#and what if Soundwave was right? what if Megatron did everything right to keep Orion in the dark

[primus-why]

The Problem with Pax

hhhhhhh please I can't stop thinking about the inherent MegOp angst of an extended Orion Pax arc... especially when you imagine Orion fighting the Autobots and almost getting captured-- and calling out to Megs.

And you know Megs would answer his cry by immediately stopping whatever he was doing and going into a vengeful tunnel vision. He crushes anything in his path on the way to rescue Orion (and quite frankly, that ferocious single-mindedness disturbs all other Cons and Bots who are present.) Like the dude is obsessed!

Once they're back and safely on the Nemesis, Soundwave gets a moment alone with the Decepticon leader. He doesn't have to say anything aloud, just the fact he's there after what had transpired already speaks volumes.

"... I know," Megatron grounds out, "I was... callous today. I hadn't considered such a light skirmish could result in Orion's capture. But we will be better prepared the next time the Autob--"

Soundwave interrupts him with a clip of his own voice-- Megatronus' voice-- from many vorns ago.

"Orion Pax will not be a distraction."

Megatron's gaze becomes a glare. Soundwave merely crosses his arms, firm and admonishing.

It's as clear of an 'I told you so' as Megatron will get out of his mute TIC. He opts for a different angle.

"What Orion Pax contributes to the Decepticons is valuable, is it not?"

Soundwave didn't move, so Megatron continued.

"It would be a detriment to the progress we've made on decoding the archives if he were captured. Besides, we wouldn't want Orion's knowledge and skillset to fall into the hands of the Autobots, would we?"

"We cannot afford to prioritize any one mech." Again, his own voice is spat back at him. "Sacrifices must be made in times of war."

"This is different--" He starts to say, but he visibly struggles to find more words to explain why. He knows Soundwave is perfectly capable of decoding the archives-- that Orion Pax is not the best fighter, nor can he mine energon or provide ship repairs. He can't even tap into any hidden Prime abilities. By all accounts, Orion isn't particularly exceptional. If anything he could be considered a liability.

After some blatant hesitation, "... if the Autobots were to take him, he might be reverted back to Optimus Prime." He says a bit too quickly. 'Yes. Of course. Depriving the enemy of their beloved leader is of utmost priority... my logic is sound.'

Soundwave uncrossed his arms, this time choosing to cobble words and phrases together for his reply.

"Optimus Prime-- may be-- reverted back-- here."

Megatron's servos clenched into fists.

"And should that come to pass, we are perfectly capable of subduing him. The Prime would be grossly outnumbered, stranded with no way to contact the Autobots while on our own ship." He regarded his TIC for a moment before continuing, "As always I appreciate your concern and watchful optics, Soundwave. I'll personally see to it that we have a cell with the Prime's name on it... just in case."

Soundwave imparts some final wisdom from one of the older gladiators who had trained them for the arena:

"Distractions get you offlined."

Once alone, Megatron groans and stares at the ceiling, his processor working out potential scenarios Orion might encounter and solutions on how to evade them.

"I know, old friend."

Having said his piece, Soundwave finally turns on his heel and takes his leave.

'There has to be a way I can make this work.' He thinks, 'I will not lose him again.'

[doshi-sukiru]

Divergent au

Yeah..so I made a new au so here we go-

Part 2!

this one I don't think I'll make a fic out of, mainly because I'm already trying to get back to my shadowpeach one (I have NOT forgotten, uni is just a bitch and for some reason I'm procrastinating too much which is scaring me but I can't stop it it's awful-)

So, this was something @/angstychilz and I discussed one day in our megop server and it was basically "what if Megatron and a few other decepticons got captured by the Quintessons while they were on the surface?"

And of course I'm in a chokehold so now you're forced to deal with this horrifying au I twisted with my knowledge of sci-fi / doctor horror.

**TW!! I might get a bit graphic with some details so please tread carefully! I don't want to scare any of you with what I have for this au, it is disturbing in some areas**

So, to start, I've considered that for now, Megatron, Soundwave, and Blitzwing would all be taken by the quintessons to be experimented on, mainly to help the quintessons understand their anatomy and to use it to their advantage in order to help conquer Cybertron (suggestions for other bots to be taken and experimented on is welcome!)

Of course, it is considered that they are different species, and in a way I believe that the quints would see cybtronian's as lesser beings (especially seeing how they managed to persuade sentinel easily with the idea of having more power in return for killing the primes and providing them with energon). This would play a big part during their experimentations, especially with Megatron because he carries a Prime's cog, that too Megatronus's, who was definitely one of their biggest enemies.

Megs and the others are kept with other mechs, some dead some alive, and they all go through terrible transformations (I'm still deciding how to ruin blitz, especially with his split personality).

I'll just summarize how Soundwave's transformation becomes bc it's really easy- he just goes from tfone sound to tfp sound (angsty's idea), since he has moveable cables similar to the quint's tentacles. He is still in control of his body and mind, and even holds conversations with Megatron to give him some sense of normality between them, but will black out whenever the quints need him to go scout on cybertron to avoid autobot patrols and seek out new victims.

Megatron's treatment I have more detail on (and why wouldn't I, he's my comfort character I need to detail his agony-). There is no anesthesia, Megatron is staying awake as they tear through his chassis and tear out the cog, forcing him to go back to his cogless form. I will also add that before he was taken, he also lost his right arm in the fight before capture, so he's dealing with two types of pain.

Through that the quints learn that mech body's can shift, so while Megs is sent to recover with the other bots they grab some poor mech and experiment with their cog, and they take their time just experimenting on how to make a cog of their own. This also includes them doing several types of dissections on a lot of mechs, pulling and twisting wires, tearing apart limbs and then forcing them to reconnect after forcing the mechs to transform. Keep in mind none of them are under anesthesia, so it's like an old victorian surgery, you're awake and watching a bunch of aliens piercing through you, dismembering you and forcing you to stay still as they go through your systems and organ parts, and even through your spark (guess how you think they learned that was what kept them alive).

Through all that, once they get some form of a twisted, functional cog that mimics an original one, they immediately do everything they did to those mechs to megatron.

By then, he's no longer filled with rage, but fear. Indescribable fear of whether or not he'd survive this. He was a miner once, and while he had his moments he was always assured by Orion he'd be fine and he'd be safe. Orion's not here anymore, and most of the time Sound isn't either, so he's stuck spiraling in fear.

Obviously he's more resistant against them, but he can't fight them anymore. At the same, his helm is forced open, leaving his core processor open for them to dig in and used what memories he has to twist him into a more submissive mech, especially his momentary regret that he got when he shot Orion, and later after dropping him to die. He's forced to endure several procedures, most that left him bleeding out or vomiting blood to the point of exhaustion, and waking up in a tank only to be pulled and put through it again. And again. And again. And again.

Until- they get it right. Now, he looks like a normal mech, similar frame and shape, but with changes. His frame color no longer is a silver/grey hue, it's green with how often he's kept in the dirty cells or in the tanks. His arm got replaced, but with a quintesson-like arm. His voicebox is damaged from the constant tests, so he speaks very little before his voice gets glitchy and incomprehensible.

His body, while accepts the cog and gives him a new alt (flier), will still reject it after a long period of time (consider it between every 8-10 orbital cycles/months), which causes internal bleeding and erratic movement from his body, often times leaving him disfigured and in agony when it occurs. This can range from his body trying to transform mid-form into his alt, to whole on twisting his limbs, or both.

I'll open my inbox for you guys again for this au, I'll do a part 2 for orion's part. But yeah, here's my twisted horror au that I keep a latch on. hahaha-

Bonus art!

[in1-nutshell]

Why did Megatron leave idw Ophelia, hence why I request the idw Ophelia post but from Megatron pov on why he left his child and possibly future him think that Ophelia reminds him of his adopted sparkling

I have a feeling more IDW Ophelia will be coming in the future and I am ready for it!

Hope you enjoy!

IDW Ophelia: Megatron's POV

SFW, Platonic, Angst, Cybertronian reader

IDW/MTMTE

Life seemed to be getting better with time for Megatron.

He had a growing movement fighting for better change in the Senate.

He had made friends through these connections.

He met a nice bot named Orion Pax who seemed to share the same ideal as him.

And now, he now had a daughter.

Definitely not the biggest or heaviest sparkling out there, but she was his and he wouldn’t want her in any other way.

Orion looking over Megatron’s shoulder to look at the sleeping sparkling. Orion: “Does she have a name yet?” Megatron: “Not yet.” Orion: “What names are you thinking about?” Megatron shrugging. Megatron: “I am not sure yet. I will give her one when the time seems right. For now, Little One it is.” Megatron gently traces the sparklings digit with a warm smile. Orion: “I’m sure you’ll find the perfect name for her.”

Megatron never did get around to finding a proper name for her.

Most names he tried out for her just didn’t seem right.

So, she went on without a proper name, mainly responding to any nickname that corresponded to sparklings.

She was his tiny shadow enveloped in his own shadow.

The little one had a talent of managing to worm her little way in =o many of the sparks of bots and cons alike.

Even the more questionable colleges…

The sparkling looks up at Starscream. Starscream: “What? You have something to say?” The sparkling waddles up to him and gently pats his pede. The sparkling chirps happily. Starscream looks around before carefully picking up the sparkling to his chassis. Starscream: “Your father needs to have a better look out for you Young One. I hope you know how much time I am wasting on—” The sparkling looking at his wings: “Pretty! So pretty!” Starscream: “… At least you have a working processor.” He turns around to see Soundwave staring at him. Starscream: “…” Soundwave: “…” Starscream passing the sparkling to Soundwave. Starscream: “You saw nothing.” Starscream walks away… but not before perking up a bit hearing a small ‘Bye Pretty!’.

Sadly, good things tend to have sick endings.

One minute he was helping her read some glyphs, the next Megatron was being hauled to his cell.

The only thing keeping him from trying to break the bonds and race to his little sparkling was the emergency plan they had talked about.

If Megatron did not come back home after two days, she would go to the ‘safe spot’.

The safe spot was a small hidden room in the gladiatorial quarters.

It was often used for storage and cleaning supplies, but it was an excellent hiding place.

He would rather have her stay with someone trusted, but right now he couldn’t trust anyone.

What if a close friend ended up betraying him and used her as leverage?

No, this plan was for the best.

It was one of the nights into his sentence when the words of a nameless guard struck him to the core.

The guard walked up to Megatron, who was on the inside of his cell. Guard: “There’s been talk around that you have a sparkling. Is that true Megatron.” Megatron stays silent. Guard: “Well, she’s probably doing better now that a murderer isn’t under the same roof as her.” Megatron’s optics widen a bit. Guard: “Don’t think we don’t know about your little ‘accident’ in the mines Megatron. Hopefully without you around, she won’t end up here rotting away with the likes of you and the other criminal filth on Cybertron.”

The guard spat at his pedes and left him alone in his cold cell.

That thought struck him harder than any blow Whirl would have ever given him.

More thoughts about the dangers of his work started floating around.

With everything going on with his movement and the Senate, was he really going to bring his sparkling to a world like that?

Everything already seemed to be on fire, why drag her further into this mess?

… Maybe having the sparkling stay with one of her uncles… Or… maybe stay with someone else who was built for sparklings… permanently…

No, he wasn’t going to give up one of the only sources of light in his life because of some little fear.

Megatron was fighting for a better future for all Cybertronians.

A world where sparkling wouldn’t have to scavenge in unstable mines and hope to Primus for the best.

He was fighting for her.

Starscream: “Welcome back Megatron.” Megatron looks at the increased number of bots that had joined his cause. Megatron: “I see we have steadily increased in numbers.” Starscream: “Yes, the numbers ramp up significantly with your imprisonment.’ Soundwave walks up to Megatron. Soundwave: “Shall I go retrieve our sparkling now? I have the location—” Megatron: “No.” Every con who had met the sparkling turns to Megatron. Soundwave: “What?” Starscream: “Comedy doesn’t suit you Megatron. What do you mean ‘No’?” Megatron: “I am serious. Do not retrieve her.” Soundwave: “She doesn’t know you have returned—” Megatron: “When I say it is time to bring her, it is time.” Starscream: “None of—” Megatron: “She will not be safe here. The best we can do is leave the location hidden from our enemies and fight.” Starscream: “You do realize that sparkling is going to be a target anywhere she goes because of who her father—” SLAP! Megatron vents heavily putting his servo down. He looks down at a shocked Starscream. Megatron: “Question my orders again Starscream and there WILL be consequences.” Starscream grimaces while looking down: “Yes… Lord Megatron.”

Megatron bans Soundwave from sending anyone from contacting his sparkling, it was for her own safety.

A few days later, the news showed an extremely familiar looking gladiatorial arena in rubble.

Some bots had destroyed the entire building as an act of revolution against the Senate.

No survivors amongst the wreckage.

This was Megatron’s last straw.

A month later the War official broke out.

Megatron was a war machine, a cold calculated war machine.

There were rare nights where he would dream of his little sparkling, waiting for him outside the Halls of Iacon.

Megatron looks around the giant halls. He stops when he sees his sparkling reading a data pad and falls to his knees. Megatron: “Little One?” The sparkling immediately looks up smiling widely and breaks into a sprint. The sparkling: “Megatron! Megatron! You’re back!” She jumps into his open arms. Megatron squeezes her tightly. The sparkling: “I knew you’d come back! I just knew it!” Megatron suddenly wakes up to the sound of harsh banging at his habsuite. Megatron: “What is it!” Shockwave from the other side of the door: “I have the data collection of the prisoners’ processors ready for you to see Lord Megatron.” Megatron: “Give me 5 minutes.” Shockwave: “As you wish Lord Megatron.” Shockwave walks back to his lab as Megatron silently weeps the fleeting memory of his sparkling.

Time skip to the Lost Light…

As he boarded the infamous Lost Light, he recognized two of the bots waiting for him.

His fellow ‘Co-captain’ Rodimus Prime and Ultra Magnus.

The third larger bot was new and about the same height as Ultra Magnus.

Megatron had never seen this bot before.

She welcomed him onto the ship with a shake to his servo, he half expected her to pull some sort of trigger or something.

But no…

She was polite and got to the point of things.

He didn’t have much interaction with the larger bot, but he brushed it off as being scared that he was on board.

They chatted from time to time during or in between the halls of the ship.

It was nice.

But sometimes he swore he find the bot doing little things that reminded him of her…

But that was impossible.

Ophelia was Ophelia.

His sparkling… his sparkling was gone; she had been for a while… and no amount of wishing was going to bring her back to him.

[yayasvalveplay]

"And yet- so terrified and distraught over his Pax. It doesn't take long for the empty spot where his best friend use to be, right across from D-16— to be filled in and replaced immediately by another miner. Another cog in the machine. Someone else is sleeping in Orion's berth."

Are we thinking this might actually help Dee not become Megatron? Instead of hitting him all at once that "hm, what's going on is bad" he gets its slowly spoonfed to him through experience and finding info in the Archives?

Ugh. And just Dee going through the Archives. He has no clue at all what he's doing at first. Despite having guards, nothing is organized very well and it's not well maintained. It's like they want all this info from the past to rot away! However, eventually Dee starts seeing what could only be signs that Orion was there in certain sections-

(And boy, doesn't that just feel bittersweet? He hated Orion breaking into here, but now he feels sort of glad. It feels like already every sign of Orion was painted over in the barracks. This might be the only place left where his presence still exists.)

-which leads him to the datapads on sparklings. Aaaaaaaand cue the confused math lady meme because Dee is trying to figure out how the frag Orion's carrying his sparkling when he was the only one Orion didn't interface with!!! He's not bitter about that at all, no siree.

As for Orion, I feel like the High Guard might actually be disgusted and weirded out by him at first? Yeah, he's carrying so there's that instinct to keep this tiny bot safe, but apparently he got sparked up by stealing his best friend's jizz rags and using the transfluid from that to get knocked up??? He'd be a pariah until either through talking about it or through Soundwave mind reading bs they realize that Orion and most of the other non-cogged bots don't have a strong sense of bodily autonomy when it comes to sexual things. Which, yikes. He genuinely doesn't understand that what he did was skeevy at best, a literal crime at worst. Which makes Orion feel even worse about everything because this means he hurt Dee without even knowing it :(

He doesn't even know how to ask for forgiveness for something like this. Maybe if he brings back a little sparkling with Dee's optics or frame or something it'll help?

Dee going to the archives, not just because he wants to figure out what's happening, but also because it's the last remaining signs that Orion had been a bot, had been someone who walked, talked, got into trouble.

Dee having to do math just to figure out how Orion's 'sparkling' is his, and It just can't click on the one obvious answer, because why would he think Orion is stealing his jizz rag?

As for Orion with the High guard. Starscream telling Orion what he did was really fucked up, but can make lea way because he truly didn't know, consent isn't really taught down in the minds. Like they understand the word no, and yes, it works with any of the minors, but the cogged bots that catch them on the streets as they are walking to their jobs or back home, They don't get to tell them no.

And this i how the High guard gets to know what exactly Sentinel has been doing for 50 cycles.

But now that is out of the way, all they see is a scared Carrier, and seekers bird instincts to nest and protect is strong. Cue Orion sitting on Starscreams lap on his throne, as he's getting fucked because baby needs transfluids, and most of Dee's transfluid is already used up.

[dannymultipersonaje]

Au all the decepticons believe that Orion was kidnapped by the government and turned into Optimus Prime

"Megatronus? Where we are?". I was so excited, I was ecstatic and vibrant, PRIMUS WAS GOING TO FAIN!, and cry from relief, from pain, from happiness, I was going to… so many things, so many emotions, but above all adoration and happiness, he is here, he is here , Orion was back. His spark went around, everything, everything, EVERYTHING was INSIGNIFICANT. Maybe that's why I can't be less than honest and his consciousness module activated. :: Orion Pax is alive, the return of the nemesis :: he commanded Soundwave, as the trip to the ship ended, his not-so-little friend seemed about to fall, disoriented and his field was total anguish. So Megatron said nothing as he turned around looking at the entire display room, his archivist was sometimes a cliché of his kind, delighted to examine, analyze and categorize everything, to be treasured of course, as much as he wanted to give it the everyone's first hug. But as fast as a wish Ravenge would come, slowing down only when he saw the obvious structure of Prime, he could even hear her growl, which did not stop the twin cassettes from jumping on the first red-blue thing they saw, Rumble was the first to realize that something wasn't right. "Optimus Prime?!". Even the scream that will alert an agitated Soundwave was also not the best look when he decided to hug the Prime husk without even asking him. Megatron pulled Orion away from Soundwave and his brood… well, he tried, Orion's field was so expressive that doubts about who he was fell away with Soundwave close enough to feel that entire field hit his center, of course he squeezed. the hug, and in the most adult way possible he slapped Megatron away, swears that when ravage overcame his main suspicion and jumped on Orion's shoulders, without knowing how to control his weight and with the 4 mechas on top of him he fell to the ground. floor. Using Megatron who was still behind him as a buffer. "Stop monopolizing Ori- AHG!" Megatron almost managed to order before receiving a bite.

A visor arranged in its place, and a pack of cassettes, namely ravage, Frenzy and Rumble, were all in the command place with Orion sitting on Megatron's throne, watching how the mechas fought because to do with him, he was so lost, It was confusing how everything was happening, Megatronus had more wounds on his face, his hands were much sharper than I had seen in cycles, Sounwave was… too thin! Even with the few rations that the Gladiator Circle gave he had never been. Seen like this, I wouldn't call him emaciated but it was worrying. Prrr lowered his head, the twins and ravage seemed the same, he scratched behind the beast changer's right ear, when he heard the change the little black mech with golden eyes that he knew gave him some, he was still distraught, what had he missed? ? Were they like this because he decided not to go to the meeting with the Council? And if it was, is it because they are like this? What happened to Megatron? What happened to Soundwave? Has Shockwave also lost weight? Were the High Sire's fears of him realized? What happened? Prrr. Orion looked down, now despite his much quieter and almost non-existent engine he had Rumble and Frenzy in his legs next to ravage's weight, hugging him by his waist much smaller than it should be, he felt like nothing was right. …but he tried to keep his field gentle and kind, as one of the other Soundwave boys approached, he could feel Laserbeak's gaze from somewhere nearby. He didn't know why, but he felt a strange tug on his spark.

----

Sorry, I'm using Google Translate, I don't know how to write English and I can barely read it, so sorry if it's not understood :(

[elfdragon12]

So I firmly maintain that no one in the Transformers fandom is obligated to read or watch everything, especially if you're just not interested anything outside of your preferred continuity. However, I do think it's fandom healthy to have watched a few G1 episodes. I do not say this because I think G1 is the magical pinnacle of the franchise. It's a glorified 80s toy commercial and has highs and lows. However, I do think it's a good reminder of how much things get changed around in this franchise and helps avoid "but [insert thing] is canon!"-itis.

Pick any 5 G1 episodes, it doesn't have to be the first ones! Pick episodes about your favorite characters! Episode continuity isn't all that important so you can really watch most episodes in whatever order you like.

You want to see what G1 Prowl is like? Watch "Roll For It"!

You want to see what G1 Optimus Prime was like as Orion Pax and his history with Megatron? Watch the "War Dawn" episode!

Starscream heavy episodes? Have a dozen or so! "Fire in the Sky", "A Decepticon in King Arthur's Court", "The God Gambit", "Starscream's Brigade", "The Revenge of Bruticus", "Starscream's Ghost", and "Ghost in the Machine"! "The Core" and the "Dinobot Island" multiparter for 'you know, Starscream's right' moments.

Want to know why writers keep centering betrayal storylines on Mirage? Watch the episode aptly named "Traitor".

Only want Dinobots, especially Grimlock? You're in luck because fire-breathing robot dinosaurs are the epitome of cool and there are a bunch of episodes! "SOS Dinobots", "War of the Dinobots", the "Dinobot Island" multiparter, "The Desertion of the Dinobots" multiparter (also a good episode to show that humans are actually well-handled in G1 and awesome female character moments), "Madman's Paradise" (though only Grimlock, also, what the Grimlock miniseries was based on), "Grimlock's New Brain", and "Call of the Primitives".

You want history/lore? That "War Dawn" episode, "The Search for Alpha Trion", "The Key to Vector Sigma" multiparter,"Five Faces of Darkness" part 4, and "Forever Is a Long Time Coming" (especially if you want hints about the upcoming Transformers One movie) are solid choices!

Do you like Perceptor? Try "Microbots", "Cosmic Rust", and "The Face of Nijika"!

Do you want a poignant episode about the environmental casualties of war that ends in a grim Pyrrhic victory? Watch "Golden Lagoon"!

Want romance? "Sea Change" and "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide". I guess "Money Is Everything" if you want boring human-only romance with knock-off Han Solo.

If you like Mirage and Noah from Rise of the Beasts, watch "Make Tracks" and "Auto Bop"!

Black-coded character heavy episodes? For Jazz: "Attack of the Autobots", "The God Gambit". (He is present all throughout seasons 1 and 2, Scatman Crothers's death meant that he had almost no speaking parts in season 3 though). For Blaster: "Blaster Blues", "Auto Bop" (where we see him and Soundwave face off), kind of "Quest For Survival", "Kremzeek", "Carnage in C Minor", and "The Quintesson Journal".

Did you know that G1 has an episode that passes the Bechdel Test? Watch "the Search For Alpha Trion"!

Again, you don't have to nor are obligated to. I just think that G1 has a lot of variety to offer and is generally a fun time. Not to mention I think that folks not watching the G1 Sunbow leads to a lot of mistaken ideas about what the series was actually like, what character personalities were like, and how much Hasbro actually "panders" to geewunners.

[yes-i-write-fanfiction]

Remeber the ask I sent with the TFA Bots stuck in their ideal dream world's thanks to Soundwave?

What if the same scenario happened but with the TFP Autobots? What would their ideal dream world's be? And how would they break out?

Optimus dream world would be pre-war Cybertron. Everything goes the same as it did in the real world up until the point where Megatronus and Orion Pax went to speak with the High Council. Instead of appointing him Prime, they listen to what Megatron has to say and the decide to put a stop to Sentinel Zeta Prime's tyranny. As a result there's no war and Megatronus and Orion remains friends.

He first starts to realize that something is wrong when he spends time with Megatronus. There's this voice in his head telling him that this is not right, that Megatron would not act like this, and as he forces himself to think about it further he realizes what is going on. Before he leaves his dream world he has a last conversation with Dream Megatronus and tells him he never regretted being his friend.

In Ratchet's dream world the war is over. The autobots have won and they are now rebuilding Cybertron. The Well of All Sparks is restored and Ratchet is teaching the next generation of medics. His friends are all safe and happy, no longer forced to fight. It's a peaceful and quiet life.

Out of all the autobots, Ratchet is the last one to leave his dream. At first because he refuses to acknowledge that none of it is real and later because he's just so tired. He wants to rest, to not worry about the war anymore. Is that too much to ask for? But eventually he'll pull himself out of it, knowing that his friends, his REAL friends, still need him.

Just like Ratchet's dream, Bumblebee's dream world takes place after the war, after the autobots have defeated the decepticons. In many ways, his dream is very similar to Ratchet's, with all of his friends being happy and doing the things they love.

Starts to think that something is wrong when he speaks with his 'friends' and they don't act right. He knows them, all their quirks and personality traits, so he immediately catches up to the fact that none of them are real. Doesn't hesitate to break out of the dream world after this realization.

Bulkhead's dream world is actually fairly similar to the real one with a few key differences. The war is still ongoing and they are all on Earth but it's going much better for the autobots. They have more than enough energon for everyone and they are winning the fights without any major injuries. In particular, Bulkhead is saving his friends, keeping them safe and away from all harm. His dream is essentially him succeeding in protecting those he care about.

It's only when Bulkhead is forced to remember their past losses that he's forced to confront the fact that things are too good to be true. He's not invincible, he can't protect everyone all the time and bad things happen. He breaks free in anger, feeling that Soundwave has taunted him.

Similar to Bulkhead, Arcee's dream world also takes place during the war except it's before they arrived on Earth. The main difference is that Cliffjumper and Tailgate are both still alive. They are all together, the perfect team and they are strong. The dream mainly consists of them fighting battles and always coming out on top, pretty much unharmed.

Realizes that it's all a dream when she suddenly mentions Jack and Cliffjumper and Tailgate don't understand what she's talking about. This makes her remember that she should be on Earth and that if she's met Jack then neither Cliffjumper or Tailgate should be alive, as they both died before they could meet him. She breaks out of the dream world, feeling a mixture of rage and melancholy as she got to speak to her dear fiends again but at the same time they were not actually real.

[tiesthatbind-tf]

I accidentally deleted 2000 words of story for poor Soundwave last night and had to rewrite everything but tbh, they’re absolutely worthit.  Their armor definitely makes me want to experiment with Celtic motifs for Hot Rod!

Full story below.

Suraya Widodo was born to parents Wijaya and Ni Made Saraswati on the island of Madura, Indonesia. They noticed that something didn’t quite seem right with their baby, who was fussier than most, threw fits when brought into crowded spaces and seemed mostly lost in their own thoughts, though this did little to dampen their love.

The name ‘Widodo’ (healthy) was given to Suraya (despite the masculine nature of it, which does lend to Suraya’s nonchalance about their gender in later years) in hopes that they would grow up alright despite their quirks.

Wijaya, a fisherman who wanted to give his family a better life in the more industrialized town of Bangkalan west of the island, pushed himself hard at his work, hoping to earn enough to allow them to settle down there comfortably.

He began to risk venturing out into ocean areas which were occasionally used as smuggling routes where more lucrative catches laid, careful to fish there during specific times to the day to avoid crossing paths with pirates and smugglers.

However, his luck ran out one day when a smuggling vessel came across him in broad daylight and silenced him from alerting the coast guards to their existence with five shots.

Suraya was five.

Saraswati, desperate to find a way to care for her child as the new breadwinner thought she had gotten lucky when a job scouter for a factory in Bangkalan came to the village. They were looking to offer work to single mothers as part of their corporate responsibility programme and extended the offer of employment to her and promised a hostel and training so she wasn’t out of her depth in the assembly line.

Seeing it as the best option, she left Suraya with her husband’s family while she worked and lived in a worker’s hostel on weekdays and returned to see Suraya every weekend.

She would give money to the family to care for Suraya in her absence, which was crucial since they weren’t fond of Saraswati (they had not agreed to Wijaya’s marriage) and found Suraya’s odd behavior off-putting and claims of ‘hearing voices’ potentially a sign of mental illness (which was fodder for them to demand even more money from Saraswati with the excuse that Suraya was a handful).

This routine continued until Saraswati was suddenly killed in a factory accident.

Suraya was nine.

The compensation for Saraswati’s death was enough for the family for only a few months and after it dried up, the neglect and abuse began. Though at times it was odd because Suraya seemed to know when they were in a bad mood and when they were looking for an outlet for their anger, and  the child would somehow almost always magically disappear during those times.

Then an agent claiming to be from the government came to see them.

He claimed he had heard about Suraya via their mother and wanted to inspect the child to see if they would qualify for a place in a ‘special school’ for ‘different’ children, and this had sounded tame enough to the family, who allowed him to see the shy, withdrawn little waif.

However Suraya immediately could tell what his true intentions were—-to have them locked up in a testing facility to figure out their ‘mutation’—-and attempted to run, only to be caught by his fellow officers outside the home.

The family was paid compensation for officially relinquishing Suraya’s care to the state, and did so without question, only relieved to be rid of their ‘burden’.

Suraya was taken to facility after facility in the state for the first few years to have a battery of tests, many painful, run on them to figure out their ‘special ability’ as an Outlier and to see if it could be replicated.

When they were in their early teens, they were transported overseas to a different facility as a bargaining chip for intel, tech and the like, coming into the ‘care’ of people who intended to use them as a government asset.

They never saw daylight except during transportation and they began to plan their escape as they studied the facility’s layout.

Their first attempt at escape didn’t go well however; they were caught, dragged back and had their eyes burned and blinded as punishment (at this point they had shown their handlers that their highly-enhanced hearing made them capable of navigating the world in total darkness, so said handlers didn’t not see this as ‘damaging the goods’).

If the handlers thought that the punishment would deter them however, it didn’t; Suraya just became more careful and subtle with the planning of their next attempt.

The second attempt came during a transport session where there were less guards and less access to tech to subdue them, though it came with a problem they did not plan for.

In their first attempt, they had tried escaping into the countryside. In this one, they hurled themselves out completely unprepared into a world louder than any world they had ever known; downtown London on a weekend.

The cacophony completely overwhelmed their senses and they barely managed to crawl-stumble into an alley as bounty hunters were enlisted to track them down.

It was here that they ran into one Ramiro Vasquez (Ravage) who was immediately concerned about their situation and once figuring out the nature of their distress, gave them his headphones to drown out the noise and kept them safe and hidden until the bounty hunters had left.

He then took Suraya back to the rented apartment he shared with Lara Soelberg (Laserbeak) and both agreed to let the waif stay with them for as long as they needed to be alright, and the three formed a little familial unit as Suraya grew deeply fond of the two Beast Men whom they saw as two of the most compassionate people in a horrible world.

Ramiro however understood that Suraya needed tutelage to properly harness and deal with their Outlier ability; having heard whispers of a secret Outlier school run Senator Sharifuddin Waseem (Shockwave) and knowing Sharifuddin as one of the few good men in the Senate, he decided to take the risk and confronted the Senator about the matter, promising to keep the secret a secret in return for helping out Suraya.

As it turned out the threats were not necessary, as Sharifuddin was genuinely  concerned for them and came to see them personally at the apartment. Initially,  Suraya was apprehensive about meeting someone else about their abilities, remembering full well how the first such meeting ended, but to their pleasant surprise, they detected no malice in Sharifuddin’s intentions; only the desire to help.

They agreed to enroll in Sharifuddin’s Outlier institute, coming back home to see Ramiro and Lara every weekend.

They excelled in their classes and soon mastered their ability and knew how to deal with the overstimulation that came from it, to the point where they could walk the streets with no problem.

In the wake of murders of Senators Nikomedes Momus and Gayathri Sharma, Suraya offered to become a spy for Sharifuddin, who was determined to solve the deaths, and Sharifuddin began bringing them to Senate meetings under the guise of them being his new aide.

They caught the eye of Senator Radbourne (RatBat) who seemed to pick up the fact that they were an Outlier, but rather than bring up the matter, requested that they work with him as well on.... matters regarding his constituents with disabilities.

Sharifuddin has his reservations about Radbourne and Suraya knew they were up to no good and both agreed to the arrangement so Suraya could dig up more information about them.

As it turned out, Radbourne was dirty as dirty as politicians came, but he had nothing to do with the murders. Rather, he was mostly preoccupied with an individual named Morgan Trayton (Megatron), the same individual whom Omar Parvez (Orion Pax)  a friend of Sharifuddin’s, had mentioned as a great writer.

Radbourne asked Suraya to track down Morgan with an offer the man hopefully wouldn’t refuse and Suraya, intrigued about this man with what they’d heard about him from Omar, agreed to do so.

They found Morgan in a vast underground fighting ring in Moscow, and after voicing some skepticism about him walking his written talk, he allowed them to peek into his mind to see how genuine and committed he was to his cause, and it took them aback for a bit to meet someone who despite being mired in tragedy, had Sharifuddin’s desire to make a better world and the iron will to back it up.

They pledged themself to be among the first members of Morgan’s rising revolution (which was aided by Omar spreading his writings through an underground press) and told them about Radbourne’s offer to supply weapons and augmentations to increase profits from the pitfighting racket.

Morgan agreed if only to use these exact items against the Senate once he’d acquired an army.

It was during this time with Morgan that they also met Ramsey (Rumble) and Friedel (Frenzy), a pair of dwarf miners who the man had been friends with for years, and almost immediately got along with their boisterous, gregarious natures. 

They continued to be Radbourne’s liaison with Megatron until the start of the Clampdown when they watched Morgan kill the owner of the Pit, free those who wanted their freedom and take those who were loyal to him to meet with Sharifuddin to formally establish a rebellion.

It was about this time that Suraya found out that Radbourne had been conducting illegal experiments on Beast Men, something they took grave offense to, and they kept mining Radbourne for more information about where the experiments were taking place.

Upon finding out, they personally hunted down Radbourne as Stefan Scavarro (Starscream) initiated the Senate massacre to Radbourne’s labs, where he tried to fight them off only to finally find out the true extent of their abilities.

Badly-injured, his attempt at stopping them from freeing the captive Beast Men—-his “property” as he would yell at them—-ended up with him hurled into a genetic splicing pod (commissioned from a ‘Mesothulas’) which he accidentally activated.

The process twisted him into a Rat-Bat-human hybrid, and rather than kill him, Suraya decided to leave the option to the Beast Men he tortured for profit in what they saw as poetic justice.

After those who wanted vengeance were done with Radbourne, Suraya gave the  Beast Men the option of leaving free or coming with them to be a part of Morgan’s revolution which would ensure that they were never mistreated and ostracized by the larger world again.

Two of the Beast Men took up the offer; Bastien Saville (Buzzsaw) and Gan Go-eun (Glit).

When Morgan, confident in Suraya’s abilities asked them  to establish their own division focussed on spying and intel gathering, Suraya chose Ramiro, Lara, Ramsey, Friedel and Bastien to work alongside them.

While Suraya occasionally questions Morgan’s actions, two things they have never questioned are his dedication to his cause and the compassion he shows to those they care for, and it’s enough for them to consider themself a true Decepticon till the day his objectives are achieved.

[artobotsrollout]

I haven't read Transformers: Exodus but based on what @optimistpax told me and rough second hand knowledge I've picked up from Tumblr it's a WILD ASS RIDE like wtf.

So here goes

TRANSFORMERS: EXODUS from someone who has never read it before

Contains Exodus spoilers and is probably wrong so read at your own risk.

-Alpha Trion is shady as fuck and pro censorship

-Megatron is still big and stupid. Also he's a hypocrite at every turn.

-Sentinel is an asshole yet apparently worth saving more than... idk.... everyone else who has died so far or been hurt by the caste system but whatever. /s

-Optimus, being smaller because he hasn't upgraded with the matrix yet, still straight up ripped a dude's head off once.

-Optimus has no idea what the fuck is going on at any given time and also feels guilty at any given moment.

-Shockwave is a mega mega dick. Starscream leaving Shockwave on Cybertron was a lovely picnic compared to what he and Megs have done to Starscream.

-Starscream has inconsistent writing and keeps flip flopping from "I may be evil but even I have standards" to "time to murder some children."

-Soundwave isn't actually that loyal out of the goodness of his spark he's a sassy bitch who is good at his job and wants his team to win.

-Decepticons have a point actually but Autobots are framed as right for SOME REASON... Like... A lot of upper class peepo join the autobots like what the fuck is that about?

-Megatron thinks that a good leader regularly punches and kills off his subjects to... Idk.. Make a point?

-Megatron never actually had very decent morals. Even in the gladiator ring he was cruel and killed unneccesarily in a 'you weren't good enough so die' kind of way.

-Cliffjumper has one whole line and poofs in when convenient

-Starscream was fucking sassy before everything went to shit for him.

-Dark energon is a plot device that has no consistency

-Megatron quite literally killed cybertron with dark energon

-The seekers keep placing bets on what Megatron will do yet they have no money.

-Skyfire joined the wreckers?!?

-Everyone keeps being major dicks about Bumblebee not having a voice box. Sometimes they just even make shit up.

-Alpha Trion, you know the dude who is supposed to be record keeper for the primes?! Is a selectively forgetful bastard who, despite being alive for it all, forgets basic ass shit.

-Even back then, Starscream rung up the autobots when Megatron took things too far and was hinted at sorta being on the verge of defecting back before TfP.

-FULL CHAPTERS IN ITALICS

-Optimus and Jazz are besties basically

-Prowl is edgy and dramatic.

-Alpha Trion is purble which I did NOT expect.

-Jazz calls Optimus "OP" and I think that's adorable.

-No other bots besides Op, Megatron, Starscream, and Jazz matter.

-Orion was named Optimus Prime by the senate before being a Primus-made prime and... despite the misgivings a lot of marginalised bots had with what the senate had become he still thought keeping the title was a good idea.

-Megatron and Optimus are basically bitter exes with how much Megatron does shit purely to spite OP.

-Prime finds all the ways to politely call Megatron stupid.

-Have I mentioned alpha trion is sketchy?/j Alpha Trion is such an unreliable narrator his picture would be definition enough for the term.

[moonknightproductions]

I posted 945 times in 2021

409 posts created (43%)

536 posts reblogged (57%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 1.3 posts.

I added 235 tags in 2021

#tf incorrect quotes reblog - 61 posts

#meg arts - 39 posts

#spamton - 28 posts

#transformers - 23 posts

#rouxls kaard - 20 posts

#deltarune - 15 posts

#rung mtmte - 14 posts

#rotg bingo - 12 posts

#deltarune chapter 2 - 12 posts

#mtmte - 11 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#also i’ve eaten two and a half things of pomegranate seeds in the same amount of days and i think the amount of fruit acid is destroying me

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

*In the early days of the war*

Megatron: Okay, I get it. You’ve had a really hard time lately, you’re stressed out, seven people died-

Orion: Twelve, actually.

Megatron: Not the point. Look, they’re dead now and really whose fault is that?

Orion: Yours!

Megatron: That’s right: no one’s.

68 notes • Posted 2021-05-02 03:45:10 GMT

#4

Whoops @cuppajj​‘s Lost Light Tyrest!AU has wormed itself into my brain

92 notes • Posted 2021-07-07 22:11:09 GMT

#3

Okay but Eric and Deborahbot are my children

Also why do I wanna see them as transformers now

96 notes • Posted 2021-05-01 03:51:59 GMT

#2

Team Prime on April Fool’s

After Miko so excitedly explained what April Fool’s Day was to the bots, they decided then and there to have an absolutely massive prank war. Here’s what I think the bots (and humans) did:

Optimus: A total personality switch. Laughs every opportunity, smiles constantly, cracks jokes, even attempts to peck Ratchet on the cheek (which failed because Ratchet’s too darn small)! bumblebee grows increasingly concerned, especially when Optimus picks up and hugs him.

Ratchet: Speaking of the good doctor, he doesn’t seem to be participating. At least, not until he reveals that he hid about a hundred Autobot symbols around the base, and there’s a prize for whoever can find the most. The kids immediately go on a scavenger hunt. He didn’t hide any.

Bulkhead and Arcee: Joined forces. They’re an efficient team in nearly everything. From fake dating to a fire prank that almost goes horribly wrong,  they do every prank under the sun.

Bumblebee: Enjoys classic pranks such as whoopie cushions, bubble wrap under a rug, and switching the m and n keys on Raf’s computer somehow, but he decides to go all out and put tin foil on everything in the base the night before, much to Ratchet’s dismay!

Smokescreen: While he doesn’t really get the point of the holiday, he pulls a staple prank that fits his trademark: Saran Wrap over an entryway. While it’s obvious that there is indeed Saran Wrap there, he uses the phase shifter and tries to convince them that there isn’t any. His prank flops.

Ultra Magnus: Also doesn’t appear to be participating. However, he has the most elaborate prank ever planned. While most of the team is out on a mission, he requests Ratchet’s help in putting giant google eyes on everything that remotely looks like a face, and even on Airachnid’s stasis pod. He claims he had nothing to do with it.

Wheeljack: Leaves decoy bombs all around the base.

Raf: As payback for switching his laptop’s keys, he puts a bumper sticker on Bee that he says has something cool on it, when really it says “Honk, it’s April Fool’s Day!” Bee’s confusion is worth the swerves.

Jack: Actually doesn’t participate, claims he’s above all that childish prank nonsense. But one little shock pen for Fowler wouldn’t hurt, would it?

Miko: Tries to think of a good prank, but surprisingly nothing comes to mind. At least, not until she decides to put up pictures of the bots with mustaches and cat ears and top hats drawn on with sharpie around base.

June: Expertly avoids all pranks. Being a mother has its perks, you know.

Fowler: Too professional to participate in the prank war.

115 notes • Posted 2021-04-02 04:00:55 GMT

#1

How the interrogation scene in Minus One should’ve gone down:

Optimus Prime: Soundwave, tell us what you know.

Soundwave: *Rickrolls them*

Ultra Magnus: Why is he playing that song?

Miko: *Doubles over onto the floor with silent giggles*

Raf: *Covers his mouth to keep from laughing*

Jack: *Chuckles aloud but it quickly turns into full-blown laughter*

165 notes • Posted 2021-03-18 16:20:20 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[thanksjro]

Dark Cybertron Chapter 3: This One’s All About Skywarp. Honest!

It’s a beautiful day during Cybertron’s apocalypse, and Starscream is talking to a corpse to work through his emotions. He goes through a very brief rundown of what happened last issue, I guess because Swerve’s too busy being in space to do the Story So Far, and caps it off with an apology to Metalhawk over killing him. Rattrap watches this go down in the background, because this is Skywarp’s toy tie-in issue.

After this very incriminating conversation, Starscream goes out to see to the massive crowd standing outside, including Scoops’ little Targetmaster buddies.

I don’t care for that man’s beard.

Starscream promises to go talk to the Titan, though he really doesn’t want to, and Rattrap catches up to him to touch base. The two of them go to see Megatron, who’s still trapped in the forcefield hamster ball Wheeljack stuffed inside his chest back in RID. Starscream teases Rattrap about trying to be conniving, comparing it to his own endeavors as the Decepticon SIC, and offers a bit of advice.

Implying that Starscream hasn’t been flying by the seat of his proverbial pants since he became a main character in Phase Two.

Starscream, having met his daily quota of rubbing his success in Megatron’s face, goes off to see what he can do about this Titan situation.

Over at the Titan itself, the Autobots and Decepticons are duking it out, with the man of the hour gracing us with his presence.

Outstanding, you funky little robot.

Arcee tries a little banter, but it falls flat, and instead she just decides to sword fight a cat. Bumblebee asks Soundwave just what the hell he thinks he’s doing, and Soundwave gives a complete non-answer in the form of Decepticon propaganda, because anything else would make things too easy. This is where Starscream shows up and has his little chat with the Titan.

Back over in prison, Rattrap’s getting the skinny on the dark prophecy Scoop introduced into the narrative last issue. Rattrap wants to know just how this information got passed around so well outside of jail, and Scoop suggests that there are people who perhaps have a vetted interest in what may or may not be happening with Starscream. Then Rattrap makes it weird by A) not being terribly concerned about the potential end of the world and B) being impressed by the idea that Starscream somehow planned said end of the world.

This Skywarp issue is really good.

Over with the Lost Light, Ultra Magnus has taken command, and the lads are about to make the quantum jump to chase after Jhiaxus. But wait! Something’s off! The ship’s moving in a way that it shouldn’t be! Very odd, that. Brainstorm calls with answers, asking Magnus to grab Getaway, for some friggin’ reason, and head down to the shuttle bay.

Getaway asks Magnus how it feels to be big man on campus, and Magnus seems to think it’s a bit overrated.

Wow, someone needs to go talk to Xaaron about maybe thinking through his debate topics before he posts them, so he doesn’t get pegged as a space racist. The Universal Killswitch happened, like, last week, my dude.

The two of them get to the shuttle bay to discover that Metroplex’s thumb- which they picked up back in Spotlight: Trailcutter- is floating, and more or less pushing the Lost Light off-course. Getaway is pretty jazzed to see this thing on the ship, sort of missing the bigger picture. Brainstorm hypothesizes that Metroplex is using his severed thumb to guide the Lost Light to him.

Not sure why Getaway needed to be here for this.

Back on Cybertron, Everyone watches as Starscream flies up to the Titan. Arcee is ready to blast him out of the sky with a gun as big as she is, but Bumblebee wants to see where this goes. This pisses Prowl the hell off, and he starts yelling, but Bumblebee tells him to shut up. Bumblebee tells a lot of people to shut up in “Dark Cybertron”.

So we’ve got a team-up going on between the Autobots and the Decepticons- Bumblebee says it isn’t, but it pretty much is. Soundwave and Prowl get into a bit of a scuff, as Starscream lands and asks the Titan to chat.

Yeah, that doesn’t really work out too well.

Starscream manages to escape the Titan death blast in his alt, as the poor bastards on the ground below begin to dissolve into black fizz.

But Skywarp’s okay, so it can’t be all bad!

Yeeeeah, Skywarp.

Prowl starts yelling at Bumblebee again, as if he can’t see that the friggin’ death wave the Titan shot out of its face is still heading for Iacon, Starscream just barely managing to stay ahead of it. He lands as it hits, screaming about how Cybertron is his and he’s not gonna let some murder energy to steal his thunder, bracing his arms out as if that’ll do anything. Everyone watching him do this has about the expression you’d expect from witnessing such madness.

As the Iaconian populace gets dusted, someone else wakes up from the dead. It’s Metalhawk, and it’s time for him to become a tool of the narrative.

Metalhawk launches into the air and lands on top of Starscream, interrupting his personal diatribe to gripe about how he killed him. Still, there are bigger fish to fry, as he kicks Starscream through a wall and walks into the room where they keep Megatron.

Metalhawk releases Megatron from his hamster ball prison and carries him away, despite Starscream maybe insinuating that Megatron is dead somehow? It’s not super clear. Anyway, Metalhawk must do some pretty intense arm exercises, because he carries Megatron out and shoots into the air, holding him one-handed to his side.

Eat your veggies, kids, and you too can kidnap an entire warlord.

As the city falls apart, Rattrap and Scoop enter the scene, the prison likely having collapsed in the aftershocks of the death wave. Good thing they’re giant robots who can’t be killed by mere crushing damage. Rattrap tries to connive, but Scoop is more concerned with the fact that many people are dying, because he’s a somewhat decent person. Some of these people have begun to turn on Starscream, who takes it about as well be you’d expect.

Back on the Lost Light, the lads have decided to go find Metroplex, and to hell with bringing Jhiaxus to justice. At least for now. Of course, Ratchet tries to argue that they should do what Orion wanted them to do, but Orion isn’t here right now, is he? And Orion isn’t the space pope at this present time, now is he? So yeah. Metroplex time. They quantum jump, ending up underwater, with said water swarming with robots. That might be an issue, especially since they don’t seem to be terribly friendly.

Back in the Crystal City with Shockwave, Metalhawk’s dropped off the package, and Shockwave reminds us that he installed a space bridge in Megatron’s torso. Scientists sure do like to shove random bullshit into Megatron’s torso.

Hey.

Let’s talk about the NAILs for a second.

This is Tappet. I’ve been calling him Hat Guy up until this point, but his name is Tappet.

Everything Tappet done in the last 20+ issues of RID can be explained without him being the subject of the sentence:

The Decepticons kicked Tappet’s ass. Prowl sent Tappet to prison. Metalhawk bailed Tappet out of prison. Metalhawk brought Sky-Byte to the trashcan fire to talk to Tappet and some other neutrals. Starscream takes off his top as Tappet watches.

The point I’m trying to make here is that Tappet doesn’t actually do anything. None of the NAILs actually do anything, other than die and fill out crowd shots. Sometimes they bitch about the current situation, but even then, a lot of the time, those more vocal NAILs were actually involved in the war at some point.

This is an issue, because we’ve been presented with this entirely new group that’s in direct opposition of the war caused by every character we’d met prior to The Death of Optimus Prime.

And they have zero agency within the story. Shit just happens around them and they react. In fact, one of the major point points of RID is whether or not the Autobots should let the NAILs have agency within the very government that rules them, and it is such a point of contention that it takes literal in-story months and several disasters for them to reach a consensus. A decision that barely involves input from Metalhawk, the guy who is a NAIL, and is meant to be their advocate. Metalhawk, who is supposed to be on the same level as Bumblebee in terms of sway in the narrative.

At first, he did- he was the subtly conniving bastard who would trip Bumblebee up in front of others to make him look bad, and then deny anything of the sort happened if questioned. It was an interesting dynamic with a character that was new to the continuity. Metalhawk was interesting.

Then Starscream got involved, and Metalhawk’s role was reduced to yes-man and character motivation to both of them, because conniving is Starscream’s thing, and obviously we can’t have two bastards gang up on poor, sweet lil’ Bumblebee.

Who had a remote control that could blow up people’s heads if they pissed him off.

You remember when Bumblebee was the kid appeal character? Because I do.

The point is, the NAILs exist, but their existence isn’t justified within the story. They’re set-dressing, not characters. And now Metalhawk in particular is a prop for Shockwave, and somehow I doubt the other guys are going to be doing a hell of a lot in this story.

I dunno, it just seems like a bit of a waste.

Anyway, Skywarp sure was present in his toy tie-in issue, huh? Remember when he did that thing? And the stuff? Ah man, that was so cool!

Yeah, someone probably crossed their I’s and dotted their T’s on this one, because I’m pretty friggin’ sure this wasn’t meant to be his, even if the exclusive cover says otherwise.

[cao-the-dreamer]

Okay I’m liking this tfp pre-war poly relationship idea so I’m hoping on the bandwagon. When Megatron(us) was about to start the war, his and Orion’s pregnant lover went to him and was trying to talk him out it and it ended up like Anakin/Kylo-Ren convincing Padme/Rey to join him all the while their begging them to stop what their doing.

Megatron knew they were here way before he heard the guard announcing their arrival.

“Leave us,” he said to Soundwave as Orion stood in the doorway, his gaze hurt and betrayed. Their human was perched on his shoulder, sitting straight with an unreadable expression on her face, her hands resting on her round belly.

Once they were alone, Orion opened his mouth, his voice livid as he formed the words burning on his glossa.

“Weapons are circulating. Troops are being formed, soldiers are being trained. There are riots all across Cybertron.”

“I am aware,” simply said Megatron, arms crossed behind his back.

“You are preparing a war,” Orion declared, and there was no more fury in his tone, but something more akin to exhaustion or resignation.

“Indeed.”

One single word that felt like a stab to Orion’s spark. The human twisted her hands, but otherwise remained silent. They knew Megatron was born with a leader’s mind, with an unconquerable spirit. He was not someone you could control or enslave, he was one of these beasts that clawed their ways through the hardships of life to gain the freedom they had been denied at birth. It was something about Megatron both admired and loved. But now the beast had been let loose and he wanted more, so much more, not realising that gaining power would make him lose everything he already had.

Yes, Megatron had been furious when the High Council refused to give him the power of the Matrix, and he had become even more enraged when Orion was chosen instead of him. Jealousy was an ugly thing that could change even the best sparks.

Still, Orion wanted to talk. He wanted to see if there was still something left of the mech he loved. But right now, in front of Megatron’s impassive face, he was losing hope.

And his beloved’s silence was not helping.

“Stop this madness while you still can, I beg you. We can find another way to create the world you wanted to see, to get rid of the old, corrupted system. But not… not like this.”

“I tried to change things as a politician,” Megatron snarled, “and look where it led us! Nowhere. Debates are as sterile as acid rains. I tried to change things from the inside, calmly, with my rhetoric, and it did not work.”

“So you think,” their mate’s voice suddenly rose, “that violence is the only way to open these rusty mechs’ optics. That violence is necessary for change.”

“Exactly!” Megatron exclaimed, pleased, while Orion looked at her in horror. The silver mech stretched his servo toward the human, palm open and inviting. “I knew you would…”

“Do not touch me,” she hissed with a voice so cold it chilled the air. Megatron froze in his movement then let his servo fall at his side, curling it into a fist.

“I thought you would understand.”

“And I think you should be the one who has to open his optics. Or your memory banks, for that matter. Do you remember what you told us, Megatron, when the three of us cuddled in the berth, sharing each other’s warmth? You promised us a world where we could live all together, happily, without caring about the boundaries set by the castes or the xenophobic policy of the High Council. Do you remember that you promised we would be safe and sound? War never makes people feel safe. Never.”

“But this war is necessary, if I want to keep this promise,” Megatron countered. “I will protect you, love of my life, I swear it on my spark, but we need this war to overthrow the old system. Only in the ashes of our enemies can we build a new world.”

“But who are your enemies, Megatron?” Orion asked sadly. “The partisans of this old system? Or anyone who stands against you? Are you going to consider us as enemies too, simply because we don’t agree with you?”

Megatron bared his teeth and his red optics blazed with a menacing light.

“If you were not my lover, I would have ripped your voicebox off your throat for such insolence.”

“And,” the human retorted with a distant voice, “if I knew my husband, who I love dearly, would have become a violent, selfish mech, I would have killed the children growing in my belly immediately.”

It hurt. It hurt more than anything Megatron endured in the gladiatorial rings and of course he was furious and wanted to yell at her for saying such horrible words but then he realised she was silently crying. 

She never cried. Unless the pain inside her was too much.

“I want to raise my children in a peaceful world, with loving parents. I only wish we could be happy, all together. But I know I can’t force you to do anything, Megatron. You are the master of your choices. I only ask you to think of the consequences before taking a path. That is all.”

Orion nodded and delicately took her in his servo. He looked at Megatron one last time, optics full of bittersweet memories.

“We will wait for you,” he said. And then he left.

[amegatronfan]

Jame Roberts’ Instagram Q&A -November ‘18

Right. 

So.

- Back in MTMTE #15, when the original Rewind got locked in the Slow Cell with Overlord, he suddenly learned how to shrink while he transformed. This was not an ability he previously had, as shown in, for example, MTMTE #2, when Tailgate sees Rewind for the first time (before Swerve introduces him to CDRW) and remarks that he can see a “giant memory stick” in the distance. However, the fear that Rewind felt in that moment triggered his ability to shrink to the size we see him in, like, LL #25, for example. This helps him survive both Overlord and the shots fired off by Chromedome, and so he, along with Overlord, is recovered by the Galatic Council. Overlord is seen as too dangerous, so Rewind is chosen as the guinea pig for an experiment the Galatic Council are trialling; an experiment that would allow them to “punch holes” into alternate universes. Since they want to use Rewind as a weapon against the Black Block Consortia (and other enemies of the council, such as other Cybertronians), the technology is built into a suit of armour meant to resemble Primus (this suit of armour was built in the same vein as the Magnus armour, in that it made so that a small robo could pretend to be this big, famous robo and not, like, the sentai suit dealio I had originally envisioned when JRo was describing this. this was done because they rightly assumed that seeing Primus land in the middle of a battlefield would scare the royal shit out of everybody, most especially other Cybertronians, who have the cultural context to know who the fuck he is.) 

So, then, it worked, and Rewind made it into the past?? of another dimension (that wasn’t the Functionist universe), but then it malfunctioned and he got trapped there. He had fight his way back to the original universe by travelling through a bunch of other alternative universes (there would have been an interlude during the Mutineers Trilogy where we saw Rewind 1 travelling through the Marvel 2006 universe). At first, he was travelling back to the OG universe was so he could be reunited with his conjux (he met other Chromedome's along the way, but he wanted to find his Chromedome), but as he was travelling, he discovered Chromedome’s secret; that he had helped in the cover-up of Dominus’ murder, and so it became more complicated (he kinda wanted to avenge Dominus.) This would’ve all culminated in an issue where Rewind 1 finally made it back the original universe. As has been previously established, only one Rewind can exist at the one time, so Chromedome would've had to decide which Rewind would be cancelled out, all while Rewind 2 (and by extension, the audience) would’ve learned from Rewind 1 what Chromedome did to Dominus, which would’ve complicated things even further.

JRo came up with this idea before he began writing MTMTE, but by the end of season one, he was starting to become uncertain about this particular storyline, as Rewind, Chromedome and their relationship began to develop. Having Chromedome do this to Rewind started to feel wrong. After talking to his editor at the time (Carlos, I believe?), he decided to leave in the scene with Chromedome and Prowl, where Prowl threatened blackmail and Chromedome used Shadowplay to erase the blackmail from his memory, just in case he still wanted to go through with it. However, by the time it came to the final stretch of issues, he already so many other plot points to introduce, explain and tie up, he didn’t have time to do all three for Rewind 2 and his ultra-complicated, high concept adventures, and deal with the complications it brought with it to the cast, so he was forced to drop it.

So, with that out of the way, here are the more breezy answers:

- Megatron didn’t have a mentor who taught him medicine in the Warren, he taught himself everything he knows about treating people because he’s “the most ferocious autodidact.” (i stan a legend)

- Ratchet would still be the better medic though

- Megatron specialised in neurology

- Flame survived the events of LL #24

- The only reason Functionist Universe! Orion and Terminus were killed was because of time restraints 

- Making Drift and Ratchet’s relationship a romantic one started feeling right around their return in the Remain in the Light arc, but JRo didn’t really decide that they were definitely conjux endura until he began writing LL #25 

- Rewind’s colour changing pants are now (dubiously) canon (”Chromedome is fascinated; he might be an outlier.”)

- Admitted a couple of times, once again, that he wished he hadn’t killed Trailcutter 

- If a Cybertronian is gifted a vial of innermost energon and survives whatever near-fatal injury or illness they had, they have the option to either keep it, as a reminder of the love they and the donor share, or they can regift the donor’s innermost energon to them. If they do indeed die, the most common practice is to donate the innermost energon (as Ratchet did posthumously in #25)

- “Sorry, I’ve seen ‘Chromedome is a bottom’ on the screen and that’s thrown me.”

- When asked if he’d change anything if given the opportunity to rewrite the series, he admitted that there were “a bunch of things”, which included:

    * Spacing out events more, most especially near the beginning of MTMTE,            where so much was happening that it all felt “a bit busy”, and the Crucible           arc

    * Writing more stories about the tertiary cast (eg. Spotlight: Hoist) to really            sell the fact that this was a ship with 200 mechs on board (the main cast            would still have had their own quirky adventures going on in the                          background)

                * An example of such a story would’ve been having an issue focusing                    on the writer behind the Lost Light Insider

    * More stories with the Mutineer’s

    * Give the Scavengers an entire tradeback to themselves in Season 3,                  encompassing an entire arc he’d had planned for them

     * He wouldn’t have “decapitated Red Alert like that” 

     * Having the charisma parasites being followed up by Swearth “didn’t do              him any favours as they were three very high concept issues one after the          other”

      * Would’ve seeded more mentions of the Guiding Hand in MTMTE (though             not in Lost Light, which had enough, he felt)

      * More Star Saber (longer fights with different characters)

      * Way more Roller!

      * Show Cyclonus’ recovery from his injuries in #47 more as more of a slow,          arduous process instead of an “Oh, he’s fine now” dealio

      * Would’ve liked to pull off the Troja Major two-parter better

- [SPOILERS FOR IDW’S UNICRON SERIES]

When asked who’s death Megatron would be most cut-up about, Optimus, Soundwave or Starscream, JRo said he’d take Stasrcream’s the worst, as the two had “unfinished business” (the new Pacifist Megatron wanted to reconcile with Starscream). Though Soundwave was listed last on the “who'd Megatron would mourn the most” list, he also said that he’d be “proud of what Soundwave did”

- On a more lighthearted note, he said that Stan Bushs’ Dare was playing in Rodimus’ head during his “Til All Are One!” montage in the 2012 annual

- Cyclonus is, unfortunately, no longer rich, because much of his wealth came from Tetrahexian real estate (as stated in the prose story Signal to Noise, packaged in Volume 4 of MTMTE), and the value kinda dropped after Unicron, you know, destroyed the whole planet (though he also said it’s more than likely he and Tailgate invested in real estate on New Cybertron)

- Said that if Rodimus and Drift had been amica endura “no one would’ve batted an eye,” (and that they would’ve completed the ceremony off-screen)

- Rodimus was originally going to sacrifice himself in Crucible to stop the Omega Guardians from using the Warren to enter our universe and take it over. (”Even saying that is making me yawn”) Everyone would’ve thought Rodimus was already dead, and as such, another, unnamed character would’ve gotten credit for his sacrifice. Rodimus would’ve known this, and sacrificed himself anyway.

- “You’re all [unapologetic] shippers and I salute you.”

- As he stated on Twitter before, he’d have liked to include a scene between Cyclonus and Drift, where Drift proclaims his new respect for Cyc after seeing his Great Sword. This scene would’ve happened around the Remain in the Light arc. 

- “Are you guys still talking about Chromedome being a bottom? Oh my god.”

- In a fight between Drift and Cyclonus, Cyclonus would win.

- When asked who he’d ship Rodimus with, he said that Rodimus was an interesting case, as he’d actually be quite well-versed in the area of romance, unlike the rest of the cast, and that he “wouldn’t pine for people.” In the end, he ended up choosing Roller.

- Getaway didn’t make up the Conjux rites; they’re real 

- Rodimus’ flame abilities are not an outlier ability, but an upgrade he got along the way (he compared it to getting a really excessive tattoo). The ability is really painful and uses up a lot of Roddy’s energy.

- When asked what he hoped from the next continuity, he said that he wanted it to continue to be inclusive “in every sense of the word”, specifically pointing out the LGBTQIA+ representation as something he wanted to see continued. 

- “Yeah, Springer’s pretty hot.”

- First Aid has a crush on crush on Springer (as does JRo)

- Cyclonus is legitimately a great singer. It’s that his abilities are more of the operatic kind, meaning “he is not always appreciated by the uncultured”

- “[A fan] says that Lost Light is a love letter to fan fiction, which it absolutely is”

- When a fan asked why (to paraphrase) Roller was just so dang hot, JRo said that “Roller just has that effect on people thanks to Jack’s lascivious designs” (and before you go off and google it, lascivious is defined as “feeling or revealing an overt sexual interest or desire”)

- Drift’s wealth was made through bounty hunting

- Brainstorm and Chromedome might have been amica endura, but that Chromedome felt “burnt out” from his various failed relationships, both platonic and romantic. 

- No one even has a “Rung-shaped gap” in their memory after LL #24. They honestly can’t remember where the various matrixes came from, as is the case with all the things Rung was responsible for. They all blame it on memory creep and have each come up with their own contradictory explanations as to how and why these things happened. 

- When asked if Swerve liked The Big Bang Theory, JRo replied with a swift “No, he has a brain”

- Instead, he said Community was Swerve’s favourite show

- Cybertronian weddings are “very long”

- There was a lot singing at Cyclonus and Tailgate’s wedding

- Brainstorm and Perceptor’s wedding, meanwhile, “would be very complicated” because “they’d be trying to outdo each other in subtle ways”. It would “make for a good sitcom episode.”

- Roddy’s favourite meme is “the butterfly one”

- Rung’s favourite meme is “the woman looking confused with algebra in front of her face”

- Swerve is over memes

- “[Drift’s thighs] are certainly impressive”

- Swerve is “destined to have many friends”

- Whirl and Cyclonus most certainly became amica endura after LL #25

- Swerve got Misfire’s number in the end

- Though he said many times in the lead up the end of this continuity that this was his last time writing for Transformers, he said he would like to write a 12 issue series centred around a character he didn’t name, and then later admitted that he wanted to try to convince IDW to let him write another series. He also said that is there was ever a Grand Collecter’s edition of the series (that collected all the issues, prose stories, additional stories from other series etc into one or two hardback editions, for example), he’d write an additional prose story to make it worth people’s money

- Hoist confirmed the Lost Light’s resident furry

- “Tailgate is the cutest? Yes, he’s a little marshmallow.”

-  In his final days, before his execution, Minimus would’ve taken his poetry to Megatron so that he could read it (he would’ve also read Minimus’ poetry on the Alt! Lost Light, though assumedly under far less tragic circumstances)

- Getaway was considered the hottest mech on all of the Lost Light, with Skids as a close second. Together, they were “a hot duo.”

- Functionist Universe! Anode was a brilliant war general 

- Nickel had a girlfriend before her homeworld was destroyed 

- Rung can’t dance (we been knew)

- Crankcase and Con4Eva did hook up in the original universe

- “Does Rung know we love him? No - he’s very lonely” 

- No one in the cast likes all of the Shrek movies, but all of them like the first one.

- Chromedome and Brainstorm met each other the New Institute (which was my question answered :D) 

- Roddy would eat Doritos if he could 

- Not a single Transformer (in the IDW-verse) would like Trump

- The worst film that Roddy likes is Caddy Shack 

- Terminus would’ve never admitted that he was lying to Megatron

- Unfortunately, the song Boogie Wonderland by Earth, Wind & Fire never made it to the Lost Light

- “Who would make the best romantic partner? Depends on your taste.”

- JRo’s favourite superhero is Spiderman, his favourite TF toys as a kid were Hot Rod & Sandstorm and Nautica is his favourite character (from MTMTE/LL)

- Megatron, does indeed, both give the best hugs and deserves hugs! 

- “You’re a tactile, compassionate, thirsty bunch, aren’t you?”

- Tailgate, Swerve and Rewind would all play Fortnite

- Drift and Ratchet would’ve opened a “clinic” together (the question asker was unintentionally vague, so JRo was intentionally vague with his answer)

- Drift thinks that Ratchet was the one who made the first move, while Ratchet thinks Drift was 

- Ratchet and Drift would’ve been together for “decades and decades” before Ratchet died

- While Nautica/Skids still isn’t canon, he did confirm that Skids’ feelings for Nautica were romantic in nature 

- While Jack Lawrence bases many of the characters’ mannerisms on his own, he bases Rung’s mannerisms off of JRo’s, which doesn’t help his “anti-mary-sue argument.”

- I can’t remember the exact quote, but when asked what it’d be like to have Whirl as a roommate, he said something along the lines of “you’d have a crush on him even though you’d hate him.”

- In case it wasn’t clear enough in the text itself, Whirl rejected Ratchet’s hands because of a shift in how he saw his own disability. He no longer saw it, and by extension, himself, as a “deficiency” that needed to be “fixed”

- JRo pronounces “Omega” as “Oh-me-gah”. This is important information to include. 

And then the livestream ended with JRo saying we all “need a cold shower” after all this “fervent shipping” and went off to finish his half a pint of Corona. (what a legend)

Feel free to add in any answers or details I missed.

[cleverthylacine]

WIP Wednesday

Every Day is a Winding Road, chapter 23:

Commandant Glitch—once Damus, now Tarn—had been fascinated with anecdotal case reports of spark transmigration in split-spark or spark-bonded pairs following traumatic, unexpected death. Tarn was not by inclination a scientist and did not care that most of the stories were unverifiable battlefield folklore, so he decided to test his hypotheses despite the unlikeliness of success.

Nickel could understand, knowing Tarn, that this kind of thing would appeal to him more than the practical experimentation he’d been tasked with: things like creating new and better MTOs, figuring out what interventions and supplements could keep troops going longer on smaller energon rations, and what frame alterations could be done to improve efficiency without destroying morale.

All of it was horrific, of course. After the first few pages, Nickel had needed to drop her emotional processing down to the lowest priority possible without losing all motivation to continue, given the danger that they were all in. She could not imagine what it had been like for Glit to have to witness these things, and to have to assist with them under duress.

Designs and Persuasions, chapter 23 (Ravage POV):

“Relax, sweetspark,” said Jazz; he slid an arm around my shoulders, then stopped when he felt me tense. It was going to take me a while to get used to how handsy he was. “I’m not helping, am I?”

I consciously untensed, and decided to lean back into his arm; this was not my natural inclination, but his field was full of affection and I knew that it would feel nice if I let down my guard a little. Jazz relaxed and squeezed my shoulders. “You don’t have to,” Jazz said, awkwardly.

“Just give me time, Jazz,” I said. “Eighty percent of the time we’ve spent together, you’ve been in our medical bay.”

Jazz nodded. “I’m not tryin’ to be as easy with you as Sounders is; he’s your spark-mate and your junxie. I just want you both to be happy.”

“That’s not going to happen until Galvatron’s dead,” I said, a little more tension flowing out of me with each ventilation as I grounded myself in the present. “You know, I don’t want you to feel that your place here depends on keeping us happy.”

“Everything’s fine, Firecat.” I could hear the grin in his voice without stopping to look up at his face. I wasn’t going to let him call me that, but it was funny, and I laughed.

“That makes even less sense than ‘Princess’ does!”

“Princess makes perfect sense,” said Jazz. “I’m not saying he’s a femme, I know better. But he’s still a princess, anyway. You’re very femme, but you are not a princess at all. You’re made of fire, and nothing can extinguish it.”

“You’re worse than Megatron,” I said, teasing him. “I like you, a lot. But I don’t want to be called that.”

“Okay,” said Jazz, with only the tiniest pout. “I can’t write poetry like you or him. But I’ve got more rhythm than he ever had.”

“You’ll have to show me on the dance floor,” I said, and just like that, he gracefully twirled me out onto the floor.

love & darkness & my sidearm, chapter 18:

“I’m just fine,” said Drift, “but you might tell your buddy Orion that he doesn’t have to be wearing the badge for the whole town to notice him. He’s stalking Ravage and Soundwave.”

Ratchet winced, and put a digit’s worth of high-grade in his oil. He also offered Drift some oil, but without the additive—he didn’t have any idea what Drift might have already taken—and Drift took it.

“I told him she’s dead,” Ratchet grumbled. “And that Soundwave was nowhere around here, if he even still functioned.”

Drift’s optics were laser-bright and it felt like they were burning right through him. “I see you trust your amica a little less than I do,” he observed, taking a drink of the oil. “Always a great sign. Ravage is dancing in Miracle Square and Soundwave’s providing the music. He came early to watch but he stayed in the alley like he knew he was doing something wrong. When I left there Howlback was schooling him.”

Ratchet groaned. “That sounds like it’s almost as much fun as the conversation that I’m going to have to have with him will be.”

love & darkness & my sidearm, chapter 19

Glit nodded. “Starscream doesn’t even know that I am legally a person now,” he replied. “When he finds out, he’ll either be furious, or he’ll think it’s funny that I got one over on the Functionists. Any idea which way he might swing?”

The two seekers glanced at each other and shrugged. “It depends on who’s yelled at him last, and for what,” said the blue one. “I’m Thundercracker, he’s Skywarp, and we know you’re Glit. Congratulations on passing the test. I’ve heard it’s wicked.”

Glit shrugged. “My sister coached me on the high society aftslag parts.”

“Oh, did she do especially well?”

Glit laughed bitterly. “She failed. They made her take it on the scheduled date, even though she’d been beaten the night before. But she should’ve passed. She used to be a Recorder.”

“Recorders never pass,” said Starscream, returning. “They know too much. Except for the one Ambus conjunxed, their jobs are for life, and if Ambus’ conjunx ever leaves him he’ll probably be found in an alley somewhere.” He glanced at Glit. “And yes, I know you were built to be a Recorder, but that’s not the work you’ve been doing.”

“It’s not,” Glit agreed, and then glanced away before saying, “For what it’s worth, I hope you do get into the Science Academy. You’re one of the smartest people I know.”

[happinessisbeyondmylevel]

Days of Exodus

TO BE CONTINUED…ILLUMINATEBLADE is my own character (OC). If he/she does exist in TRANSFORMERSTM as a lost/forgotten or if some other fan has come up with this character it is ENTIRELY a coincidence. Orion Pax, Jazz, Hot Rod, Windblade, Chromia, Soundwave, Blaster, Megatron, Rewind, Steeljaw, Laserbeak, Rumble, Frenzy & Ravage all belong to TRABSFORMERSTM .THANK YOU FOR READING!!As Illuminateblade walk back to her workstation, she could hear the unmistakable sound of somebot jogging. Illuminateblade, otherwise known as Illumia, was an audio clerk inside Iacon’s Hall of Records, on the seventeenth floor. As she sat down to her desk, in jogged Jazz, the cultural investigator. Jazz had known Illumia for a couple of months. The two had a few things in common: they both enjoyed music and both enjoyed singing or rapping other’s song that had already been written and were a big success. They both sang and or rapped together in oil-pubs and if they were lucky, they’d be hired at discos or other events that needed entertainment.

Illumia mostly sang and used their music equipment (turn-table, laptop, basically she played D.J.) to provide audio for the songs, while Jazz rapped or sang with her or on his own. They both had visors that covered their optics when needed, which they used to keep their true identity secret. Illumia’s stage name was Lume, Jazz’s was Jazzy or Jazzy Boy as Illumia and the femmes called him, which he wasn’t too pleased with. Because the two had always preformed together they decided that it was time for a band name and what they came up with was: Lumazz. Which seemed like a good name, and one that their hirers liked. The two had always been friends, ever since the day Jazz caught Illumia singing to herself in the main transmission room collecting some transmissions for him, and that’s how they wanted to keep it.

“Hay Illumia” Jazz called as he strolled passing the other audio clerks. Illumia sat right at the end of the room, by the floor-to-ceiling window, right next to her closest friend and work partner, Blaster. Blaster was a bot who turned into a boom box and had two mini-cons: Rewind and Steeljaw.

Sometimes when the seventeenth floor got a bit dull Blaster would let Steeljaw out, being a mini-con who looked like a dog, he’d walk around so every audio clerk could pet him. This always lightened the mood.

Blaster had a brother: Soundwave, who seemed cycles older than him, yet they emerged from the well at the same time. Soundwave didn’t have a caste like Blaster did. So Soundwave stayed in Kaon after Blaster found his placed at the Hall Of Records. Soundwave was a gladiator who had many mini-cons, but only carried four: Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage & Laserbeak. Who were all loyal to him.

Soundwave and Blaster rarely saw each other, which was sad. They were brothers. But when they did and when or rather if you saw them, they were always having a blast.

When Jazz eventually arrived at Illumia’s desk he whispered “Do you have them?” into Illumia’s audio-receptor. Illumia seemed to always do the music hunting, while Jazz learnt the lyrics and sang or rapped to the music. Being an audio clerk meant Illumia knew everything about audio equipment and as I’ve said before this meant she did most of the back music for their songs. And she thought that they needed another member. She thought about Blaster but he worked longer hours than she did and any free time he had he spent with Soundwave or taking care of Rewind and Steeljaw. So, that didn’t work. But until they found somebot they’d be OK.

“Yes I got ‘em” she sighed and lifted her right servo revealing two C.D. cases between her fore and middle digit. “Thanks” said Jazz. “I’ll start learnin’ these tracks”. And no shorter than 30 seconds he’d left the room and was walking towards the lift to visit his friend on the eighteenth floor Orion Pax, a data clerk.

TO BE CONTINUED…

ILLUMINATEBLADE is my own character (OC). If he/she does exist in TRANSFORMERSTM as a lost/forgotten or if some other fan has come up with this character it is ENTIRELY a coincidence. Orion Pax, Jazz, Hot Rod, Windblade, Chromia, Soundwave, Blaster, Megatron, Rewind, Steeljaw, Laserbeak, Rumble, Frenzy & Ravage all belong to TRANSFORMERSTM

THANK YOU FOR READING!!

I called this Days Of Exodus  because it takes place during the Transformers: Exodus novel. any questions please ask away!!

[evilsciencebros]

Agathrights: This local bug literally lives in a box and Megatron lets it crawl around inside of him to do repairs, News At 10.

evilsciencebros: You made him 10x awesome in ways I never would have expected! I love your fountain of imagination. LMAO *snuggles up inside the warrior poet*

agatharights: I kinda had the vague idea of making him either a true minicon or an uplift a while ago so it was fun to finally flesh that out!Who doesn't want to crawl around inside of megatron. it'd be cozy

evilsciencebros: *huggles the swiss army knife* He's perfect *squishes down into pancake mode*

agatharights: He just squish down.The only problem with being an uplift is that -actual- scraplets will probably follow him if given the chance, because this scraplet is bigger and smarter so clearly it has more food!And i'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that a nonsapient swarm of dumb, hungry metallovores makes for poor company, unless you're in an autobot base in which case HEY NEW FRIENDS EAT EVERYTHING

evilsciencebros: The perfect drone army. They're not allowed in the Decepticon base

agatharightsyeah: probably a good idea to not bring those homeThey can't tell the difference between autobots and Decepticons and while Oil Slick is pretty unpalateable to everything (both Junkions and Unicronians refuse to eat him, which is impressive) everybody else...

evilsciencebros: Bless. He probably has a little hidey hole for them, so they don't go wondering off. Either that, or just kills/eats them, like Movie Scalpel did with that creepy worm thing that crawled through Sam's head. LOL. Everything keeps trying to eat Oil Slick and fails miserably XD

agatharights: I'd imagine so. Scalpel can probably eat virtually anything, if given enough time for his teensy tiny mouth, since he's still got a scraplet digestive system.

evilsciencebrosI: eat with his butt

agatharights: They had to remove most of the scraplet mouth/jaws though to make room for an actual brain.

evilsciencebros: Tiny brain. An Archive worth of knowledge. That's an impressive memory chip he's got

agatharights: Excellent quantum linkage with his spark for memory storage. Whatever company made him probably priced him pretty high- he would've been top-tier medical equipment at the time

evilsciencebros: ^w^ He is one of a kind

agatharights: "He is one of a kind" "Because everything else in his production line was disposed of when they became obsolete or were deemed too high-risk." you can even ask Optimus but like "What was Cybertron like?" "It was beautiful, and terrible."

evilsciencebros: it was beautiful...but at the same time, on fire

agatharights: Well, to be fair, on fire was more after Megatron finally started calming down and realized he maaaay have literally killed Primus and was like "Mm. Okay. I'll admit, I got a little out of hand.""Lets...lets just go find a new planet."

evilsciencebros: *sweeps the old planet under the rug.* Don't worry, we can still fix this

agatharights: And then he left Cybertron, a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and somehow by the time he got back Shockwave had made it worse and he was like how did you do this? When I left this was a heap of scrap that was on fire and full of electrical storms? WHY IS IT FULL OF ZOMBIES AND PREDACONS NOW? And Shockwave was like "i thought you were never coming back ever so I panicked"

agatharights: Shockwave is the master of "picked up necromancy as a hobby, made some mistakes"

evilsciencebros: This is what happens when you don't return people's phone calls. they join cults

agatharights: And if there's no cults to join, they make their own, and when you finally show back up they're like heyyyyyy...the good news is, Cybertron's not dead, the bad news is, neither are the Insecticons and now there's so many of them.

evilsciencebros: On the bright side there's a cool spider lady who keeps them in check...when she doesn't wanna eat you herself

agatharights: I dunno about that. Season Three of TF: Matrix is basically slotted to be "Blackarachnia is pissed Megatron ditched her on Cybertron, has been selectively breeding an army of insecticons and predacons to take it out on him" Megatron, and who can blame him, was like "Alright, we need to get everyone we can off the planet before the spacebridges go dark...but do i want to be stuck in a tube floating in space with a bunch of self-replicating cannibals? Do i really?"And then effectively gave the Insecticons/predacons the wrong time/place and took off without them and they've been salty about it for a few centuries

evilsciencebros: Megatron. Can't break up with someone to save his life. Instead changes his phone number and address, and pretends to be shocked when they finally run into each other years later.

agatharights: ...god I'm terrible because the first thing that pops into my head is "Clearly, he learned that from Orion"

agatharights: Since Orion basically ditched Megatron as soon as the Decepticons started getting too hot for him to handle and then Megatron didn't see him again until he was working with Sentinel Prime centuries later.And he was like  " :) This is fine" And promptly murdered them both.

evilsciencebros: Cybertron. Died because of poor communication

agatharights: Pretty much.Which, to be fair, this problem didn't start with Megatron and Orion, this problem probably started the moment Prima was like "Guys, I know the thirteen of us are pretty happy, but what if we made a few billion more people?"

agatharights sent a GIF

evilsciencebros: I don't see any downsides to this.

agatharights: Downsides: Quintessons were like hey, uhhhh looks like you have...a lot of people there. Can we...borrow some??????"no piss off Quintessons"

agatharights: And then Unicron was like HEYYYYY LOOKS LIKE YOU HAVE A LOT OF PEOPLE THERE...CAN I DEVOUR EVERYTHING??? "NO PISS OFF UNICRON" (and then Nova Prime was like "Hey, what if institutionalized racism?" and instead of going "no piss off Nova" people were like "yeah okay" and that's Cybertronian history) The ghost of Solus Prime shaking her head like come on you guys I did not make all this shit that can literally cause miracles just so you could immediately start conquering and murdering things but she was dead so nobody listened to her

evilsciencebros: immortals need hobbies too. The only ones allowed to traumatise their OCs are them.

agatharights: "these are my OCs the entire Cybertronain race. original idea, do not steal." (and then the Quintessons, who created Primus and Unicron, were like WHOA PLAGARISM) Also oh no I realized the saddest thing that could happen to Scalpel

evilsciencebros: !!!!!

agatharights: Scalpel would've been an actual Scraplet, if very briefly (probably plucked right from a natural forge) before he was modified into a, well, a person, rather than a parasite. Which is all well and good, uplifts weren't uncommon for a long time, though they're very rare post-war

agatharights: But if he attacked Buster and Buster panicked there'd be a chance Buster's matrix abilities- including the ability to "repair" virtually anything Cybertronian given enough energy, would kick in- and Scalpel could be reverted into a Scraplet. It briefly happens to Ravage, but Ravage shares a spark with Soundwave- so Soundwave is able to re-activate his uplift status by restoring his spark (and Buster is very sorry like yeah okay the Decepticons have regularly tried to kidnap him as a power source but he didn't mean to hurt anyone!)But Scalpel being turned back into a Scraplet, even if it were temporary, sounds like a nightmare for him. Turned into a literally brainless creature (scraplets have no processors- their actions are directly connected to their spark rather than utilizing a processor)

evilsciencebros: ;-; poor baby

agatharights: He keeps biting Oil Slick and then being surprised and angry when Oil Slick tastes bad but he has no memory at the time. So he keeps trying bc Oil Slick carries him off to try and fix him ;-;

evilsciencebros: <3

agatharights: awwgh that's so sad i'm putting that in the "horrible things to potentially do to characters" folder

evilsciencebros: My boys. Looking out for each other ;3;

evilsciencebrosYou should feel bad! Poor Scalpel, reduced to something less than an animals, and poor Oil Slick trying to care for his little buddy.

agatharights: Someone on the team suggests that they should put Scalpel out of his misery, that they don't want to risk him eating someone and producing more scraplets, and Oil Slick gets so angry about it he has to leave for a lil bit, just to clear his head before he does something stupid like drop a white phosphorous grenade on them)He'd have to get fixed, eventually, but until then Oil Slick can keep him in a box and feed him scraps

evilsciencebros: OMG I hope he gets better one day! Poor Oil Slick trying, and failing, to bring Scalpel back, but unwilling to snuff out his little spark.He will murder that human boy >:/

agatharights: jskdlfaj if he confronted Buster the poor kid would be like ???!!! Because he'd have no idea what he'd done, and once he knew he'd freak out and start bawling because he didn't mean to! He's so sorry! He can fix it- he can, he can try, at least? "I don't want to hurt anyone! Please, just lemme try to fix it..."

evilsciencebros: He is very fortunate that Oil Slick is desperate and revenge can wait.Now stop pouring lubricant out of your optics and do your work weird god magic shit.

agatharights: akfdljsaf poor babies. At least Buster can probably undo it. Might take a bit, though, and a lot of energy. he'd konk right out afterwards, and Scalpel just re-grew an entire brain so he's very tired too.