as a surprise to hear the Prime snort and try to stifle a chuckle.

“What’s so funny, Autobot?” the reaction puzzled him. He was about to be offlined and yet here he was, laughing like Megatron had told him the funniest joke in the galaxy.

“Oh, it’s nothing, really. It’s just that, if you really think that an academy washout, space bridge technician is ‘one of the best’, then it’s not the Autobots’ standard that has fallen.” snickered Optimus as he looked up at Megatron with a slag eating grin.

The warlord froze in place, his CPU attempting and failing to process the new information.

“What?”

Optimus laughed even harder, wincing when his vents, damaged by the hit he took, expelled a wheezing sound.

Megatron pressed the tip of one of his swords right against the Autobot’s main fuel line, effectively silencing him. “Explain yourself, now.” he growled menacingly.

“What exactly is there to explain? I already told you the truth. I’m not a fully fledged Prime. Officially I’m not even considered a warrior, no one on my team is. We’re space bridge technicians. Our job was to travel around the corners of the galaxy and repair the Autobot space bridge network.”

Megatron looked at the Prime in disbelief, every interaction they had ever had, replaying itself in the warlord��s mind as small, incongruous details about the team of Autobots slotted themselves into place to finally reveal the horrific truth.

They were no warriors, they were civilians who had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. That was why the Elite Guard had done next to nothing to help them. To the great Autobot machine they were fodder, disposable.

Disgust and hatred flashed through Megatron’s field, making Optimus flinch minutely when his own tense one came into contact with his.

This changed everything and nothing at the same time which only infuriated Megatron even more. It was dishonourable to fight against someone who could not face you properly in battle, who was not a warrior. It was Descepticon code, something he himself had put into place to prevent unnecessary carnage in the name of keeping Cybertron populated. Overtime, even the worst of the Descepticons had accepted it as law, even he himself had begun to view it as something on which his honour depended.

And here he was tarnishing it in the worst way imaginable.

“You know, if you ask me, I would much rather fight Cons for the rest of my life than go back to the most boring job in the universe.”

Immediately, Megatron’s helm snapped to the location of the voice only to see the bright yellow Autobot speedster sitting on a tree stump, looking at the bots before him while twirling the forgotten Allspark fragment in his servos.

“Personally, I’d rather be a space bridge technician. Bossbot is right, we aren’t warriors, and I’ll be more than happy to go back to doing what I signed up for.” came the voice of the big green Autobot from the other side of the clearing.

“Quit yer whining, will ya? We still need to save Optimus from Buckethead!” barked the team’s medic as he primed his magnets.

“I do not believe Optimus needs our saving.” chimed in the ninja bot who appeared from behind a tree.

Megatron took in all of the newly gathered Autobots, ignoring the last comment. Before, all he saw was a bunch of low-class warriors with lacking training, but now, he saw them for what they really were. It was so obvious in hindsight, he wanted to kick himself for missing it.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Prowl, I really appreciate it.” Megatron snapped his attention back to his original foe, having thought him incapacitated. Clearly, he had miscalculated again, as a spray of foam hit his faceplates, completely blinding him. He tried moving back, only for his pedes to be restrained in Prime’s grappling hook.

Megatron fell backwards with a grunt. As he tried to regain his sight, he could hear the commotion around him.

“Let’s go before he gets back up and hunts us down!” yelled Optimus. His command was met with no complaints and soon enough Megatron found himself alone on the clearing.

He growled and muttered curses as he cut the chord around his pedes. The mission had been a disaster. Of course, he could give chase to the Autobots and try to retrieve the Allspark fragment, but ultimately decided against it.

Once he finally deemed himself presentable, he gave one last glance to the direction in which the Autobot team retreated, sighed, and began the journey back to the Descepticon hideout. He was in no mood to rush back just to deal with his subordinates, so he opted to walk. That way he had some time to mull over the new information he had obtained and formulate a plan…

And think of a way to break the news to his Descepticons without causing a riot.

[pastelwoolfie]

raise your hand if you like old man yaoi!! ✋✋✋

good GOD i love optiratch like hrrrrgrgrgrgrggg I LOVE THEM🫶🫶🫶

(it’s headcannon timeeee)

ratchet (the ookiest pookie) was born to be a medic, right? cybertronians have different frame types, we know this, there’s grounders, seekers, racers, two-wheelers, war frames, etc etc we know this!! i like to think that a bot can be born in a medic frame - that means more dexterous/nimble and sensitive servos, sharper optics, additional system processings/knowledge retention capacity to account for All That Knowledge they need to know to be a medic. a bot born to be a medic is a bot known to be a medic, which ratchet was. he was born a medic and became a phenomenal one. that doesn’t mean non-medic frames can’t be medics, though! knockout was born a racer, but he became a physician. medic-borns can also be really really bad doctors!

more about ratchet though. this post is about ratchet.

born to be a medic, he went to medical school. as one does. and fresh out of school, just starting up his work, BOOM there’s a war. obviously this doesn’t take him by surprise - his college roommate was an activist-slash-archivist-slash-his-crush-slash-protestor, renown Good Guy orion pax. he was literally there when he became a prime!! he had met megatron, awesome gladiator extraordinaire, and was all ‘oh he’s so violent’!! already being close with optimus meant he was immediately enlisted to the autobot cause. he was so ready to join the autobot cause. in fact, it was his joining the autobot cause that convinced many others to join. do-gooder, no-nonsense medic ratchet, top-of-his-class, kind-sparked ratchet wants to join the autobots? oh, good golly!! i should join him too!! if he’s an autobot, the cause must be worthwhile, right?

ratchet never got to experience that normal childhood most cybertronians have. he was medic-born, after all. he was raised with that always in mind, that pressure of healing others always there, and he simply grew into it.

thats why he’s so lost after the war’s end. it is literally almost all he knows - and the parts of his life that weren’t seeped in war and revolution and politics (he hates politics so much, but he was unfortunately involved in them) he spent training to be a doctor, surrounded by illness and injury.

ratchet does not know how to relax. he just doesn’t get it.

yap sesh over 👍

[in1-nutshell]

Hello! Hope you’re doing well! Do you mind doing a scenario where what if TFP Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Arcee, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee encountered and being attacked by a Decepticon with a vampire-like abilities. Like they got a fang-like needle mechanic in their mouth that allowed them to bite into the armour of other Cybertronians and allowed them to suck the Energon out of them?

Not going to lie, I pictured a Sparkeater when I read the needle bit. This does mention the Bots getting attacked, per request. If this isn't what you wanted please let me know.

Hope you enjoy!

Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Arcee, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee being attacked by Decepticon with Vampire like abilities.

SFW, mentions of needles, nothing graphic, everyone survives, Cybertronian reader

TFP

This Con was almost considered an urban myth amongst the Autobot ranks.

Something to scare the new recruits into making sure that they came back to base at curfew rather than later.

It wasn’t until they came to Earth that they realized that these rumors were true.

Optimus Prime

Optimus had been taking a drive with Agent Fowler when the attack happened.

They had been driving through a more forested part of the planet. Prime doesn’t remember where exactly, but he remembered a lot of greenery around him.

Something had hit him on his side in vehicle form which caused him to involuntarily transform. He made sure that Fowler was safe from the impact before putting him down on the ground.

“What in the name of Uncle Sam’s pants was that Prime!?”—Agent Fowler

“I am not sure Agent Fowler. But I fear we are not alone here.”--Optimus

“I could have told you that.”—Agent Fowler

“I highly recommend you to call in the base—”--Optimus

BANG!

That’s when the next round of hits came in.

The worst part was that the Prime couldn’t see who his assailant was. If this was the act of red energon, it wouldn’t have last this long.

He remembered the pain he felt when something slashed into this neckcables.

Luckily, he managed to get one good punch on his assailant. Fowler in the meantime was trying to get in contact with the team. The assailant tumbled back from the force of the punch, Prime managed to get a good look at the thing that caused him the damage.

Optimus could feel the energon from his neckcables drip down his frame at an alarming rate. The unfamiliar bot stood in front of him, Prime would have given a full report on the description, if his vision wasn’t getting fuzzy and getting darker.

He did, however, see the biolights of a purple Decepticon insignia before he fell to the ground, and everything went dark.

When he woke up, he was back at the base the first thing he saw was Ratchet’s worried face looking straight at him.

The second thing he saw was Fowler looking down at him with a grim expression on his face.

“Welcome back to the land of the living Prime.”—Agent Fowler

“Wha—”--OPtimus

“Yip, yip, no talking. You lost an alarming amount of energon. Just rest Optimus. Everything is okay now.”--Ratchet

He would have had a relatively peaceful recharge… if the haunting biolight wouldn’t have been the first thing he saw in his dream state.

Ratchet

Ratchet was out on a mission with Optimus when the attack happened.

They had been looking for any traces of energon near the bottom of one of the gorges near the base.

Then it happened.

“I don’t think that there is any energon here Optimus.”--Ratchet

“Let us search the next bend. The readings suggested this area has at least one deposit somewhere here.”--Optimus

“Well might I suggest—”--Ratchet

BANG!

Ratchet was suddenly attacked from behind and thrown into the canyon wall. Before Prime could have reacted, he too was thrown in the opposite direction at incredible speed.

Ratchet tried to get up, but his vision was suddenly filled by a series of purple biolights and a shot of pain in his neckcables.

He screamed in pain as he felt the energon gush out of his frame. Ratchet could tell the amount of energon he was losing was at an exponential rate, if he didn’t get this this off him, he wasn’t going to make it.

The biolights quickly went away as Prime literally ripped his offender off him.

The offender quickly ran into the shadows and disappeared.

The last thing Ratchet remembered seeing was the ground coming towards his face before he was caught in someone’s arms.

Everything went dark.

When he woke up the first thing, he saw was Raf’s little worried face looking at him like he was about to cry.

“H-hey Ratchet. You’re okay!”--Raf

“Hmm…”--Ratchet

“It is all right old friend. You may rest now.”--Optimus

“Hrm…”--Ratchet

“Rest.”--Optimus

Ratchet smiled tiredly before falling into restless recharge.

Arcee

Was patrolling with Wheeljack and Bulkhead when the attack occurred.

The trio had been looking though a wooded area after receiving a destress signal.

“I don’t like this.”--Arcee

“You don’t like any of these distress signals.”--Bulkhead

“But she does have a point Bulk. We’ve been here for about an hour, yet nothing.”--Wheeljack

“So, it’s a trap?”--Bulkhead

“Most likey—”--Arcee

THWANG!

Something had literally launched Arcee into the air.

Before she could register what happened she was kicked straight down to the muddy earth below.

Everything was ringing.

Arcee tried to see what was happening through her shaky vision. She could see Wheeljack and Bulkhead trying to fight someone with little luck.

Or fighting something.

She was suddenly picked up by her neckcables and felt a searing pain come down on them. Through her weakening strength she tried to fight back, but it made her more sluggish than before.

The sudden grip on her neckcable was gone in an instance as she tumbled to the ground.

Arcee remembered hearing more clashes of metal, someone picking her up while saying something before she blacked out.

When she woke up, she saw a sleeping Jack near her servo and a worried Wheeljack and Bulkhead looming over her.

“Hey ‘Cee.”--Bulkhead

“Hey…”--Arcee

“Hey don’t talk too much. Ratchet will have our metal hides if he hears you talking.”--Wheeljack

“Hmm.”--Arcee

“Take a nap. You earned it.”--Bulkhead

She gave a tired smile before going back to recharge. But it wasn’t without seeing the evil flash of biolights.

Bulkhead

Bulkhead was coming back from Dune bashing with Miko when the attack happened.

Bulkhead had transformed to give them both a break.

Miko sat down taking a breather when Bulkhead was suddenly thrown back at top speed.

BANG!

“BULKHEAD!”--Miko

“Miko! Get out of here!”--Bulkhead

“But what about you!”--Miko

“Just goooAAAAAHHH!”--Bulkhead

Miko quickly got up and activated the Apex armor.

She saw some weird looking bot on top of Bulkhead while Bulkhead was squirming underneath them.

Miko didn’t know why Bulkhead wasn’t tossing the stranger like a rag doll but seeing his weakening movement told her something was wrong.

Miko ran as fast as she could and punched the bot off Bulkhead sending it flying several feet back. The strange bot hissed before disappearing into the dunes.

Bulkhead groaned, alerting her.

Miko quickly commed in the base and hosted her guardian on her shoulders as the ground bridge opened.

Wheeljack and Ultra Magnus came out running helping Miko with Bulkhead and back to the base.

Bulkhead, still conscious, began mumbling about the strange bot as they made it to base.

Once Bulkhead was on the medslab, Ratchet put him in temporary stasis.

“Ermm..”--Bulkhead

“Yip, yip, no more moving for you. I’m putting you in temporary stasis to help treat your wounds better.”--Ratchet

“But Ratchet—”--Bulkhead

“Hey! No more talking! Listen to Doc-bot.”--Wheeljack

“Don’t call me that!”--Ratchet

“Just take a nap Bulk. We can talk about it when you’re better.”--Miko

“Miko—”--Bulkhead

“Rest soldier. For now, you rest.”—Ultra Magnus

The last thing he saw was Miko wishing him sweet dreams. The first thing he saw in his dream was the taunting biolights above him.

Bumblebee

It was him and Smokescreen on patrol in a cavern a couple Klicks from an old energon deposit.

They had decided to split for a moment to see what was going to the two separate paths in the cavern.

“There’re two paths here. We should split up!”--Smokescreen

“Beep bep? (Are you sure? That doesn’t seem like a good idea.)”--Bumblebee

“Oh, c’mon Bee. Live a little, anyways we’re only a scream away from each other.”--Smokescreen

“Beep ber bep (This isn’t going to end well…)”--Bumblebee

“Say whatever—”--Smokescreen

Rock cavern starts caving in front of Smokescreen’s path.

“BEEP! BEP—(SMOKESCREEN! SMOKESCREEN ARE YOU--)”--Bumblebee

BANG!

Something rushed into him causing him to crash face first into the stone wall.

He suddenly felt something stab into the make of his neck cables. Bumblebee remembered screaming at the pain shooting up through his spinal struts. He doesn’t remember how long he screamed or for how long the pain lasted because he passed out soon after.

He didn’t know how, but he woke up in the base.

His limbs felt like lead and couldn’t move, he could only barely online his optics.

“Hey Bee.”--Smokescreen

“Be—”--Bumblebee

“Shh! Ratchet will have my backside if he saw you talking to me! And you don’t want to wake the little guy either.”--Smokescreen

Bee looking down on his chassis to see Raf curled up sleeping quietly.

“Just sleep Bee. We’ll talk about it later.”--Smokescreen

Bee nodding slightly.

Bumblebee slowly offlined his optics, hoping for some peaceful sleep. He was met with the vision of overwhelming biolights and giant needles digging into his neckcables.

[blueikeproductions]

Well it’s official: EarthSpark is dead. The next cartoon is being worked on as we speak.

Via Protoman of the Slag Podcast on TFW2005:

“All I will say is my source is someone working on the next Transformers series and *spoiler* it's not Earthspark.  Ratings were bad, toys have had a very soft distribution restocking (It's not about how much that Wave 1 is ordered, it's how much gets reordered after by retail wave after wave) and well....... better luck next time.”

If he says it’s dead, it’s dead.

What’s next?

As of typing, we dunno.

The only successful non toy media currently are the Skybound comics, and while TFONE is coming out this September, we have no idea how well that will do. The general confusion and backlash from the more comedically cut first trailer doesn’t … bode well from normies and hard cores.

One is said to have tested well, but so did RotB and it didn’t do so hot in theaters despite people liking it better. It’s still doing VERY well on Paramount+, but I don’t know if that means anything because P+ is the red headed step child of streaming… Also Paramount’s current… EVERYTHING.

So big coin flip really.

A cartoon based more directly on what One sets up makes sense, a lot of people have said it looks like a pilot for a future cartoon anyway.

An anime adaption of the Energon Universe is also possible, but it’s a little … too soon and if they adapted it now it would basically be the first Dragonball Z and first FMA anime, taking liberties and going its own direction because it couldn’t realistically keep up with the manga.

Best case scenario: a new co produced Transformers anime that uses TFONE & Skybound as a spring board for its own ideas.

What becomes of the Terrans in the future? I hope you weren’t attached to them being their own species because I guarantee it’s gonna be like post Beast Wars stuff.

The Terrans will largely just be Autobots and Decepticons like how the Maximals and Predacons tend to be like Cyberverse Cheetor and EarthSpark’s own Tarantulas.

RotB at the very least reinvigorated the Maximals as a faction, but the Predacons are largely missing from modern televised and comic media. They’re kinda there post WFC, but Transmetal II Megatron is curiously labeled a Prime Predacon…

The Prime Predacons are great but still…

Hasbro remains very weird about non Autobots and Decepticons. Mini-Cons kinda luck out by having the Cassettes be retroactively be Mini-Cons, but screw you if you want proper Maximals, Terrans, Predacons. Terrorcons are another current anomaly that I don’t know will make the cut either.

As it stands, expect Twitch and Spitfire to be Mini-Cons, Aftermath a Decepticon, and everyone else an Autobot, with Jawbreaker specifically as a Dinobot. Whether he gets used just as much as Slash remains to be seen. -sarcastic-

[selanaris]

Batfam x Transformers ideas

I saw some back and forth between @cao-the-dreamer and @yes-i-write-fanfiction and it encouraged me to post up some of my ideas I had

The Signal (Duke Thomas) in TFP

The Signal is the one meta bat in Gotham. Basically, the idea is that he is in jasper on an undercover assignment to investigate the bots and cons there. it's his first solo mission of large-scale. (Albeit one with many training wheels) he is being set up as a national exchange with Miko.

The funny part is that Duke is most known in his siblings for never being caught, so all the adults assume he is a good child. At first Miko is annoyed at the new exchange, thinking he is kinda stuck up and quiet, but seeing a vehicon and autobot chase with her and bulkhead and two vehicons then out of nowhere, one con gets YOINKED back and it's signal with his kama/blade-chucks He slashes the tires and goes to the next con. even when the cons transform, he is able to use his kama like grapples to bring him up and take them down, going for eyes and necks.

His identity doesn't immediately give away the others. Of course, he doesn't give it away, and Duke and Signal are never connected. Bots are like, "As a human, you should stay out of this war"

"As a human, with extraterrestrials having a war on earth. I should be involved. And you can not stop me."

Ratchet is VERY facinated in Signals powers, Able to control, move through, and see any light or shadow on any spectrum.

Signal's identity is revealed when Duke and Miko are captured.

OF COURSE

They get out and back home right as the bots were getting ready to leave. Miko became even more of a ln adrenaline junky

"I WANT TO BE A SUPER HERO TOO!"

"Uh... no no no, nope, denied. And I'm a vigilante, so what I'm doing is against the law"

(Arcee in the back, "Great, we're harboring a criminal.")

Signal is trying hard to ignore Miko's constant question for him to train her. Her only talking about the cool, awesome stuff she could do. Eventually, he will snap at her when she puts herself in danger, and then she says, "wouldn't of happened if you trained me."

"No. It still would of happened. It could happen even more if I trained you. You don't become a hero because it's cool or awesome. And those who do don't last. I've been doing this for almost a year, and I've already seen more there than I've seen with the autobots. People get hurt Miko... and when you have the power to do something... it will always feel like it's your fault...."

(That's what I have so far, the other idea is Batman Beyond and TFA to post later)

[icyrambles]

hi friendly reminder that everything said in this post is my personal opinion. i actually really enjoyed earthspark season 1 and i was really really excited for season 2. i do not expect a piece of children’s media to be a perfectly written masterpiece but good lord was the bar low. anyways extreme spoilers below the cut. proceed with caution :3

i do not think it an untrue statement to say that the writing quality went down significantly between seasons. the plot, while not perfect in season 1, was far more fleshed out and actually took a whole season's worth to complete. meanwhile we had a plotline with much higher stakes get finished within the span of about a third of what the first season got. additionally while many of the episodes had some sort of connection to the wider goal of this batch of episodes, that being reclaiming the emberstone shards, many of the episodes did not focus specifically on the emberstone itself, instead sidelining it to a background plot or merely having characters randomly finding bits and pieces of it just lying about.

i would not think this a bad thing had the episodes not felt so rushed. starscream's plotline of obtaining all the emberstone shards should've taken the whole season, not just 9 episodes. the rushed writing reeks of corporate interference and slashed budgets and i have nothing but praise for the writers who scrambled to try and salvage a story that should've gotten 1, if not 2 seasons for a well rounded plot. however this does not stop me from wishing that they had tried to focus on creating a plotline that felt at least marginally more connected and tonally sound

it's an issue that i noticed throughout the first season where the dialogue and general morals of the show seem to be marketed towards a much younger audience and then the actual content of the show is not at all suited for children. obviously rampant child endangerment is a common theme in a lot of children's media (steven universe, she-ra, literally every tf show to ever feature a child character, etc...) but it's very strange to me that so few of the adult characters seem to care or understand how much danger mo and robby are in whenever they are part of an active combat scene.

neither dot nor alex seem all that concerned that their literal children are fighting alien robots who are more than twice their size and could easily maim or kill them without much trouble. obviously they have plot armour because they are the main characters but even then that's not a very good excuse when it's been established within the show that the characters are in highly dangerous situations that could get them killed and yet mo and robby's parents simply stand by and let their very young, elementary/middle school aged kids throw themselves into the line of danger.

and it's specifically the tone issue when it comes to the violence. if the combat in earthspark was treated as though no one could get hurt seriously and everyone would be okay, like it is in many prior transformers shows (like G1, TFA, and cyberverse) then i wouldn't have any issues with this. but it's not. fighting the decepticons is treated like it's a majour risk and that mo and robby could die every single time they leave the house to go on patrol. but their parents, beyond a few verbal warnings, do not do anything to keep their kids out of the way. they do not question why their children must be the ones to fight the decepticons, instead of leaving it up to the much more capable autobots.

it was bad in the last season but at the very least most of the fights then were simply due to the maltos being caught up in combat they weren't actively seeking out. but now, they are actively hunting down and searching for pieces of the emberstone that frequently lead them into situations that could risk their lives.

another issue i have with the tones of the show is how it treats injuries. hashtag seemingly gets very badly injured in the first episode because of aftermath and we, as the audience, are supposed to be very worried for her. however this lasts for all of about 10 minutes before she's back on her pedes and rolling around just fine, which once again leads to the confusing question of whether we're supposed to care if characters get injured. 

in transformers animated as an example, i was never particularly worried when characters got injured because of the allspark key. it was functionally a fix all tool used to repair any cybertronian character who got injured. therefore, whenever there was a majour battle, i never was in disbelief when a character would get seriously injured because it was previously established that the characters have a tool that can fix them should they require such drastic medical care. and it even tied into ratchet’s character arc and him learning to trust newer forms of technology.

wheeljack is another example of tonal dissonance when it comes to injuries. he gets stabbed in the face by a weapon called the cyberslayer. he then passes out and his optics turn completely black. we see dot grabbing him and looking very worried and then we don't get to see him again until the very last episode (which takes place two episodes after when he first gets injured) where he only appears for a split second fighting nova storm. no one mentions the fact that he got grievously injured, not even characters who saw him get hurt, like twitch, who has a strong emotional attachment to him and should likely care about him getting injured. 

mind you beyond a cybertronian’s frame going completely grey, their optics are how their physical and emotional state are often portrayed to most animated audiences. it’s not like in the comics where they can be covered in gore and lose limbs without consequence of scaring a young child. so seeing wheeljack’s optics go completely black and having people be worried about him and then never mentioning him again for two fucking episodes is really poor writing. 

and speaking of characters getting grievously injured. let me talk about spitfire and aftermath.

i do not enjoy the fact that they were killed. in fact i am appalled that they took two characters who were maybe less than a month old and then had them killed in what is to be implied to be an extremely painful manner. i’m unsure as to why the terrans are treated as though they are fully grown cybertronians when they are clearly not. they may have fully developed frames but they have the minds and personalities of children. additionally the way the chaos terrans are treated makes me deeply uncomfortable considering their age and the way they were brought into the world.

it is implied that the emberstone brings terrans into existence depending on the situation and in both cases of a chaos terran being created, that situation is combat. aftermath was created when breakdown fumbled an emberstone shard and it landed in a puddle of water. he was then immediately hit by a truck and began attacking the rest of the terrans. spitfire is much the same, being created when a shard of the emberstone was tossed into a thunderstorm while twitch was being chased by laserbeak. 

the way that the maltos talk about the chaos terrans, addressing them as evil and corrupted versions of the other terrans is deeply unsettling to me considering season 1’s themes of acceptance and understanding for those around you. it’s very weird to have jawbreaker go from being buddy-buddy with aftermath in one episode and then upon meeting spitfire in the next episode, distrusting her. obviously aftermath did betray jawbreaker’s trust by stealing the supply of cave water, but it feels incredibly out of character to see jawbreaker, who is friendly, kind, and unrelentingly positive, suddenly stick his nose up at spitfire, an individual he has never met before in his life. 

i’m aware that the terrans are proven right about aftermath and spitfire but it’s so gross to see characters who are less than a year old get thrown under the same bus as the decepticons who have committed literal war crimes. 

and then there’s the fact that they were killed by starscream. now to be clear, i did not expect starscream to be a good person in this season. i was tentatively hopeful that he would get a redemption arc of some kind considering megatron’s whole deal, but i was fully expecting him to be the main antagonist of season 2. however… it feels bizarrely out of place to see starscream quite literally murder two newborn babies and then not have said babies get revived at the end of the season. 

aftermath and spitfire are dead. just straight up gone. and it’s a waste of potential in my opinion. 

these are two characters who could have gone from side antagonists to genuine fan favourites given enough time and proper development. that’s what i though their plotline would be to be honest; i assumed that we were going to see them grow and develop over the course of the season (not just the first nine episodes) with the two of them eventually leaving the decepticons to join the autobot side. 

instead they are murdered in front of four main characters and banished the realm of never having had existed once again. there is the possibility of them being revived but i am highly unsure of that being the case considering how their existence sort of depends on the emberstone being shattered into several pieces. 

additionally, going back to starscream, i honestly do not want him to get a redemption arc now. there is no way in my mind that the writers can make him a good guy after he murdered two children. like, zero chance. unless they just bumped it under the rug, it’s fucking impossible to go “yeah starscream, the guy who killed two babies and then tried to destroy an entire town full of people, yeah he’s a good guy now!” 

that just would be tone deaf.

okay i’m moving on to the various plotholes and open ended questions that have been left on the floor now because if i keep thinking about how the chaos terrans were treated it’ll make me sadder

so first big question. why are the cons bad now? no genuinely, i would like to know why exactly the decepticons suddenly turned evil. the excuse of “oh that’s just how cons are” is not an excuse, it’s a fucking shame explanation that goes entirely against the themes of the first season. like even a fucking line of just “oh we tried peace but like many of our past ceasefires our ideologies just clashed too much” or something along those lines. 

and it’s been a whole year since season 1. something must have happened for the decepticons to have suddenly flipped sides on a dime. it’s so weird to me seeing a character like breakdown finally have the opportunity for something tangentially related to peace and then become a con once again despite having zero reason to actually stay with them. 

like ghost is gone (which is another thing i’ll bring up later) so why wouldn’t he chill with the autobots where he’s not in active combat and being starved for resources. like i can understand soundwave, shockwave, and starscream leaving considering their ties to megatron, and novastorm and skywarp leaving because of starscream seems about right. 

but swindle? hardtop? the insecticons? why the fuck do they care about the decepticons? surely those individuals don’t have the same loyalty to the cons as the others? and it doesn’t help that the insecticons get no lines this season and swindle and hardtop get like 6 collectively. we don’t learn anything about them or their motives. we can’t deduce anything because the narrative doesn’t care enough about them to actually explain or show why they’d choose to stick with the decepticons over the autobots. 

and starscream’s motives are another really weird thing. we’re told it’s because he wants to build a new cybertron but that feels so wildly out of character when he’s shown to generally just dislike megatron and his rule. why would he want anything to do with earth? 

“oh well shockwave hasn’t found anything that says cybertron is still around” 

well he hasn’t found anything that says cybertron is gone either. like one blown up spacebridge would not fucking explode an entire planet. and it would make far more sense for starscream to be building a new spacebridge powered by the emberstone instead. and the decepticons being the antagonists instead because of them wanting to go home quicker and not wanting to be patient and resorting to violence. 

like you’re telling me that shockwave couldn’t build a fucking space bridge when agent croft and mandroid could. pathetic. he would probably do it faster and with better materials because he knows what he’s doing. 

additionally if we got a space bridge up and working that would mean getting to see cybertron which would provide a lot of really good character building for the terrans! like it would be very fun to see them getting to explore and grapple with their cybertronian side!

ignoring the whole mess that is decepticons are the bad guys again because of “reasons”, i wanna talk about the carnival episode

now overall i actually enjoyed this episode. like beyond the whole crush plot not really being my thing (which is more a result of me not enjoying romantic subplots within kids media to begin with which is in it of itself just a result of me being aroace and disliking unnecessary romance in media) i actually really liked this episode! i enjoyed seeing the terrans interacting in an environment that isn’t a fight scene. and the use of their bond in regards to robby’s crush is actually a really cute concept that i felt was well executed. 

absolutely zero thoughts on robby’s crush. other than they both deserve jail for that food crime abomination of a funnel cake. but to each their own i suppose. 

but now comes the questions… what the fuck was up with cosmos man?!

from his dialogue about not knowing that megatron was an autobot we can assume that he’s been trapped there for minimum of like… 40 years give or take. and that’s a fucking horrifying thing to think about. he’s trapped in his altmode for decades without any way to communicate with his allies all while this random human uses him as a method of making money. 

i don’t particularly know how those altmode devices work, but surely his spark signature would still be recognisable correct? did the other autobots just assume that he was dead? did they not care? were ghost preventing the autobots from rescuing him? 

so many questions that will probably not get answered because having weird al voice him probably increased his budget several times over. 

oh and also are we going to learn where fairemestro got his tech from? did he just get it all from swindle over the years, that would seem the most logical, but also maybe he was working with ghost, that could be an interesting plot threat if the writers decide to bring him back. 

the quintessons are another group that leaves me with a lot of questions. like clearly they’re being set up as the main villains of the rest of the season but it’s so weird to me that they’re not set up earlier than that. 

why on earth make starscream the villain if you’re going to just get rid of him nine episodes in. surely it would’ve been easier to simply dedicate the time and energy into building up the quintessons in the first batch of episodes, with the decepticons as minour supporting characters along with the autobots and then have the rest of the season be about fighting the quints. 

it feels so oddly structured and rushed. 

i understand that time constraints and budget cuts most likely caused them to cram everything into season 2 because season 3 might not be a guarantee but considering how big of a threat the quintessons are likely going to be, having them get their own season to fully realise their goals and/or plans is a better writing decision than a singular episode of setup that immediately got forgotten for the rest of the episode batch. 

and okay, personal bias here. the quintesson executioner model was ugly. it was weird and it was gross and it’s fucking limbs made of jelly energon was just not it man. like give that thing some tentacles with blades on the end. not whatever the fuck that creature was. 

and also small tangent, i don’t like quintus prime. i do not like the fact that he enlisted two literal children to do his bidding and then having the writing team puppet said children around saying “yes quintus prime is our friend :)” while he has done nothing to earn their respect or trust. he’s a fucking dick who is leaving his mess for two kids to clean up. 

mo saying to the executioner “but quintus is my friend” pisses me off so much because he’s really not. he appeared in one vision for about 3 minutes and in that time he got angry at mo for being scared about her brother being in mortal danger. that’s not friend behaviour. 

additionally alex’s nonchalance about the quintesson executioner is so strange to me. he literally saw his probably 9-10 year old daughter getting hunted down and just doesn’t do anything afterwards to ensure that it won’t happen again. no sitting down with dot and saying “honey maybe we shouldn’t let our children do this anymore. it’s clearly dangerous.” nothing of that sort??? really??? do neither of these parents care about their children now???

season one dorothy malto would never do this. she would be furious that her children are regularly throwing themselves into life or death situations. 

not to mention the fact that these kids are still in school, actively!!! mo finding the quintus temple is literally only because she has to do a history project on witwicky, meaning she’s actively in school during the season. so that means that not only are these kids in school during the day, but they’re also training, going on patrol, and fighting beings roughly 2-3x their size on the daily????

how are they not exhausted physically and mentally? how have their teachers not noticed something is off? do they just not have any connections with their classmates? do they merely just go to school, go home, work, and then repeat?

this problem could be easily fixed by just saying they’re homeschooled or that it’s the summer. but nope, they’re in public school. 

okay end tangent. moving onto characters. 

i’ve already talked about the assassination of characters like dot, who is suddenly a background mom who seemingly doesn’t give a shit about her seven kids throwing themselves into life and death situations and the same goes for alex, but there was a noticeable lack of character time from pretty much every majour character from season 1. 

like bumblebee, someone who lives with the malto family and was their teacher and mentor in season 1. he’s just fucking gone for 90% of the season. he has like three total scenes and most of those are dedicated to him being comic relief. it baffles me that he’s just missing. everything from season one, his silly moments with alex, his awkward dynamic with optimus and megatron, his love and dedication with the kids is just gone. 

it breaks my heart because bumblebee was one of the highlights of season 1. he was silly, kind, caring, strong, and the perfect mix between the bumblebee’s of tfa, g1, and cyberverse. 

megatron, arcee, and grimlock also got almost no screentime. arcee and grimlock i can sort of understand because even in season 1 they were relatively minour background characters who featured in only one or two episodes… but megatron, fucking megatron, mr. i’m an autobot now. mr. i’ve changed for the better???? why is he not more prominently featured as a potential mentor for the chaos terrans. 

he of all bots would understand what they’re going through? why does he just brush off spitfire? why is he not more concerned when the chaos terrans are merely left to the side and dehumanised like the rest of the decepticons?

it’s so strange to see him become this random guy who says almost nothing and is mostly in the background when he played such a prominent role in season 1. and it’s especially weird that he’s also just okay with the terrans and malto kids collecting the emberstones by themselves. like he was very clearly protective and caring towards them in season 1 so why the sudden shift in character in season 2?

starscream is also such 180 from season 1. like did i expect him to be a perfect little angel who can do no wrong? fuck no. i was fully expecting him to be mean, ornery, and snippish when he interacted with megatron and the autobots. but to have him go from “look out for yourself” to hashtag and then straight up murder two children for a plot point that barely makes any sense is just so fucking out of line. 

i’m a firm hater of most starscream’s that are just evil guy for the sake of evil. i fucking hate what skybound did to him good lord. so to see him suddenly flip from being relatively sympathetic (i say relatively because he’s not like a good person. i fully understand that he was actively part of the group that invaded earth and probably killed a lot of humans) but having him just straight up kill two children… no man. i will not accept a redemption arc after that. 

he had so much potential to be a good character, who actively struggled with becoming a good person and dealing with his trauma in a healthy way and to see that potential get tossing into the trash just makes my blood boil. 

zero thoughts on soundwave and his team. he got like three lines and was mostly just a cardboard cutout of his season 1 self. weird that we never got to see frenzy considering laserbeak and ravage got scenes. is she just dead now? 

shockwave betraying (or at least not listening to starscream’s orders) was pretty interesting. i’m ready to see what he’s going to do in the rest of the season. then again there’s a good chance that he’ll just be cardboard cutout later on. 

skywarp and novastorm. nothing much. they’re fine. i like the few interactions they got. i enjoy the fact that skywarp is allowed to be a little stupid like her g1 counterpart and her fight scene with elita-1 was pretty nice. i’ve seen people complain that they didn’t change enough about her to justify the pronouns change but i subscribe to the notion that cybertronians do not use pronouns in the same way that humans do, so like, i don’t really give a fuck about the she/her usage. it’s a silly thing to get hung up over in my opinion. 

insecticons are nothing burger characters. swindle and hardtop are boring as hell. also someone get hardtop a new arm for fucks sake. it’s been a year. surely they could manage that. 

another dropped plot was the combining concept. like it gets put into an episode and then it gets dropped only one episode later. i honestly did not like how jawbreaker was portrayed in the episode that he features more prominently in. he’s upbeat and happy sure, but even he isn’t that emotionally dense. you’re telling me that while combined with aftermath he really couldn’t figure out why aftermath was so pissy. or that he was going to end up stealing all the cave water? really man?

additionally i’m not a massive fan of combination as a concept in tf to begin with. it feels very much like a toy marketing scheme and after idw1 i just cannot bring myself to give enough of a fuck about such things considering how massive combination was in the comics. it especially feels out of place in earthspark. i did like the scene where mo and robby devour like three plates of food after combining, that was really cute!

quite literally zero thoughts on hashtag picking out a new altmode. it was cute but it felt highly unnecessary to be perfectly honest. also i genuinely hope that her ai doesn’t turn evil like i’ve seen some people saying that it will. i prefer the interpretation that hashtag is now plural and the ai is simply her headmate. hashtag’s new model is just fine. i don’t like her helm though, it feels too naked for me. but the colours and everything else. fine. no notes. 

in terms of animation i honestly don’t have too much to say. most of the models felt oddly stiff. like the people in charge of animation didn’t get paid enough to properly emote them during scenes beyond moving their mouths and maybe stretching their eyes. (this is a gross exaggeration. there is a lot of time and effort that goes into rigging and creating 3d models and i understand that on a tight budget it’s probably very hard to try and make every character as expressive as possible.)

the fight scenes felt so weirdly rushed and/or oddly choreographed. like it might just be a me thing but most of the scenes felt either too slow or too fast with the rare exception (i like spitfire and twitch’s scenes. they were good)

aftermath’s model is overall pretty good. besides his helm. it feels a bit too small. 

already stated my opinions on the quintesson executioner model above. it’s shit. i don’t like it. 

terratronus is honestly pretty good. the detailing is nice. don’t like her glorification of quintus prime though. like it’s in character but that doesn’t mean i have to like it. she wasn’t around long enough to make a big enough impression on me. she feels like a lore exposition dump and that’s about it. 

alright this thing is getting too long. like 4k words long. before i go, let me say something. 

i did actually enjoy watching season 2. despite my paragraphs and paragraphs of criticism and questions and annoyances with so much of the season, i think it’s perfectly fine by itself. but in comparison to season 1, it’s a poor fucking sequel. it fails on almost every level and i think more people should be more comfortable with admitting that it’s just very bad. that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it, that doesn’t mean you can’t like what it did. i just think that people shouldn’t sweep the massive issues these episodes have with pacing, dialogue, and animation simply because some parts of it were decent. 

i’m probably going to watch the rest of the season when the episodes drop (purely because prowl is there tbh. if he’s there at all.)

[pocoslip]

I would've like to see Slash and Javelin Together in IDW2 but oh well

(I guess these Two are just Not meant to be)

[paulinawoodpecker]

The story of how nova got her scar on her face

Nova’s backstory begins with her early days training to become an Autobot warrior. Though gifted with strength, agility, and the legacy of Optimus Prime flowing through her circuits, she was still young, inexperienced, and eager to prove herself. Her father, Optimus, had always been cautious about sending her into battle, knowing the dangers posed by their greatest enemy, Megatron.

The Battle That Changed Everything:

One fateful day, a surprise Decepticon attack targeted a crucial Autobot outpost on the outskirts of Cybertron. Despite Optimus’s orders for Nova to stay back, she felt an overwhelming need to help. Wanting to prove she was ready, Nova disobeyed her father's command and joined the Autobots on the front lines.

During the battle, Nova fought valiantly, using every skill she had learned. But in the chaos of war, she found herself face to face with none other than Megatron himself. Towering over her, Megatron smirked at the sight of the young Prime, sensing her inexperience.

Megatron: Optimus never told me he had a daughter. But I suppose it won’t matter for long…

Nova launched herself at him, trying to match his strength, but Megatron was far more powerful than she anticipated. He easily countered her attack and, in one devastating strike, slashed his sharp, jagged blade across her face. The force of the blow sent her crashing into a nearby wall, sparks flying from the deep wound left on her cheekplate.

As she lay on the ground, wounded and in pain, she could hear Megatron’s cruel laughter echoing in her mind.

Megatron: You’re just a child. You’ll never be what Optimus is.

Nova tried to stand but her body was weak, her face throbbing from the wound. Before Megatron could strike again, Optimus arrived, roaring with fury, and drove Megatron back in an epic clash of titans. The battle between them was intense, but Optimus ultimately forced Megatron to retreat.

The Aftermath:

After the battle, Nova was taken back to the Autobot base for medical attention. The wound on her face was deep and would leave a permanent scar—a reminder of her first encounter with Megatron, her failure, and her vulnerability.

In the quiet aftermath, Nova sat alone, staring at her reflection. The scar was a constant reminder of her defeat, and she couldn’t hold back her tears. She felt ashamed, not just because of her injury, but because she had disobeyed her father and put everyone at risk.

Optimus entered the room and saw his daughter sobbing. He walked over to her quietly and knelt down beside her. Gently, he placed a massive hand on her shoulder.

Optimus Prime: Nova... you fought with courage today.

Nova: Courage? Look at me. I’m scarred... I wasn’t ready.

She turned away, wiping her tears, ashamed to face him.

Optimus Prime: Every warrior carries scars, my daughter. They are marks of our survival, of the battles we have fought and endured.

Nova: But I failed, father. I disobeyed you. Megatron… he was right. I’m not like you.

Optimus gently cupped her chin, turning her face back to him, his optics filled with warmth.

Optimus Prime: You are more like me than you realize. I’ve made mistakes, faced defeat, and have my own scars, both seen and unseen. But scars do not define us, Nova—how we rise after we fall does.

His voice softened.

Optimus Prime: You are still learning, still growing. I have no doubt that one day, you will be an even greater leader than I could ever be. This scar will not make you weaker—it will make you stronger.

Nova looked into her father’s eyes, feeling the weight of his words. Slowly, she reached up to touch the scar on her face. Though the pain was still fresh, his words comforted her, making her feel less alone in her struggle.

Optimus wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a tight embrace, his voice a steady presence in the silence of the room.

Optimus Prime: Remember, Nova—you are never alone in this fight. I will always be here for you, no matter how many scars you bear.

As Nova wept softly in her father’s arms, she found comfort in his words and presence. She realized that, while she may have lost that battle, her journey had only just begun. She would grow, heal, and one day face Megatron again—not as a frightened child, but as a warrior forged through her trials, and destined to lead the Autobots.

And her scar? It would forever be a reminder—not of her failure, but of her resilience.

[iliterallydecepticanteven]

Happy Wednesday, here's the first part of a little TFA Shockblurr fic I'm working on with Strika & Lugnut acting as running commentary.

💜💜💜

"Permission to kill Sentinel Prime?" 

Strika sighs heavily. "Unfortunately, permission denied." 

Shockwave just replies with a discontent hum. 

"Trust me, if he was in line for the smelting pit, I would've tossed him in already," Strika reassures him as she glances up from her datapad. 

Shockwave is seated in the chair across from her, clearly irate. Not everyone could decipher his emotions, but she had been stuck dealing with him for many millennia, so she could read him like a datapad now. His shoulders were tense, his posture was irregularly proper, his servos were clenched together tightly, and he was staring down the door of the meeting room. 

Shockwave was, to put it simply, pissed off. 

Lugnut picked up on it as well but made no comment. He was unusually silent sitting beside his conjunx, shuffling between datapads and muttering about next steps. 

The meeting hadn't gone well, in part due to the fight that Sentinel Prime and Blurr had gotten into. Strika had just sat back and watched, letting the two yell at each other to their sparks content. They clearly didn't like each other and their issues came from before the ceasefire got called so it wasn't any of her concern. Eventually Blurr had given up, thrown a datapad at Sentinel, and left in a huff. Sentinel had followed after him, still shouting at the mech. 

Strika had excused everyone else, who had all been sitting there, the Decepticons watching in surprise and delight while the Autobots watched with a familiar resignation like this was as normal as a sunrise. The only occupants left were herself, her conjunx, and Shockwave. 

"What a mess," she sighs. She looks over at Shockwave who is still staring at the door. "Did you get anything from this meeting? Or do I have to call another?" 

"I'll handle the makeup meeting, general," Shockwave says, finally turning from the door and relaxing his posture. 

She has to bite her glossa to keep herself from looking surprised. Shockwave didn't usually do such matters. He preferred to work on his own, alone, and without others. The only one he obeyed was Megatron, no matter how much higher in rank the one giving orders was. 

She just nods and says, "Very well. I appreciate you taking the initiative." 

Shockwave nods and leaves without another word. Another odd behavior, as he usually took every chance he got to insult Lugnut. Strika even had a datapad ready and nearby to throw at his helm in retaliation. 

She just shakes her helm and turns back to the report before her. Silence persists for a few clicks before Lugnut says, "Shockwave is infatuated with that puny skinny Autobot." 

"No he's not," Strika answers immediately. Because of course he's not. Shockwave is the Decepticon Army's perfect soldier. Unwavering loyalty, went deep undercover for millennia without a single complaint, and obeys orders without a second thought for his own wellbeing. Of course he wouldn't be interested in an Autobot. 

"My terror, I believe he is," Lugnut insists, turning to look at his conjunx. There is also the other side of denying his claim, which is that Lugnut is terrifyingly good at predicting things. Strika thinks it's more dumb luck and less skill, but he's been right so many times she has trouble denying it. 

"What, the little scrawny blue one?" she asks. When he nods, she scoffs, "The one who tried to kill him when they reunited?" 

That was a fun solar cycle. Optimus announced he'd be getting more Autobots to aid them in fighting off the Quintessons. Strika hadn't thought anything of it, too busy repairing the engine of her ship. She only knew they had arrived when she heard screaming coming from one of the hangars. 

She'd run into quite a scene: Shockwave, pinned to the floor by the tiny Autobot Blurr, bleeding from various slash wounds, Blurr holding a knife to Shockwave's central line, Optimus trying to pry Blurr away, and Shockwave and his little attacker screaming insults at each other. She had intervened and gotten Shockwave to his pedes before demanding answer from everyone involved. 

 Shockwave had technically and almost killed Blurr and Blurr wanted revenge. Which she should honestly want. After all, Shockwave was a huge pain in her aft. 

But he was also an amazing intelligence agent. So she had let them both off with warnings, threatening to rip their spinal struts out with her bare servos should they continue to fight. 

And that was that. 

Until now. 

"Yes, but perhaps that will make their bond stronger! We also once tried to annihilate each other," Lugnut replies. 

"That was different. We were both stuck in gladiatorial contracts. These two have a choice to avoid each other and not kill each other," Strika says.