#cards against cybertron

[lovinglonerhybrid]

It’s game night at swerves and there’s a bunch of games to play! Brainstorm and Chromedome are playing darts with a picture of prowl. Rewind,tailgate,and, swerve are playing Mario kart. Ratchet,thunderclash,megatron,drift,and Rodimus are playing cards against cybertron. Blaster has just-dance set up. Cyclonus and whirl are playing air hockey. Ultra Magnus is running a game of DnD with skids,nautica,ten,and velocity. Rungs doing mad libs with ravage and nightbeat. Every one lives nobody dies and the lost light crew is one big happy family for the rest of time!

[pricklyjim]

Oh god, I read the posts about relationships (it was really interesting) and I gasped when I read the bit about Magnus and Rodimus. If it's okay, can I ask what the heck happened?? It made me feel so sad for them! Ouch!

This AU is a really interesting idea, and it's cool to see how it's developing :]

I was going to explain it, but I decided to write it out instead. It doesn’t have the same impact when explained, and I think it’ll be better understood this way. So, here is what happened.

also i’ve written Rodimus’s because writing hot rod over and over makes me laugh. he’s hot rod here- i’m just lazy.

[Rodimus and Magnus LORE]

Cybertron…

The night’s air is cool and the the stars above Iacon burn brightly, their light reflecting off tall pristine buildings that extend high above the ground.

Rodimus sits on the edge of a towering platform belonging to the prime’s, overlooking the city, his legs dangling in the open air.

In his hands, he turns over a small, metallic card—a key card, well-worn but lovingly maintained.

Magnus stands behind him, his silhouette contrasted against the backdrop of the city lights. “It’s late,” Magnus states, his tone ever knowing.

“You should rest. Tomorrow is—”

“Yeah. I know.” Rodimus interrupts, his voice uncharacteristically void.

“The big day. The moment I’ve been ‘destined for’ my—— whole life.”

Magnus steps closer, crossing his arms. “That’s right. Tomorrow you’re Rodimus Prime. It’s what we’ve been working toward for years.”

Rodimus passively turns the key card in his servo watching as the shining edges catch the faint city light.

“What you’ve worked toward,” he mutters. “I’m starting to wonder if it was ever what I truly wanted.”

Magnus frowned. “I—”

“Do you know what this is?” Rodimus asked, holding up the key card without turning around to face Magnus.

Magnus glances at it, then responds without hesitation. “Your key card. To your private ship.”

Rodimus nods. “Yep. My ship. My one little piece of me in this whole crazy world.” He laughs softly, though the sound, hollow.

“Not that I get to keep it. After all Head-Primes aren’t supposed to have personal possessions, right? Everything I own gets handed over to the Council and other primes. Even this.”

Magnus doesn’t reply.

Rodimus finally looks back at him, his optics bright with something between defiance and last minute desperation.

“That’s why I want you to have it.”

Magnus blinks, taken aback. “What?”

Rodimus stands tall and confident, turning to face Magnus fully. He holds out the key card, the edges glowing faintly with a unique encryption code on its surface.

“Take it. Take my ship, Magnus. And take me with you. Let’s get out of here—

away from the Council, the Matrix, that stupid fragging ancient song- All of it. We can go somewhere no one will find us. Live a life that’s ours. Maybe Alpha four? or three- three has better energon-“

Magnus stares at the key card, his expression in shock. “you don’t know what you’re saying.”

“I do,” Rodimus states, stepping closer. “For once, I know exactly what I’m saying. I’ve spent my whole life being told what I’m meant to be, what I’m meant to do. But this—you—this is what I want. I don’t care about being Head-Prime, Magnus. I care about you. What we have- means more to me any anything in my life- If I can’t have possessions- fine- but if I can’t have you- as we are now-“

“Don’t do this—” Magnus’s voice is quiet, hesitant.

“Please,” Rodimus whispers. “I’ve given up so much already. Don’t make me give this up too.”

Magnus’s optics flicker, his gaze shifting from Rodimus’s to the key card in his hand. He could see the desperation, the vulnerability in the mechs expression, the unspoken plea.

“No,” Magnus says, his voice low but steady.

He forces himself to stand firm.

Rodimus’s optics widen. “What?”

Magnus steps back, shaking his head, trying to convince himself this isn’t real. He wishes it wasn’t, it makes his processor fill with overwhelming static.

“I can’t. You have a duty—a responsibility— As do I- to Cybertron. To your people. Running away from that isn’t the answer. This- isn’t Primus’s plan”

“To scrap with Primus!” Rodimus snaps, his voice shrill. “What about what I want, Magnus? What about what YOU want?”

Magnus’s spark twists painfully at the crack in Rodimus’s voice box, but he doesn’t let it show.

“This is more important than what you want,” he states firmly.

“You’re destined for something greater than yourself. I didn’t train you to abandon that. I trained you to rise to it. To be the prime we need.”

Rodimus staggers back, his grip tightening on the key card. “So that’s it? You’re just going to let us walk into a life we never wanted?”

Magnus hesitates, then steps forward gripping onto Rodimus, his voice calculated.

“‘I’want to do what’s right. By everyone. Us leaving together? Listen to yourself—- It’s ridiculous! Cybertron doesn’t exist without us, when the scriptures come to fruition, you- we need to be here for it.”

Rodimus stares at him, his optics wide with a mixture of hurt and anger. Then, without a word, he throws the card to the ground at Magnus’s feet. letting it clatter against the platform, its faint glow flickering to a dull nothingness.

“I guess, then, you’ve made your choice,” Rodimus states bitterly, his voice trembling.

He turns away, his shoulders hunching and his steps heavy, his head bowing with the weight of tomorrow.

Magnus watches him go, his fists clenching at his sides. He looks down at the key card, a faint reminder of what he’d just refused. He told himself he’d done the right thing, that this was for Rodimus’s own good.

But as the quiet of the night collapses in around him, Magnus couldn’t shake the feeling he’d just turned away from the one thing he ever actually wanted to protect…

and in the future?

Magnus thinks about that night often. Sometimes, in the tactical planning office now owned by Orion Pax, he finds his mind drifting back to it like clockwork…

He wonders if they would have been happy—truly happy—leaving with one another. He imagines it sometimes…

their silhouettes pressed against the stars, the hum of a ships engine carrying them across the cosmos.

But the thought always ends the same, it zips through his mind as quickly as a commit and is replaced with his current bleak reality.

His gaze drops to the grey keycard that somehow makes its way into his hands, the card worn down in some spots from years of restless touching.

It feels heavier than it should, weighed down by the memories of its previous owner.

He wonders… Did Rodimus hate him in the end? He must have. After all, he let him walk to his death with confidence, encouraged him to believe in the lies—a false song with hollow truths.

The keycard slips through his fingers, falling in slow motion towards a puddle of cold, energon.

Magnus stares at it blankly, now realizing his cheeks, wet. When had he started crying?

Though the question doesn’t matter. Not really, It feels like he’s been crying forever, crying, praying, hoping to wake into a diffrent reality with each passing day…

:D

i hope you guys are okay with non megop stuff! because although it’s what i mainly post i am a huge fan of other ships🫶❤️

this is set the day before his coronation, so he is going through his breakup here as well, that’s why he looks so sad here.

[darkstarofchaos]

Having seen some frankly irritating opinions from both sides of the aisle, I think some of y'all need to chill about the way the Decepticons were handled in EarthSpark.

Decepticon fans are allowed to be upset that the faction's depth and potential for development was tossed aside in favor of "Decepticons are just evil".

However, depth and potential doesn't mean the Decepticons have to be buddy-buddy with the Autobots. Depth is amoral, you can be a villain who resists "redemption" and still be a well-rounded character.

My issues with S2 vs S1 are as follows:

The lack of good explanation for why the sides are fighting again. I am not upset that the Cons are villains again. They have no reason to like or trust any human or Autobot, and gratitude for having your life saved only goes so far. My issue is that S2 literally opens by saying the Cons started the fight again just because that's what Cons do. Obviously the story is from the perspective of the main cast, and there are hints that they could be intentionally unreliable narrators (Starscream refers to them as oppressors, Breakdown challenges Bumblebee about giving up on Cybertron), but we aren't given enough time with the Cons to draw a solid conclusion about the intentions here.

The way the heroes treat Spitfire, i.e. a literal newborn. She was 100% in the right when she said that she didn't know the moral rules she was being expected to follow. But because she wasn't born with morals and an understanding of mortality preinstalled, the heroes condemned her instead of trying to de-escalate and take responsibility for their part in the situation (granted, Megatron was the only flight-capable adult present and he argued against de-escalation. Which tracks because he's Megatron. But someone should have pushed for a peaceful resolution).

How much depth do individual Decepticons still have? Who knows, Starscream, Shockwave, and Breakdown are the only ones with any focus. The others are only seen fighting, causing trouble for fun, or just standing around growling. Twitch - i.e. one of our main characters - literally spends an entire episode in the Con camp and we still manage to see nothing of Decepticon life when they're just hanging out. And yes, I know that the more characters you have in a scene, the harder it is to show their personalities. You can still show them playing cards or arm-wrestling or something. Anything to show that they're actually people and not just a hive mind that exists to fight.

Starscream. Specifically the last 20 minutes of the S2 finale, because everything else in his characterization fit S1 until that point. He literally calls the Autobots oppressors, so of course he's going to fight them. He wants Aftermath kept out of the way (that's a child, so that's perfectly reasonable) and he's frankly patient with Twitch-as-Spitfire, in spite of Skywarp's incredulity that he lets her "get away" with causing trouble (again, that is a child. Patience is the correct response). He even seems to like Spitfire after meeting the real her. The only issue I had with Starscream leading up to the second half of the finale was that his motivations didn't seem to be much deeper than "I want power" (I could be misremembering that point - there may have been an "Earth is going to be our home, let's make it better to live on" when he and Shockwave discussed Cybertron). And then the last 20 minutes happened and I can't see any logical extrapolation from S1 to that. It was just a generic "Starscream goes mad with power", and it came completely out of left field. Not even any remorse about what he "needed" to do or any attempt to justify himself, it was just, "Yeah, I'm worse than the people I called out for being oppressors, isn't it great?"

If there is some big plot twist where it turns out the heroes were unreliable narrators all along, some of my issues will actually be fixed. However, I find that extremely unlikely, for one major reason: all of the non-Decepticon characters who disagree with the heroes are either villains or they "come around". The Quintessons felt betrayed by Quintus? Nah, Quintus was a great guy, you can tell because he tortured a kid for wishing she had never been chosen by him. Prowl doesn't like the Autobots' reliance on children? Silly Prowl, those kids are special, we want them to fight. The narrative never, at any point, entertains the idea that those dissenting voices might have a point. Which means we're probably meant to take the heroes at face value on most, if not all things.

TL;DR: the Decepticons being villains makes perfect sense, even with the context of S1; it's the heroes acting like they're only fighting for power after we had several episodes about second chances and not all Decepticons being the same that makes it feel like a cop-out. And Decepticon fans are allowed to be upset that some of their favorite characters had interesting stuff going on only to be functionally relegated to Voiceless Grunt Number 3 (and yes, several Autobots have also been relegated to Voiceless Grunts. If one of your favorite characters has fallen victim to this affliction, regardless of faction, you have my sympathies).

[whatwooshkai]

19!! 😁😁

Quickshadow does not like Blades.

It's usually small, annoying things: he gives her stupid, paranoid looks, he complains about her asking reasonable questions, he follows her around, and worst, he's taken to perching on Heatwave's shoulders to do all three of those things, just slightly more off the ground.

But this.

Heatwave grabs a chip and throws it at Blades' face, but the helicopter leans out of the way smoothly, the smug grin not leaving his face.

"You must be cheating," Quickshadow accuses, seething behind her cards. Blades' grin gets bigger.

"That's the worst part," Heatwave laments, slamming his head into the table, making his pitiful stack of chips shake. "He's not."

"I couldn't, even if I wanted to," Blades practically purrs, fanning himself with his cards, and Quickshadow wishes she still had her inset guns. "Chase is dealing. Nothing gets past him."

"Believe me, we've tried," Heatwave mumbles, face still smushed to the table. He ever so slightly turns his head towards her and flicks over one of Quickshadow's neatly stacked chips. "Quit while you're still ahead, Shad."

Oh, but she can't. Quickshadow has played cards against some of Cybertron's most corrupt- games of chance and skill- and she's won. But Blades. He's become totally different, melting into a personality she'd only seen snatches of between his bouts of anxiety.

"Who do you have to play against to get this good?" she asks aloud, and Blades expression drops from smug to somewhere between fondness and grief, but he doesn't answer.

She's about to ask more directly when Boulder reenters, brandishing bottles of high grade. "Heatwave, Blades, Quickshadow," they mumble as they pass them out, before dropping the rest to the floor. "Chase?" they ask, but the police bot shakes his head no.

"I cannot deal properly if I am inebriated," he says, and Heatwave parrots him mockingly under his breath, then swallows half his bottle in one swig.

"Alright!" Heatwave pushes his little stack of chips forward with one servo. "All in."

Blades' fanged smile grows wide once more.

[transformersclandestine]

Opportunity

(Author's note: the original version of this story contained a plot thread I decided did not fit with my ideal timeline of events in this universe. As such, it has been rewritten.)

~~

Megatron stood in his apartment’s living quarters in the darkness. The only illumination came from the neon glow of downtown Kaon through his blinds. The only noise came from his comlink, in conversation with a mysterious stranger he had met at Maccadam’s. Said stranger had given Megatron a vague gesture of employment - to what, Megatron had no idea. But this stranger, this Soundwave as he’d introduced himself, clearly had big ideas for the former miner.

“Hold on a nanoclick,” Megatron interrupted. “Working on what, exactly? You still haven’t given me any information, just a card and a name.”

“Excuse my enthusiasm, Megatron,” Soundwave apologized, “it’s like I said at Maccadam’s: not every day you come across someone with the bearings to stand up to a bot like Nitro.”

“I see in you great potential, Megatron. You stood against a bot twice your size with thrice his tenacity. Had the guards not pulled you two apart, you’d have his spark casing in your clutches.”

Megatron listened in silence to Soundwave’s praise. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong with this entire conversation. Megatron was no fighter, at least so he claimed. But he couldn’t help but believe in some of the things Soundwave was saying. He had stood up against Nitro, he had nearly beaten the bot before they were separated.

There was just one problem with it all: Soundwave was getting all the details correct. Megatron knew the police reports didn’t take his side of the story, they were getting all the information from Nitro and the other foremen at the mine. This perplexed Megatron and he interrupted yet again.

“You sound like you were there yourself, Soundwave. I must’ve missed you.”

Soundwave chuckled sinisterly.

“Let’s just say we have eyes all around.”

“Who’s we?”

Soundwave’s line sat silent for a bit. Megatron became concerned he was being traced or monitored. Then, the visored bot spoke up again.

“Let me ease your anxieties by simplifying things: we meet, we discuss what me and my colleagues have in store for you. You don’t like it? You can walk and we’ll wipe all of our history together out of each other’s databanks. Agreed?”

Megatron hesitated to respond. A trap, it sounded like a trap. He feared that agreeing to this meeting would result in him being stripped of his plating and drained of fluids. Soundwave sensed the unease and cleared the air again.

“No need to worry. We know what you’re capable of and we wouldn’t dare try and stop you from leaving. This offer has a time limit, though.”

Megatron hated to admit it, but he was intensely curious about this proposition. He remembered what Orion Pax had said earlier that night at Maccadam’s about a job in the Iacon Vaults. It wasn���t that the offer was bad or anything, it just wasn’t the trajectory that Megatron had wanted for himself. The way Soundwave talked up Megatron, it made him seem like a trillion shanix. A moment’s hesitation later, Megatron responded.

“Alright. Send me the location.”

“Excellent,” Soundwave replied, “it’s transmitting to you now.”

In rhythmic succession, the location followed. It was in Tarn, a sister polity of Kaon’s but one with a far seedier reputation. 

“Time to meet will be 0700 hours. Come alone.”

Soundwave’s line ended swiftly after. Megatron sighed. He had no idea what he was getting himself into.

The weekend made the Iacon Vaults mostly empty, save for a few automated units that kept the place operational. The lone exception was Megatron, who had taken a seat at his favorite table and was deeply entrenched in writing. The ideas he put to paper were very scattershot, just a constant stream of thoughts being written for posterity, but they flowed like a river of crude Energon. Before long, Megatron had written two paragraphs:

If the idea of a free Cybertron is to sit and wallow in an uneasy state of mind, then a free Cybertron it is not. Though we are far removed from the extremist beliefs of past leaders such as Nominus Prime (whose system pundits and buffs have taken to calling “functionism”), the introduction of the First Cybertronian Senate several deca-cycles prior to this writing has continued a sense of uncertainty in the establishment of a continuing prosperity on Cybertron.

The job, nay, the purpose of the Senate is to oversee the civilization we Cybertronians have constructed with our bare hands, guiding us and delivering the teachings of our forerunners. However, the simple fact remains that the current landscape of Cybertron is far removed from an idyllic peacetime once sought. Criminality has taken over many formerly prominent polities and sectors, disease spreads among the downtrodden and the establishment of a lawless market makes for corporate profiteering at the expense of the common bot. The abolishment of classist structures with the assassination of Nominus Prime and the ousting of his ministers has provided the public-facing arm of Cybertron’s government with a ready shield against further critique and further evolution. The sitting Senators stand idly by continuing to hedge insider profits, grasp savagely for power, and ignore prominent societal issues in favor of the establishment of an uneventful normal.

An unexpected hand on his shoulder cut Megatron free of his writing daze. It was Orion Pax, his best friend. Orion warmly greeted Megatron and took the seat opposite. Megatron was surprised to see Orion at the Vaults on his day off. 

“Well…somehow I knew you’d be here,” he explained cheerfully.

He noticed Megatron’s data pad and light-pen.

“What’s that?” He asked.

“It’s…not complete,” Megatron responded, “It’s not anything, really. Just a scattered assortment of ideas. Thoughts about Cybertron.”

“And what to do about it?”

Orion’s question cut deep. Not in a negative way, just in a way that wasn’t expected.

“Maybe,” he replied. The conflicted author placed his head in his hands in contemplation.

“You always talked about running for office, Megatron.”

“With no source of income and an arrest on my record? Ha. Maybe in the past, but not now.”

Orion didn’t accept Megatron’s doubts. He believed in the strength and conviction of his friend, that it was more than enough to propel him to potential victory.

“May I read it?” He asked politely.

Megatron hesitated for a moment out of embarrassment of his writings, but he eventually relented and handed Orion the data pad.

Time seemed to tick slowly as Orion read Megatron’s work. His facial expressions did not change.

When finished, he handed it back to Megatron.

“Seems to me like you’re more ready than you think.”

Megatron was shocked at Orion’s praise. Were his random thoughts really enough to warrant a political career? Megatron thanked Orion for his kindness and glanced over the data pad once again. He thought about the loss of his job, he thought about the many bots he saw on the street without stable livelihoods, and he thought about the Senate sitting proudly in Iacon without a care in the world. These thoughts turned to anger, fury, and Megatron clenched his fist in response.

“If I were to run,” he asked Orion, “would you be willing to help me?”

Orion playfully bopped Megatron on the shoulder.

“Of course, my friend. I’ll do my best.”

Megatron smiled at his friend’s optimism. With Orion by his side, he felt invincible.

——

There was a reason few outsiders ventured to Tarn. From what Megatron could see upon his arrival, he couldn’t blame anyone. Tarn was an especially run-down polity; broken roads, dirty street corners, booster-abusing bots sleeping on said corners. The entire city appeared to be a ghost-town of decency and Megatron wondered just what exactly its leadership was doing to leave the rest of their populace in such a state.

As he neared the coordinates sent to him by Soundwave, he wondered if this was all worth it. He was trusting the word of a bot he had only met briefly, a sinister-sounding one to boot. Megatron couldn’t shake the feeling that this was all leading up to something that wasn’t good.

But what if it wasn’t? That thought also entered his head. What if all the secrecy and shady tactics were just a test? What if the job Soundwave was offering was something that, dare he thought, Megatron liked?

His thoughts were interrupted by one of the drug-addled bots scrambling up to Megatron with an outstretched hand. Though their dilapidated appearance was certainly shocking, their face was a kindly smile, as if they were unaware of the decay of their own bodies.

“Spare some shanix?” The broken-down bot asked Megatron. Feeling guilty and generous, Megatron pulled a few tokens from his pockets and handed them to the bot. He tipped his head in thanks and began to turn away before Megatron gently grabbed his arm to keep him from leaving.

“What happened to this city?” Megatron asked the bot. The rusting old-timer trembled and coughed.

“The Senate is what happened,” he answered, “they’ve become a government for the richer polities.”

Megatron sighed. Of course it was the Senate. It could only ever be the Senate. 

The rusting bot continued, unprompted.

“They leave us with barely an income to keep going. Most of us spend it on circuit-boosters…it’s the only thing we can really do to keep the rust pains away. No pharmacy within ten kils from here. Senate refuses to fund the construction of one here in Tarn.”

With each revelation, Megatron became furious. Tarn was a far cry from Kaon, itself a more blue-collar and relatively poorer part of Cybertron. But this…this was just a hellscape. How any bot could live in these conditions escaped Megatron.

“Far as I’m concerned,” the vagrant continued, “the Senate’s just waiting for all of us to fall to pieces. Then they’ll annex the city as part of a mining operation or something.”

Their conversation ended abruptly as they both sensed the presence of another. A block ahead, the silhouette of Soundwave lingered underneath one of the few operable street lamps. He stood with an imposing purpose and the blazing glow of his crimson visor penetrated the sharp shadows surrounding him. The rusting bot shivered and cowered, turning away to leave the area, apologizing for a nonexistent faux pas. Megatron turned to keep the bot from leaving, but he ignored Megatron and slunk away into a nearby alley.

After the bot disappeared, Soundwave stepped out beneath the light and approached Megatron.

“You’re on time. That’s good.”

There was an uneasy pause. Megatron felt it more than Soundwave. The visored bot broke the silence by leading Megatron towards a large, dome-shaped building.

“In here.”

The domed building was purple in coloration with golden details. There was clear wear on it, yet it appeared to be the most well-maintained out of any structure in Tarn. From the streets outside, Megatron could nearly make out a roaring sound coming from inside which he eventually realized were the sounds of a raucous crowd. Peppering through the surging cheers were striking sounds of metal clashing.

Walking through dimly lit corridors, Soundwave said nothing. The inner portion of the building was filled with rest areas and bots of all manner of sizes, though mostly leaning on the large side. Each one brandished scars all across their bodies. Some were carrying or carefully cleaning edged weapons of various makes. Coupled with the noise from an audience on the other side of the walls, Megatron made the startling connection: this was a fight pit, and Soundwave had selected him as the latest warrior recruit.

Approaching a more brightly decorated area of the arena, Soundwave led Megatron through a corridor into an entrance atop a row of stone bleachers. The view of the arena was spectacular and Megatron took in the extraordinary view of hundreds of spectators, each bots of all makes and models, from the old and broken to the new and shiny. In a private viewing box to the north, a gangly and imposing bot stood. He was of intense height with one hand ending in a laser cannon and a penetrating gaze embodied by a single golden optic.

“Is that…” Megatron wondered aloud.

“Yes it is: Shockwave, one of Cybertron’s greatest military commanders," Soundwave confirmed, "He’s on the hunt for new recruits. Most of Squadron X was found here in the Battlegrounds."

Megatron attempted to garner an explanation out of Soundwave for why they were here, but before he could get a word out, Soundwave entered back into the halls and motioned for Megatron to follow. It was here that Megatron finally managed to stutter out a protest.

“If your plan is to make me one of these barbaric fighters, you’ve got another thing coming.”

“You’re very perceptive, Megatron.” Megatron stopped Soundwave in the halls and pleaded his case.

“Look, what happened with Nitro was a mistake. Plain and simple. A lapse in judgement.”

“I’ve seen my fair share of lapses in judgement. What happened to you was something else: an awakening of something buried deep inside your spark.”

Megatron attempted to fluster out a rebuttal, but Soundwave interrupted him with a simple outstretched hand and continued walking. After a short distance, the two arrived at a more ornately decorated entrance, shrouded by a large purple curtain and guarded by two masked bots wielding lances. Soundwave approached the dual guards and they moved aside.

“Wait outside,” Soundwave ordered Megatron before heading through. A few nanoclicks later, Soundwave peered through the curtain and gave the OK.

The room they entered was dimly lit. Fading nitron lamps littered four of the corners, while a large glass window peering into the arena provided most of the illumination. Accompanying Soundwave in the room were two other bots. One, slender in build with a large, flashy wingspan leaned against an unkempt bookshelf impatiently. The other was many sizes larger than all three of the others, rounded in shape but with powerful limbs and ironclad feet akin to military boots. Blue steel in color, his face was sharpened with no jaw to be seen but displayed a fearsome visage that appeared out of Cybertronian myth. He was barrel-chested with multiple symbols of indeterminate origin or meaning adorning his chest. He fiddled with a very large and very sharpened silver axe whose blade was digging into the ground, grinding away sediment with each impatient twirl. 

Soundwave approached the larger bot and gave a slight bow. Megatron didn’t know whether or not to follow suit, but bowed anyway out of respect. The winged bot sneered and laughed.

“Governor Straxus, I've returned with the prospect we discussed,” Soundwave reported.

The governor tapped his fingers impatiently on the top of his axe’s handle.

“Hm…so this is the defiant one…”

Straxus thought to himself for a moment, then rose from his throne and approached the window, snapping his fingers and pointing next to him. Soundwave nudged Megatron and the quizzical bot approached the governor’s side, who splayed an open palm and gestured towards the arena. 

From the vantage point of the box, Megatron could clearly make out the brawling brutes in the middle of the arena. One was a hulking teal and purple bot with a cycloptic eye, brandishing an enormous mace and currently winning his exchange. His opponent was a smaller bot clad in red with a mohawk-like crest. The cyclops bot was forcing the mace against the red bot’s shield, which was buckling under the pressure. Megatron watched in awe as the cyclops bot suddenly flexed hard against the shield, causing the red bot’s knees to buckle. Taking advantage in rapid succession, the cyclops bot kicked his opponent in the gut, causing him to fly backwards, the shield shattering in the process. Dazed and clearly beaten, the red bot could only audibly concede as the cyclops bot advanced upon him and held his head under the tip of the mace. The bell rang and the fight was over. The cyclops bot turned his attention away from his opponent and hoisted his mace high in the sky, roaring in victory.

“Very impressive, yes? Another fine match from our current champion, Lugnut. A native of Kaon, same as you.”

Megatron nodded politely. Lugnut continued to soak in the adulation from the crowd as his opponent limped off the field.

The crowd erupted in applause and the extravagant governor continued his vague speeches.

"Soundwave has told me of your endeavor. The little protest that could, so to speak."

He turned towards his guest and placed what Megatron assumed to be a comforting hand on his shoulder. Megatron could only feel unease and tension instead.

“Energy like that is what's needed in Cybertron today,” Straxus continued, “respect…is at an all-time low.”

Megatron didn't understand what this governor was talking about, but decided not to interrupt for his own safety.

"Here in Tarn, I am respected, for I have built this sanctuary to aid those who are in your position. It can be an outlet for aggression, a temple of discipline, or even…a headquarters for revolution.”

Megatron hid his discomfort well, but sensed that Straxus was already onto him. Still, Megatron internalized his dialogue as it was similar to the things Soundwave had been saying about Megatron: a revolutionary.

“Revolution?” Megatron finally spoke up, quizzically.

Straxus nodded. “You and I both know the Senate is a stain on Cybertronian prosperity. They order the working bot around with no respect for individuality all to gain more power and to feast greedily on its pervasive outcomes.”

Though his rhetoric was particularly exaggerated, Megatron nonetheless had to admit that Straxus was saying agreeable things. He almost felt chilled, like Straxus had somehow read his writings before they were even published.

“Soundwave has not summoned you here to be a fighter, despite what you may think, Megatron,” Straxus revealed, “there is a greater use to you outside of the battlefield.”

“Outside?”

Straxus shook his head.

“Do you make it a habit to talk exclusively in single words?”

Megatron stammered out an apology, but Straxus was already on to his next piece.

“Megatron, you have already tasted the succulence of revolt. I believe within you is the ability to act upon this. I ask of you to join with me against the Senate to continue instilling doubt in their mockery of government.”

“You’re not talking about terrorism are you?” Megatron wondered nervously.

“Not terrorism, no. Too extreme. Easily snuffed out. What I’m thinking is something more subtle. Continue your protests, exercise your right to free speech. Sow doubt.”

“What about infiltration?” Wait, what? Megatron didn’t even realize at first what he had said. It was as if he was speaking purely from the spark without even thinking.

“Infiltration…? How so?” Straxus had been caught off-guard by Megatron’s suggestion.

“Running for office?” Megatron’s internal conscience was ringing alarm bells and trying desperately to take back what he had said, but it was as if another force entirely was taking the reins now. Something buried deep within his spark. 

“Running for office is risky,” Straxus objected, “no guarantees at election. Ripe for meddling.”

“Or martyrdom.” Whatever force had unearthed itself inside Megatron had fully taken control.

Even Straxus was astonished at the lengths Megatron was proclaiming to go for this cause. He had to admit, Soundwave had chosen quite well with this prospect.

“If you believe that is your destiny, Megatron,” Straxus responded.

“As long as it’s for the good of Cybertron,” Megatron stated.

Straxus nodded and returned to his seat. 

“Very well, then. I believe we have found our candidate for the next Cybertronian Senate Election,” he enthusiastically remarked.

Megatron had come down from the thrilling high of the last conversation. He couldn’t believe he actually had agreed to not only rally against the Senate in his own fashion, but potentially die for it. All for a group of bots he had just met. But then again: running for office wasn’t just a matter of personal pride, it was the chance to truly make a difference. He couldn’t do it without help, after all. With these bots plus Orion by his side…

He thought about Orion, his best friend. He remembered the quiet conversation they had at the Iacon Vaults earlier in the day. Orion had said it himself: “you’re more ready than you think”.

Straxus interrupted Megatron’s thinking with a bark of orders.

“Soundwave, since you were the one who discovered Megatron here, you will serve him as a close advisor to his campaign, and as a liaison for myself.”

Soundwave nodded. The winged bot in the room, who had been silent the whole time, rolled his eyes and scoffed.

Straxus grabbed a nearby data pad and began work on setting up various assets and accounts for Megatron’s campaign.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I believe we have a massive amount of work to prepare. Would you escort our candidate to the exits, Soundwave?”

“Of course, Governor Straxus.”

Soundwave led Megatron out into the hallways through the curtain. After an uncomfortable few moments of silence between the two, the winged bot stepped away from the bookshelf he was leaning on and approached Straxus’ desk.

“You seriously can’t believe that miner will win his first election,” he sneered, “Or that he’s willing to die for the cause.”

Straxus did not look up from his data pads and merely returned the derision.

“I do not, Starscream. That is why Soundwave was sent to contact him. We must eliminate all potential interlopers.”

“And the Senate?”

“They are informed. Have been since the arrest. Another orbital cycle free of intervention.”

Starscream smiled and chuckled to himself. 

“Glory to our cause.”

[unknown-goose]

Transformers One Main Cast As Fate/Grand Order Characters

This movie has given me such severe brain rot, I just had to write something for it. Once again this post DOES CONTAIN MINOR SPOILERS so read at your own discretion.

Orion Pax/Optimus Prime

• This time around I imagine him being a Ruler

• Given how it is normally a class associated with saint-like characters and grail war observers, I think it fits him rather well

• Even his most reckless acts are always done with good intentions and out of the main 4 bots, I consider him to be the peace keeper

• I see him as being an Arts unit with an AOE support Noble Phantasm (provides various buffs to the party instead of dealing damage to the enemy)

• I consider The Matrix of Leadership to be a passive skill: I’m thinking it would give passive healing per turn or extra debuff resistance. Probably passive healing because it’s not something you really see in F/GO (in playable units anyway)

• I’m probably going to give him a buff somewhere that makes him and or the party deal extra damage against "Threat to Cybertron" units (more on that later)

D-16/Megatron

• Easily an Avenger class unit, no questions asked

• Once he and the rest of the group find out the truth about Sentinel, revenge is all he can think about. And by the end of the film its become his defining trait, consuming him till there's nothing left of his previous personality

• It may be a little cliche giving him an all Buster card deck, but it really does suit him well

• His physical prowess is so strong after gaining his t-cog I’m thinking of making the arm canon his Noble Phantasm, if the divorce scene is anything to go by he’s probably Single Target (that scene gave me unparalleled psychic damage, I am not ok)

• He is also one of two units I will be giving the new "Threat to Cybertron" trait, based on F/GO’s "Threat to Humanity" trait

• I imagine his kit being almost like Maou Nobu’s, except better in every way. As much as I love her, the developers really failed her with that kit.

B-127/Bumblebee

• Not quite as obvious as my last choice, but he would make a good berserker

• Very low ranking "Madness Enhancement", probably somewhere in the low C/high to mid D range. Low C seems a little high for me but the change in stats is so minute it really doesn’t matter too much

• I have a feeling he would be a Quick unit, but I can’t make up my mind on whether he is Single Target or AOE. Maybe there is a gimmick in his kit somewhere that allows him to switch between the two like Melusine or Summer Barghest

• He seems like the kind of character I would throw all my prototype gimmicks at to see what sticks, just for the heck of it

Elita-1

• I headcanon her to be an Assassin class unit, more based on how she handles her opponents rather then her character

• High ranking "Independent Action" passive, but very low Luck. Poor girl can never catch a break. Her "Presence Concealment" would probably be about average, so somewhere in the B range

• I think she would have another Single-Target NP, and given her class’s knack for generating critical stars, she’s probably another Quick unit. Except I’d make her deck have three Quick cards instead of Bee’s two (double Quick, double Arts)

• Admittedly I was pretty stumped with this one, I think I ran out of brain juice while coming up with the others. Either that or the after work fatigue is kicking in again

Sentinel Prime (or as I like to call him Sentinel Douchebag)

• This is going to sound really wild, but hear me out: Moon Cancer

• Now I hear you saying "Goose, what does this motherfucker have to do with the moon? Or any moon?" And the truth is nothing at all. But he is to Cybertron what BB (the servant who made the class) is to the Moon Cell, a Cancer; an all encompassing evil that fundamentally changes the game. One that must be stopped at all costs, but unlike BB, his evil does not come from a place of care for the people.

• This class is the most objectively evil in its roots as even the Beasts have love in their hearts somewhere, so it makes perfect sense to throw this beautiful bastard in here. This class also has the smallest roster of characters in the game so there’s plenty of room for innovation.

• I see him having a double Arts, Double Buster deck with an Arts NP, probably AOE. He is also the second character to be receiving my new "Threat to Cybertron" trait, funnily enough I strictly had him in mind when coming up with it, and gave it to Megatron as an afterthought. That’s how much of a bitch he is in this movie.

• Him and Airachnid would be a dual package, just like Sakamoto Ryoma and his wife Oryou; with Airachnid appearing in his skill animations and NP, maybe having a couple voice lines of her own.

[medicdoodles]

A mashup of IDW and Seige canon of Ratchet and Deadlock, meet and run his underground asylum.

Based on Dialogue trees you get from Futomimi and Sakagahi, when you do the Aferlife Bell quest in SMT Nocturne.

For Ratchlock day.

(Next Chapter) || (Last Chapter)

There's a stain shaped like a human.

Work hard, do your best, and eventually you'll get somewhere.

When Ratchet transferred from the highest ranked schooling from Vaporex to the political charged state of Iacon, he expected pointed comments. He expected turned up faces. What he didn't know was how much he would be pushed into being an engineer.

Sure he has some skill in the field, many of his professors have left comments on it but never has he imagined being one. However, Ratchet found that his study to become a medic was going nowhere. Everywhere he went all of the classes would refuse his application, but he didn't give up.

If he wasn't going to be an official student he could still go to classes. When other mechs would sneak out or skip lectures he would slip in. Medic trainees would pay him to do their homework and he took it. All this hard work pays off, he gets the top scores, his engineering career is going well too. When his colleagues get hurt he can repair them better than the campus doctors. Then he graduated...

He gets hired to work on ground bridge operations. It doesn't excite him but it was honest work, and he could save enough money to carry equipment for a first aid kit. Once he was shipped off to the outskirts of the Dead End, that's where he finds his calling.

Since all fast travel in the area was decommissioned, Ratchet was forced to drive out to all locations. It wasn't too bad, but since he was the only one willing to do this job he was on his own. That's when he sees in person just how much Cybertron has abandon.

Streets filled with broken mechs and ruined buildings. There's no hope here, and his white paint lights up against the ash filled air, stains the vision of the city. It was silent until a siren went off in the distance. Despite him knowing the police's pensions for brutality, seeing it with his own eyes still frighten him.

"You're going to be okay." He hears a bot the panic in his voice. "Just hang in there, I'm going to get you help. Just hold on." Ratchet makes it to the voice. It was two bots in the middle of the road, both covered in blood. However, one person is down, closer to death.

"I don't think I can...", said bot also coughs up more blood. "Just wait for me to pass on. Then you can scavenge my parts."

"It's not fair." The mech brakes eye contact, looking to the sky. Then he looks towards the siren lights driving away. "They killed the wrong bot..."

"Let me try to help." Ratchet walks up to two mechs. The back mind is yelling at him, he's a ground bridge operator, an engineer, never even picked ot study medic. He can't do this, but he also can't stand here doing nothing. "I can't promise anything, but please I want to help."

They both look at him with a befuddled faces. He knows they shouldn't trust him but something must have broken because they allow him to help. They let him operate, and by the end of it all they thanked him, and for the first time since he left his home village, he felt proud of himself.

That's when Ratchet knew the direction of where is life is going. He would make money fixing and maintaining public works, taking other jobs, and making as much money as he could to build a clinc. He set it up in the center of Dead End, chosen it to give it resistance the fastest access to him. He worked himself tirelessly between these jobs and for the first time in his life. He managed to find success and happiness.

Do you think my life was a success?

Yes

>No

I see... yeah you might be right.

Just when I thought I achieved happiness, my fortune collapsed like a house of cards.

Then the outside world gotten word about it. The Senate at first only saw the healing of Dead End's bots. That they would start to walk around and they would fix the left over peices of the city. Had enough energy to walk around and wanted to start working.

However, Ratchet soon discovered that this was unwanted. That if Dead End successfully pulled itself together and made it possible to be something, then the fundamental ideology of Functionism would be thrown into question. If that where to happen, what other mechs would go against the class systems set forward by them.

It couldn't stand, so they made sure it didn't, and so they set off a bomb. Framed as an accident during transit from the military bases, they had approved of it being set off. Then they approved of some police officers to do a quick sweep of firing rounds to hit what remained. They're mission wasn't to kill anyone but if the managed too, it wasn't seen as a bad thing.

At the time Ratchet was sent off planet to see if he could assist in fixing a space bridge from Lunar-2 to Tyger Pax. Of course when it played on the news he tried to ground bridge there, but couldn't. His first transporters where destroyed, when he did get back, his clinc as well. Then when he made it home, his house was raided too.

Nothing made him feel so powerless than when he was stopped at the front door. A mech had pinned him against the wall of his assigned room and warned him away from returning to Dead End. That if they found out he went back he wouldn't be able to keep his face.

Worse was when the said mech had his hands wonder all over his body, and said next time he gets sent out he has permission to do as he pleases with him. Ratchet also finds all of his funds were frozen out, and when he does get access to them all of the money had disappeared.

You should be careful. You never know what tomorrow may bring...

After all of that, Ratchet still tries to help. He still returns to assist all the mechs of the city. They still look at him with hopefully eyes, but understanding that they could never crawl out by their own strength. Many where mad at him for even letting them entertain the idea. Others where mad for him, after all it was one thing to steal from bots with nothing on them. It was another to kick the bot who tries to give a hand to someone who needs it.

Most bots however, joined the Decepticons. They believed that if the government had been threatened by their peaceful solution then they would coware at their revolution. All of this would lead to their planet dying, not that the blame could be one sided. The Senate and later the Autobots would fight them to standstill.

Ratchet would find himself in the middle of it. At first he tried to stay neutral but the bots of Dead End where quick to bring up the attack. Then it was shaking down his person and finally braking into his home and ransacking his equipment.

Traitor was branded on his door, then on his frame. When Ratchet returned to work with a still orange smelter on his left hip, his friend Wheeljack, help him join the Autobots. For a time he was safe, the squad he joined even allowed him to repair any bot whom he wanted, even Decepticons were allowed to be fixed.

Do you think my life was a success?

>Yes

No

That's what everybody else thought, too.

...until that one day.

That was until a superior officer had came down for a vist. When they saw Ratchet repair two mechs with purple badges, they made it clear to him this would stop. If he gets caught again they would charge him with treason and he would be place on the enemy list. That's when he knew he had to go.

Being a deserter was a lighter charge than being a traitor. With his life on the line again, Ratchet has to go, because he could never leave a bot to die. In his spark he could never leave a mech to die without trying. He gives Wheeljack his coordinates, he trust that mech to only uses it when absolutely necessary.

Or at least he did.

The next time he sees his former colleague the bot had brought in toe a former bailiff turned Assassin. They force Ratchet to hand over everything on his person. The bots he was traveling with where tied down and put into custody of the Prime.

For the first time in my life, I had the urge to kill.

He was left on the ground, one push away from the cliffside. Wheeljack had saved his life but at the freedom of others. That's when he tells him to never find him again. That if he truly is sorry, he would only give that location to mechs who need it. They both promised something that day and that would be the last time he would speak to him, or it seemed.

So much anger,

As the war went on, Ratchet would travel. He would make a portable ground bridge went to the next battlefields and collect both parts and bots left behind to die. Like a Grim Reaper, he walks the path of death. However, he wouldn't take life he would do his best to keep it.

Rumor about his presence as a super natural entity made it easier to avoid authority. Many bots who believed in apparitions would come with him quietly. When he repaired them all of them would stay by him. When two bots of different factions would meet, it was almost always up to him to keep them civil.

Then he ran into Deadlock. The bot he gained feelings for. At first he didn't recognize him, but in private the mech tells him about the time they first met. That he was standing in the middle of the road in his friend's arm about to die. Then he adimts about the time he almost turned him to Megatron.

But the only way he could place Deadlock to the incidents is when he spoke those words to him. "Come on Doc, don't think like that. Everyone has kindness in their hearts."

That's when Ratchet's spark drops. This was the mech who was sent to capture him. Who knew of his habit of helping injured bots and almost trapped him into the Decepticons. Whenever he looks at Deadlock now, all he sees is a bot who has changed course, and doesn't he deserve a chance at it.

Ratchet of course also has a bad habit of letting mechs who hurt him do it again. So they both come to an agreement, he repairs Deadlock and takes him to back. The mech agrees to help him out with his operations.

So that's what they did. Ratchet would travel around and Deadlock would follow in tow. Keeping him safe and holding down bots when their reflexes kicked in. Later when their party had gotten too big to travel around and the building became to full. Deadlock drove off without a word.

Weeks became months and when two years passed by the mech came back. He tells Ratchet that he managed to find a bombed down theater that still had functional power. It was large enough for housing and medical care. When he shows him Ratchet is so relieved that he kisses him on the spot.

Deadlock field goes haywire but he doesn't reject it. Instead he grabs Ratchet's frame and frags him hard and wild, places him on the stage. With his groveling voice yells into Ratchet's microphone pick ups that he can't wait when the crew comes in. That after a long shift of picking up bots and patching up frames they would do this again, and next time they will have an audience to perform for.

That was the only time they had. As most of it was being too exhausted with fixing the building. Making sure that it look destroyed from the outside, having to only fix the bottom floors without collapsing the building from the top proved to be difficult. Even with the mechs he saved helping out, many issuses of resources and planning was still too much to worry about.

So Deadlock planned to search again. He spends his last night just sitting next to Ratchet. Telling him not worry, and he will comm every day just to reassure him of his safety. Ratchet gives him his ground bridge. Tells him to come back immediately after he finds something he thinks will help and that he will pick up his calls even if he can't talk back.

That was the last time they speak together, because once Ratchet was properly situated he update Wheeljack of his location.

There's a stain shaped like a human.

That's when he finds Impactor and things spirals out of control. Between Wheeljack taking Optimus Prime here, their entourage raising tempers and talks about Megatron abuse of the Matrix. Ratchet has to leave.

Many of his mechs encourage him to stay. Prime has no power here and if they want his help he should force the Autobots to promise to leave them alone. He doesn't answer them, he knows Wheeljack has betrayed him before. That the army has force his hands, but something tells him complying is the best option.

He turns to Impactor, tells him to tell the bigger bots to take care of the sick. Ratchet knows that mech has turned himself around and regained his spark. So it comes to a surprise that the mech follows behind him. Defending him from Elita-One and even sacrificing his own frame by pulling his comm out.

They violated him and still Impactor smiles at him, stays with him and gives his life for him. He sees his spark give out, but never sees his new found love of life leave his body.

That mankin died. He died the instant he became human. You see humans cannot exist in the vortex world...

As he boards the Arc, Ratchet gets a call from Deadlock. When he reached to answer the distance is to far.

[torpedopickle]

Review of Transformers Rise of the Beasts (no spoilers until the end):

This movie was super fun. It really managed to get me pumped by the end and it had a strong sense of momentum front to back, slowing down in the right places, but not to a halt. It could be considered a tad too fast paced for some, but i thought it was just right. It was a really great cinema experience, the music, visual effects, and direction was super strong all around. Steven Caple Jr. has never helmed a project this big, and I was pleasantly surprised by how confident the direction in this movie feels. Along with a simple but effective plot and strong performances all around, and a script which gives a lot of humanity to each character, it turned out to be a very fun movie. I rate it about a 7.6/10, it might get a little higher once I marinate on it more, but thats where it sits for now. I'll be going more in depth below on things I liked if you would like to continue reading.

I actually really like this movie's plot. I see a lot of critics claim it's "incoherent", but it's actually a very simple story, and it manages to find a lot of strength in this simplicity. People might be put off upon hearing that this is yet another "find the mcguffin" plot like past transformers movies. However this time it's actually executed very effectively. The mcguffin of this movie, the Transwarp Key isn't just a thing the bad guys want because then they can make bad things happen so the heroes want it just for the sake of stopping the bad thing. They nanage to weave some strong character work into this plot. Particularly with Noah and Optimus Prime.

Both of them have highly personal stakes motivating them to find the Key. Optimus wanting to use it to return to Cybertron to retake it after having to flee the war, feeling immense responsibility and guilt over stranding the Autobots on earth. He wants nothing more than to go home. While Noah wants to destroy the Key to make sure that the antagonists can't use it to destroy earth, as we're shown quite early on that he has a lot to protect at home, along with a strong sense of responsibility to take care of his struggling family. This conflict of interest over the mcguffin creates a solid dynamic between the two characters, putting them at odds, and confirming their biases against the other at first. Optimus not trusting humans, and Noah not trusting optimus to keep the key away from the Terrorcons after seeing him just barely survive an encounter with them. It's so simple but they managed to tie the personal motivations of two of our leads into the mcguffin of the movie, which has the continued effect of tying their motivations into the plot, thus driving the plot forward through their personal goals. It's very well done. On a sidenote about Prime and Noah, Peter Cullen and Anthony Ramos both give very fun performances, Cullen getting to add in some dry wit to prime really helps make him feel like the big brother character he should be, and Ramos sells the resourceful brooklyn street kid really well.

As for the other characters, Mirage is another standout. A lot of his lines were genuinely very charming even if some were misses, he definitively has some of the dorkiest lines. For better or worse. His relationship to Noah felt very genuine and they bounce off eachother well. Elena didn't have quite as strong of a motivation as Noah, but her inquisitiveness and infectious energy brought by the stellar Dominique fishback made up for the lacking drive of her character, although her character did do a good job of giving drive to the plot. Which would overall be one of my biggest praises for this movie, being that the human characters, which are usually sidelined and dragged along, actually have a ton of agency. Elena really determines where the movie goes, and Noah really holds a lot of the cards in the conflict as he wants to get rid of the Transwarp Key. As for the minor characters, the other autobots all got to shine, except for Wheeljack, he was mostly just there. And Stratosphere was just an uber. But thats all those characters needed to be so why complain.

On the maximal side, Primal and Airazor get some minimal, but still well done substance to them. Their philosophy of honoring the dead by preserving what lives, even at great personal cost came through really well.

On the villain side, it was servicable. The Terrorcons are very much antagonists in the most rudamentary form, being there to set the plot in motion and to provide motivation for our heroes. Peter Dinklage brought a nicely spiteful energy to Scourge, who albeit light on characterization outside of being a cruel, mocking bastard, has some decent context behind who he is, just enough for him to feel like he actually has a history behind him.

The visual effects in this movie were pretty top notch, it's got a couple shakier sequences, but overall it's a very solidly produced film, with Caple's directing really managing to pull through. The action flows really nicely in this film, doing a good job of making you understand where each character is at any given time, even during the big battles, keeping it from feeling incoherent despite the large amount of moving parts. I do think some of the action screentime could have been a little better utilized, particularly in showing the minor antagonists getting some more up close clashes with the heroes.

The score by Jongnic Bontemps sounded amazing in the theatre. Strong percussion with memorable and versatile reoccurring melodies, with some really sweet integrations of hip hop into orchestral tracks that manage to really emphasize and earn the intended emotions of each scene.

Overall it's a super solid movie. It doesn't really excel at that much, but it does very little to dock points, and manages to find strength in the simplicity of its components. This is a must watch if you can see it in theatres.

Spoiler thoughts from here on out!!!

I thought Airazor's death was handled very poignantly. It pressed the right emotional buttons, it felt intimate and merciful. I'm so glad he didn't like break her neck or something. The fact that you mostly just hear her spark fade instead of seeing it improved it a lot. It was a great mercy kill scene. Thematically, it was also quite strong. It underlines the maximals' determination to preserve life at the cost of their own if necessary. A tragedy which is compounded by how few maximals are left. As well as primal's fortitude to do what was necessary even tho it pains him. I overall liked primal in the few small scenes we got with him. Like how humble he is and how much he seems to admire humans. "We can't take credit for humankind's ingenuity" was a nice line.

Bee's "death" was handled very well too. Although i could do without the mi capitan line. Bee's condition also pushing prime's desire to take down scourge was a nice bit of story. Scourge being so slimy and spiteful, constantly mocking made him very hateable. I think Prime beat him too easily tho. Like he pretty much beat him one on one, despite failing at that earlier because of scourge's dark energy making him super powered or whatever. I thought the bit with prime and noah fighting together was really nice, putting forward the theme of finding common ground and facing hardship together. Although i really wanted primal to get a piece of the scourge cake too. He also had beef with him after all. And it would also help strengthen the unity team even further as well as even the odds with scourge's super powers, which would have been more natural than just prime fighting him better than he did earlier. Nightbird and battletrap also could have used some more love. Like battletrap was straight up one of the first casualties in the climax lol. He died SO fast. We never even get to see him really directly fight someone other than when he crashes into primal. Same with nightbird only getting to really fight bee in the air and then dying literally the instant she takes damage from him. Bee's return was really cool and a satisfying way to turn the tide, but damn he turned the tide a little too much lol. I would have liked to see some more one on one tightly choreographed matchups with the two goons like we got in bumblebee. Noah's exosuit was really cool, but mirage basically melting onto him was kinda silly lol. Bee's offroad alt mode was aquired in the climax which felt a bit dumb

[sonicasura]

Was there suggestions that Optimus should have go be the one to eat the Sala-Sala Fruit? It could have applied a great advantage to have a leader and Prime that could heal quickly , though who would be vulnerable to water and the ocean.

(Considering 'No beta we die like Optimus Prime' is a tag or Optimus dying in any iteration is considered tradition...)

Prime was literally tied with Ratchet on who should eat the Sala Sala Fruit Model Axolotl. The man nearly got himself killed multiple times and his martyr type mindset doesn't help either. Optimus learn just how distraught everyone would've been if he died right there.

Compromises were also stacked on to this. No more being reckless, don't try to donate parts without Ratchet's permission, and things like that. A shit ton of trust is going into this as well.

Here is how I see things would go if Optimus ate the fruit.

Animal: 42 ft, Hybrid: 45 ft

Optimus would be quite a bulky axolotl with his truck alt mode becoming armor. Tires go down both sides of the tail, finials/antennas split into four that frame his cheek plates, truck grill becomes part of his helm and frames it sorta like a samurai helmet.

His hybrid form also resembles an actual hybrid version of his bot than a pseudo-costume like other Zoans. Face more narrow, Optimus' legs are bulkier while his arms are longer alongside wider, and smaller/thinner sections of his frame become thicker.

Man gotten so many questions from everyone especially Ratchet. The medic put Optimus throw multiple tests even with Chopper's reassurance whose an actual Zoan. Miko recorded the whole thing, took a lot of pictures and began calling OP 'Axolotl Prime' whenever he shift into either Devil Fruit form.

It was quite an experience for Optimus to say the least. He had a pretty good handle on moving in both forms since the bot once lived in the wilderness as a bitlet. It felt like a crash course for his more primal instincts.

You can bet the Team Rescue Bots were thrown through a loop when they got the news. They been given an simple explanation on Devil Fruits so to learn Optimus eaten one guaranteed some shock. Even more when he puts the Rescue Bots through water rescue.

Axolotls are aquatic and spend their time in water. Optimus practically becomes a speed demon from how fast he can now swim. High Tide had a bit of difficulty matching the Autobot Leader's newfound agility.

Optimus does use his Devil Fruit ability against the Decepticons. Megatron experienced it firsthand when Prime quickly shifts to slaps him in the face with his tail. Although the more harsher brawls were against the Predacons. You can say these bots brought out some animalistic behavior in Zoan!Optimus.

It's not uncommon to find the Autobot Leader lounging around in animal form. Axolotls are relaxed animals so it might've rubbed off a bit on the bot. The kids, Bumblebee, Corazón or both usually nap next to him.

Now Optimus does survive the events of Predacon Rising with a very risky move. He dug out the matrix from his chest and regenerate his old Spark Chamber. Albeit separating his own spark nearly been fatal if Corazón didn't bring that special Vivre Card in time. The scolding from the blonde and Ratchet was legendary.

Post War, Optimus lies about being a Multi Changer since Devil Fruits were something no one should know. He does donate a few parts to clinics, with Ratchet's obvious permission. Both versions of Optimus' Devil Fruit forms became popular charms sold across various shops on Cybertron.

Corazón has two in his room much to Prime's embarrassment. As for the Matrix of Leadership, Optimus decided to live without it. He'll learn to lead by his own experience.

[sphnyspinspin]

Lost And Found

Chapter One: Summer

“Summer vacation, is now in session everybody!” Hotshot enthusiastically shouted after charging into the lounge area and flopping onto the couch. Stretching his limbs across the cushions and ex-venting from a tiring graduation ceremony. Which they finished surprisingly early.

“Hey, move over a bit would ya.” Using his servo to nudge Hotshot’s pedes away, Wedge sat down next to him and proceeded to turn on the T.V. “The best course of action right now is for us to relax for a little bit, then to go pack up our stuff and be ready in time for departure.” Wedge stretched his arm behind his head while watching the T.V. He kept switching channels until Hotshot tapped his pede against his side, signaling to stop at the soccer play-offs.

“A very good point Wedge. I, however, will be in the lab if anyone needs me. I’ll be doing a last recount of all the supplies there.” Medix responded as he headed off down the hallway, towards the lab. He just didn’t want his bandages to think he would forget about them.

“I-am-beat. I’ll be meditating over here, so just give a tap on my shoulder when it’s time to pack please. I’ll be in my happy place from here on out.” Hoist strolled over to sit on the tire-chair and listened to some white noise to meditate.

At first, Whirl just couldn’t decide what to do with her free time. Play the arcade game? Nope, already beaten it twice. Clean the lounge area? Wait-they all cleaned it before they left. Go through the wind tunnel? Yeah! She can definitely go for a last round in the tunnel. “You guys can come get me from the wind tunnel when it’s time to pack. I’m going to treasure my last few moments at the academy doing loopty-loops!” She waved excitedly to her friends while heading out.

“Have fun!” Hotshot exclaimed, sitting up to wave back, but he went to laying back down when Whirl exited the door.

She kept humming a random tune and kept skipping down the corridor. Having a big grin spread across her face, she was so excited to go back to Cybertron. Everybody was excited to go back to Cybertron.

Wedge would be training a lot, to one day be a part of the Bee team. He’s been ecstatic about spending more time with Bumblebee outside of the academy. He even got a job as freelance engineer to continue his scale-model crafting hobby. And he might even get a couple of his Heroes if Cybertron cards signed if he keeps hanging out with Bumblebee.

Hoist is going to go back to doing cool sigma-ship repairs with his cousins. They’ve been bugging him non-stop, asking him all about the academy and what his new altmode is. He’s planning on surprising them by showing up in his dino-mode.

Hotshot would be touring with the Cyberbalzers and probably go to Caminus. Since he was, practically, the main reason the Cyberblazers have become one of the best cube teams ever. Who knew that when he showed them how to work as a team, that they would become twice as popular.

Medix is going to be interning with his uncle Ratchet at his clinic. His uncle even let him bring in a singular specimen from Earth for him to study and take care of. Ratchet doesn’t know what it is yet and Medix said it would be a surprise. He just promised it wouldn’t be like that bat incident again.

Oh, and Brushfire might come and visit her from Earth and tell her all about her adventures. Whirl is definitely excited to start hanging out with Brushfire again. Brushfire said that she might start going to the academy after this summer, which excited Whirl the most. Slash and Laserbeak would probably be starting the same year at the academy as Brushfire. So she’s going to have her hands full with her future team.

Whirl being Whirl, she took up a job of being a crossing guard for the local police station in her hometown. It’s not the flashiest of jobs, but she isn’t really experienced enough in the field to become full-time police officer. But she’ll do her part, and bring justice to jade-walkers everywhere.

Getting back on track, Whirl spent the majority of her free time doing a couple small tricks and stunts in the wind tunnel. A couple big loopty-loops, some relaxing gliding, and just to top it off with some ridiculous sideways and upside down flying. When it was time for them to pack up, Whirl got a call on her comm from Wedge about heading to the lockers.

:Hey Whirl. We’re heading to go pack up now. Time to wrap it up.:

:Okie dokie artichokie! Be there in a second!:

:…Artichokie?:

Whirl hung up and switched off the wind tunnel. She continued down the hall, through the academy. Just as she was minding her own business, a familiar, “Caw!” was sounded behind her. It was Laserbeak flying towards her, so Whirl lifted her elbow to let Laserbeak land on her forearm. As he perched on her arm, and he made another short but softer, “Caw.”

“Hi Laserbeak.” Whirl greeted with an excitable tone, while still being exhausted from her recent work-out. “Did you see some of my sick moves earlier?” She went and gave his little helm an itch with her digit. Which he kindly enjoyed. Until he bit her finger for her to stop.

“Ack! If you wanted me to stop you could’ve just asked…Ow.”

“Caw.”

“Heh…No matter how much of a jerk you can be, I’m really going to miss you Laserbeak.” Whirl said with a smile, still having the tiniest scar on her digit.

Laserbeak responded with a solemn, “Caw...” as he hung his helm a little lower than before.

“Aw…You’re going to miss me too? That’s okay. I’ll make sure to try to visit you when I get the chance. Or-you visit me.”

“Caw!” Laserbeak cawed in approval.

—-

Whirl and Laserbeak made it to the locker room where everybody was just beginning to open their lockers. Laserbeak flew down from Whirl’s shoulder and began to peck at one of the crates on the floor. Whirl went over to her locker, and began to pack. Pulling out her duffel bag that she shoved in her locker from her first day. Technically, it was her second first day, but the first day back nonetheless. Everybody began to chat, talking about what they were doing over the summer.

“I can’t wait to start training with Bumblebee! The-Bumblebee! Can you guys believe it?”

Hotshot sarcastically responded “Yeah, it’s not like you kept telling us that, after Professor Bumblebee offered to you to train under him. And-help me remember this correctly, Bumblebee said-“

“He said-‘And who knows? Maybe you’ll be a part of my team someday,’ Oh man! I’m so ready to get back home and start training.” Wedge said with a look of excitement on his faceplates.

“Well one thing’s for sure, I’m seriously stoked to go to Caminus with the Cyberblazers. Some say, that the city we’re playing at-is where Windblade lives! She might see our game! Maybe she’ll ask for my autograph?”

“That would be so cool. Honestly, I-I’m kinda nervous about going back home. I have no i-idea how my family will react to my new alt-mode. W-What if they don’t like it?” Hoist said, as he wasn’t the best at hiding his anxiousness about it.

Medix turned to him and said, “Hoist, it’s very unlikely for your own family to not like you for choosing an alt-mode you specifically picked for good reason. What makes you think that they won’t like your dinosaur alt-mode? Do they also have a fear of Dinobots?”

“Oh no, I just thought they would think i-it would be too...destructive. But now that you mention it, i-it does sound a little bit silly. They really aren’t the k-kind of bots that would do that. Thanks Medix.”

“You’re welcome.”

Medix continued to pack up his stuff after making Hoist feel better. He looked down to see Laserbeak pecking at one of his boxes and it began to shake from the inside. So Medix immediately, but carefully, set it into his bag. He then began to talk about his future occupation for their upcoming vacation.

“I’m excited to help my uncle Ratchet at his clinic again. I wonder if I’ll see any of the other patients I saw the last time I visited? Or maybe I’ll see some new ones with absolutely new injuries for me to study-I mean-to help with. To help with and study.” Medix continued, with a short and slightly awkward silence.

“Wow. Good for you Medix. It really sounds like a win-win situation for you.” Whirl agreed to with a reassuring smile, and a complimentary tone in her voice.

“Phew…I appreciate your input Whirl. I thought it sounded like I was a little bit-overly…enthusiastic about wanting to see patients for the wrong reasons. Not that I like seeing others in pain, but I do like it when they visit my uncle’s clinic for help. That’s what I meant.”

Whirl gave a muffled chuckle to Medix’s response, and they both returned to packing their things.

—-

After the hallways began filling up with sounds of a few bad puns, giggling, shuffling luggage, a couple caws being followed by screams of shocking terror, they were finally done packing. Well, almost all of their things. Whirl quickly closed her empty locker and hastily stepped out the room, following Wedge, Hotshot, and Medix. While Hoist was the last one out of the room, he spotted a drawing on Whirl’s locker that she forgot to pack. Hoist, being the fantastic friend he is, carefully took the drawing off of her locker, so that it wouldn’t be ripped by the tape. Then he soon caught up to the others, and to Whirl, so he could return her drawing.

“Hey Whirl, you f-forgot this.” Hoist waved the picture, so it would catch Whirl’s eye.

“Oh scrap! I can’t believe I almost forgot this. Thank you Hoist.”

“Oh, it’s no biggie. A-Anyways, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Go ahead.” Whirl gesturing with her empty servo.

“Who’s the bot in the picture? Are they a f-friend of yours? Family, maybe?” Hoist pointed to the large bot that was drawn next to Whirl. The bot had one optic, two big claws, and had abnormally skinny pedes.

“What? Pfft-Ha! What-Um…ha ha. Uh-what-uh…wha-what makes you say that?” Whirl darted her optics from side to side. And tried to shove her picture into her bag. Her smile looked uncomfortable. It’s like she was caught in a lie that she never told.

“W-Well, for one , you two l-look pretty close. And your b-both blue, and you both have yellow optics. Maybe you c-copied them, I assumed. Or that c-could just be me, but despite a couple d-differences, you guys do look a lot alike. I-I mean, like on p-paper-look-alikes. Uh, maybe not t-this paper, but uh….” Hoist after struggling for a bit to explain, gave a low sigh and began to apologize to Whirl. Because he probably felt that he made her feel embarrassed in some way. He felt embarrassed for sure. “I’m sorry. I-I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.”

Whirl slowly relaxed her face into a neutral frown. But she did still feel the tiniest bit upset. She wasn’t upset at Hoist or his question at all. She was just caught a little off-guard, that’s all. Whirl then un-crumpled her drawing and looked at it, without turning her head away from Hoist. “It’s my….imag…ry….fri…n..” Whirl mumbled, but it was too hard to decipher.

“Uh, s-sorry. What did you say?”

Clearing her intake this time, Whirl said, “It’s my-They’re my…..imaginary…friend.” Whirl took a minute to look up, before she darted her optics to look up at Hoist with her helm directing to the floor.

“Oh. Y-You had an imaginary friend? That’s k-kinda cool. They look cool too.”

“Heh. To be honest…I actually didn’t know what an imaginary friend was until Cody asked me about the drawing a while ago.”

“O-Okay. So what were they to you, before t-they were your imaginary friend?”

“I honestly have no idea. When I started drawing this, Cody asked me who they were, so then I said-“

—-

“Oh I don’t know. They’re probably just someone I’ve met before but I don’t remember.”

Cody was looking at Whirl’s drawing of her beside this tall guy, and he was asking who they were. Wondering wether or not they were a Rescue Bot or not, cause he definitely hasn’t seen them before.

“Well, they look interesting. What’s their name?”

“Whirl.”

“Their name is Whirl too?”

“No. Just Whirl.”

Cody looked confused for a second. But then it became a little bit clearer when he connected a few dots he thought were obvious. And it wouldn’t be that surprising for someone her age to have had.

“So, you both have the same unique name, you recognize them enough to draw them, but you’ve never actually met before?”

“I know right? It’s like they’re a cool ghost with mind erasing powers, that has a mysterious past. Pretty cool right?”

“I see. So they’re your imaginary friend?���

“A what?”

“An imaginary friend.”

Cody then sat up on the table and he began to explain the concept of an imaginary friend. It’s someone who a kid, or someone young creates, in order to feel less lonely, or to just have interesting company. But the catch is, they aren’t real, and the whole point of creating an imaginary friend was to imagine they’re features to your liking. Even if what you find comfort in is a one-eyed, blue, string-bean with servos that looked like they were stolen from a claw machine.

“Huh. I guess that makes sense.”

“I didn’t mean to diminish your friend. If I’ve offended you in any way-“

“Oh no no no-I just I didn’t know what they were to me at first. But it does make more sense to call them an imaginary friend. I really don’t mind.”

“Okay then. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t hurt your feelings. Or, your friend, Whirl’s feeling either.”

“Its okay Cody. It’s not like, they can hear you if they’re imaginary, am I right?”

—-

“And let me guess. Y-You did mind?” Hoist asked, feeling bad for bringing it up in the first place.

“Well…not at first. But this was during the middle of our first year here. I’ve pretty much forgotten about it already. I just hung the drawing back up, because I liked what I did with the, uh…-line art! Yeah, it’s one of the neatest drawings I’ve ever done with the line art like that.” Whirl stated with full confidence.

Pointing to the piece of art she was holding up. Emphasizing how willing she is to prove that it didn’t have too much of a personal meaning to it. Nothing below the surface whatsoever within Whirl’s subconscious along with her self-doubt and anxieties. Nope. Nada.

“The..line art is r-really pretty…Now that you mention it.” Hoist said as he turned to give crinkled piece of paper Whirl’s digit was set upon his full attention.

“See. Nothing to worry about.”

“I-I see that, but why were you so g-guarded about it in the first place?”

“No….reason?” Whirl shrugged her shoulders and gritted her dente as her response left her voice box. Her insides felt twisted, her faceplates were hurting from pseudo-smiling, and her grip on the picture looked like she was hanging onto it for dear life. It really sucked that Hoist knew about how awkward the situation must’ve been. It was supposed to be just a simple answer, until Whirl’s big mouth just couldn’t keep shut. She thought she could try to convince herself and Hoist that the situation was fine. But, deep down she knew for a fact that she just couldn’t lie to friend. Especially Hoist, now that she knew he was worried about her. “Listen Hoist, I know, that you know, my feelings are a bit complicated at the moment, but i really just can’t talk about it right now. You’re a great friend, it’s just that-”

“Hey! Are you two coming with us or not?” Wedge yelled from down the hallway. Where everyone else were already at the groundbridge and waiting for them. Cutting off Whirl from explaining the rest to Hoist.

“Sorry Hoist, I really am. Maybe we can talk about this later?”

“Yeah. I understand. Take a-all the time you need.”

“Thanks buddy.”

And with that, they both met up with the others. The groundbridge flared a great big green and blue light. Electricity softly crackling, symbolizing their return home, and onto the train station back on Cybertron.

—-

The beginning of summer vacation has now become just little bit more complicated for Whirl, but she plans on talking it out with Hoist once she gets the chance. But for now, she just wants to go home, take a stasis nap on her berth-slab, and sleep in.

Maybe then she wouldn’t have to worry so much about the other Whirl. She’s just so conflicted. Every part of her is conflicted. Her thoughts, her emotions, her…memories are all so confusing-

*blank*

It’s the feeling she would always get from thinking too much about it. About…about….who was she thinking about? Oh yeah, her imaginary friend. She still had to apologize to Hoist about getting so worked up about it. It was like she was in a different dimension for a moment there.

Crazy right?

—————

Commentary:

Short chapter, I know. I already posted it on ao3, but I’m not sure if want to keep posting it on there. So I’m just gonna switch it over to tumblr. Cause I can. It’s also slightly easier for me. I wanted it to start off slow, and just inevitably build up to the climax to the beginning of the story. If you look hard enough, there’s a teeny bit of foreshadowing. Ooooooh.

[novafire-is-thinking]

Character Bingo Polls (a game)

As an anon so graciously reminded me, I should be doing a better job of making sure this stays fun for me. So with that in mind, I’m going to act on one of the ideas I presented in my Round Three update post and play an ask game with you all.

How to play:

Send me ONE character from any of the series I’ve listed near the bottom of this post. Specify which continuity, please.

I will answer using BOTH bingo cards below.

If you get a bingo (on either card), I will let you choose ANY TWO characters of YOUR CHOICE to be pitted against each other in a poll of their own. Any continuity (pls specify).

Anonymous asks will be turned off for the duration of the game because guessing who’s who is too much work.

I will answer on a first come, first served basis. Once a character has been sent, that’s it. They cannot be sent in again (unless it’s a different continuity). I’ll list them on each new ask I answer to help you keep track of which ones have already been sent in.

You may send me more than one character (separately), but if you get a bingo, that’s it. You are victorious and shall be forbidden to return with another name.

I expect answering each ask to take a bit of time, so please be patient with me. If I get a lot of asks or need a break, I will close my ask box until I can catch up.

My master list of TF media I’ve consumed (alphabetical):

Animated

BotBots

Cyberverse

EarthSpark (what’s out so far, anyway)

IDW 1 series (SotW, a few spotlights, and a crap ton of wiki pages)

MTMTE/Lost Light

Prime (+ all Aligned novels. Yes, that means you can ask about any of the Thirteen Primes.)

Rescue Bots

Robots in Disguise 2015

War For Cybertron Trilogy

Current running polls:

Who handled sudden leadership better? (RiD 2015 Bumblebee vs. TFA Optimus)

Who is your favorite “evil” Optimus? (Shattered Glass Optimus vs. Nemesis Prime)

Who would win in a duel? (Cyclonus vs. Drift)

Who would be a better roommate? (Tarantulas vs. Starscream)

Who would you rather be stuck in lockdown with? (Ultra Magnus vs. Whirl)

[melishade]

Attack on Prime Autobot Anthology: Wheeljack’s perspective

New Arrivals

Introductions

Optimus’ perspective

Mikasa Ackerman

(I realize that for right now and for my future chapters, I haven’t had a focus on Wheeljack’s perspective/mindset in all of this. Arcee is more of a focus simply because I’ve known her longer. And I should focus more on Wheeljack. So here we are.)

Wheeljack was keeping his cards close to his chest, as Miko would put it.

He wasn’t going to lie: he was enjoying this place. Far more than he ever thought he would. I mean, Megatron was practically listening to humans and was a human’s escort, two of the humans could turn into ‘titans’, one that was arguably bigger that Optimus. The humans were actual fun, especially Hanji. The Commander was an absolute riot. They stayed up all night to discuss future plans and ideas, and the fact that Hanji put energon in human weapons was impressive. And then, all the Survey Corp members chewed out Optimus for keeping the fact that he used to be able to fly away from them for over two years! He got about half of the yelling on video!

But still, he was cautious about Optimus. Arcee was more visibly cautious, but Wheeljack was...pretending that he wasn’t. He didn’t know Optimus as long as Arcee did, but Wheeljack did respect him. Chief was able to prove his metal when the time called for it, and he was extremely loyal to his comrades. But having to fight a double of himself left him cautious. 

As far as they know, Megatron did nothing. Optimus arrived on this world a month before Megatron did, with multiple eyewitnesses and newspapers backing up the claim. And Optimus was fiercely loyal and protective of the humans on the island, but also cared about the humans off the island. So much so he was willing to give up Cybertronian information to prevent an apocalyptic plan from being used. 

...he supposed he could understand why Optimus would be willing to give that up. Wouldn’t want a repeat of Cybertron again. And there was no Omega Lock or Allspark to fix the damage.

Wheeljack continued downloading the schematics from the neutral ship while Optimus continued collecting metal that was no longer useful or vital to the ship. Wheeljack spared a glance every so often to the Prime, but Optimus continued working as if nothing was wrong.

This was the plan Arcee and Wheeljack had decided for the most part. Arcee knew that she could fight Optimus in one-on-one combat, so she thought that she would fair better with the humans. Meanwhile, Wheeljack was the one who would keep an optic on Optimus while working on communications. Optimus even offered to help while doing tasks for the humans. Sometimes Hanji would be with him. Sometimes she would be on his shoulder. Well...at least this Optimus didn’t hate the humans. Not like Buckethead. Though he still didn’t understand why he was willing to guard a human on a diplomatic mission.

Wheeljack finished downloading the information before unplugging the datapad from the console. He walked out of the main deck, passing Optimus in the process. As he reached the door, he paused in his step. If this was really Optimus, then he would have a problem if he stepped outside of protocol. Not like Magnus, but...to a degree.

“Hey, Chief, can I fight the kid?” Wheeljack asked.

Optimus paused his work and turned to Wheeljack.

“The kid, Eren,” Wheeljack clarified, “You’ve been training him and I want to see how well he handles under pressure.”

Optimus thought it over. “Eren still has much to learn, and while what I have been teaching him would help him fair on this world, it would still take some time for him to reach our capabilities.”

“Kid seems pretty capable of holding his own against you,” Wheeljack reasoned as he leaned against the wall.

“That may be true, but I have had to hold back during training so that I wouldn’t harm him,” Optimus explained.

“...sounds like you’re slowing down his progress,” Wheeljack pressed.

“I am trying not to,” Optimus proclaimed, “I want him to be ready for this war, even though part of me hope he does not have to fight...but I know that one day it might come to that.”

Wheeljack couldn’t help but notice the sorrow in Optimus’ optics before that same stoic expression returned. “When I believe Eren has made enough progress, would you be willing to test what he has learned?”

Wheeljack smirked at that. “I hope that day comes sooner than later.”

Wheeljack waved goodbye to the Prime before heading back to the Jackhammer. That definitely sounded and acted like Optimus, but something about that seemed...different. More...emotional for the Prime. He...really did care for the humans.

Wheeljack chuckled to himself. Only on this world.

(I might do more of these snippets of Wheeljack’s perspective for the Autobot Anthology. They seem fun.)

[darkstarofchaos]

Thank you for fighting the good fight for Prowl. I just joined the fandom this year, and honestly, I love him so much, and you’ve already put into words exactly how I feel about him. Also, thank you for validating my hatred for Megatron. Between TF One and IDW, I’ve gone from meh to straight-up loathing his entire existence. Like, why is his redemption arc so wacky? It genuinely felt like he got off scot-free so easily, with no one holding any real bad blood against him unlike Prowl. Everyone was just like, “uwu poor Megatron” or whatever, and it drove me insane. It felt like IDW was written just to create more Megatron simps. I don’t even care if I’m wrong about his redemption or IDW as a whole—if the fandom can misinterpret Prowl to death, then I can yap about how much I hate Megatron’s redemption arc and whole existence, lmao. I’ll never get over how a literal genocidal warlord somehow got more support and sympathy points than Prowl. Please, give me a Megatron redemption where he actually has to work for it—not one handed to him on a silver platter by an idiotic fool. it feels so undeserved. I want MEGATRON to be punched by many of his victims. Even Starscream, his number one punching bag lived a miserable life in Cybertron. I’ll never agree that IDW was a masterpiece. I hate that shit so much, lol. Anyway, where was I? Oh, right—just wanted to say how much I love reading your posts about Prowl. Keep doing what you’re doing. :)

You're very welcome! Prowl is easily my favorite Autobot, and the way he's treated by both the fandom and the IDW narrative makes me want to bite people. Especially when compared to other characters who are just as bad if not worse (I saw a post when Prowl was confirmed for EarthSpark that said not making him a cop would be bad because it would be ignoring his history of police brutality, and I was just like. Prowl and Orion worked together as cops for a while, guess which one of them repeatedly yelled at the other for using violence. Not that Prowl's record is completely clean, but the hero cop who advocates for violence is a way bigger problem than the social outcast who looked at the system and saw corruption).

Anyway.

I must admit that I actually like Megatron in general, but I really hate this recent trend of Megatron being the only Decepticon canon cares about. TF One could have given us two Bots and two Cons, but not a single other Decepticon got more than maybe five minutes of screentime. EarthSpark made him the only Decepticon who changed sides, then doubled down on the worst elements of his "redemption" by making him the only Decepticon who's allowed to be sympathetic. Every crossover I've seen between Transformers and various video games only includes Megatron as the Decepticon representation.

(Also, unpopular opinion, but I feel like Megatron having a history with Optimus is the weakest part of his character in almost every continuity. Especially in IDW, where it's literally a Get Out of Jail Free card).

And of course, as soon as Prowl shows up in EarthSpark, people are complaining about him getting on Megatron's case. Even though he was actually really open-minded about Megatron's presence, and just accepted that he'd truly changed sides even if he didn't personally trust him. I was over here expecting an entire episode based around Prowl fighting with others about Megatron's trustworthiness, and people had a problem with a couple openly antagonistic comments.

Primus forbid a mech do anything, I guess.

[patchthemedic]

thinking abt the convo when the “fingering Tyrest’s forehead hole” card was played at cards against Cybertron this past Saturday

just. u know. that mental image of a little tongue encountering the finger like schlp schlp schlp HAHAHA

[kytherion]

I just found out that the Autobot edition of Cards against Cybertron has a white card that says:

"Soundwave fendered on circuit boosters."

I can't stop laughing.

Before I got The Trinket, I used circuit boosters on prescription. (Or not.) To stabilise.

(You try being a passive telepath with terrible shields and a stupidly enormous range on the bridge of the Nemesis. Just being in the same room with both Starscream and Megatron was enough to give me a migraine sometimes.)

[drsmokescreen]

thebestdecepticonleader 3h ago "The only thing he asks for every time, is a formal ceasefire agreement, a written agreement which says we won't shoot each other. That I am happy to agree to. That, by itself, wouldn't change anything we are currently doing or experiencing. He also usually asks for trade agreements, offering various minerals, energon and sometimes weapons, in return for medical resources. Again, I'm not necessarily opposed to trade, as long as they don't start asking for weapons. If it was just that, I could agree without being too concerned that it would destroy the Autobots, or put Unity in too powerful a position. It's the ideas he's brought up once or twice that concern me. He's brought up the idea of attacking targets together, and most worryingly, he's asked for pardons for all members of Unity, in return for not pursuing any legal actions against us after the war."

Smokescreen almost laughed at 'legal action' but then realised that that is something new. Either it's a bluff or he's found something. 'He's trying to secure his political position before he even has one. He talked about how he wanted to take over and end the war but now we see just how he very favourably for himself he wants to end the war. He's not only challenging Megatron, he's challenging you for control of Cybertron.'

Smokescreen started to walk forward to sit in one of the chairs—with Prime's permission—in front of his desk, but the guards were quick to hold him back. He accepted it. 'To acquiesce is to submit to his power. To ignore him and let him make the first strike is to make him a hero to Unity's members. The answer is the answer to why Unity is growing so strong. What power is attracting so many people, because Starscream doesn't have a flask of energon to give. He needs the Autobots to deliver his promises. He didn't plan this out. And it might be tied to this "legal action". We need to find out what that card is. Finding out the truth about Vos is why the Vosians split off to begin with. It has become a war of exposing truths. Unity must see the Bearer of the Matrix as the bearer of the truth.'