#jack look! its from MEGATRON

[beastwars-transformers]

i need drawing skills or $1000 dollars to pay some artist to recreate the hotel mario intro but with jack and arcee

[lets-try-some-writing]

Emergency Protocols

Cybertronians cannot be alone. To be alone is a death sentence. There is a reason they travel in groups, and with the war in its last gasp, their numbers are dangerously low on both sides.

Faced with a fate far worse than mere death, things are tense. Unfortunately, both sides are forced to endure a rude and horrific wakeup call when the first of many falls victim to the process they had all hoped to escape.

(Big warning for robogore.)

━━━━━━ ⊙ ❖ ⊙ ━━━━━━━━━━━━

“I apologize, Mrs. Darby. I am afraid I cannot abide by your wishes.” Optimus stood firmly, his expression dark in a way Jack had never seen before. Next to him, Ratchet watched the scene like a hawk, his eyes bright and intense to such a degree that Jack involuntarily felt himself shuddering. The rest of the Autobots also seemed frozen as they observed in quiet grimness that was so unlike them that it was almost frightening.

Something had changed over the last few months. Ever since the Darkmount incident, the team had been… off. Jack didn’t claim to be any sort of expert, but it didn’t take a degree to see that the bots were more somber. Even Smokescreen, the most excitable of the group, spent more and more of his time pacing. Every single bot was out of sorts, always hanging around the main part of the hangar and never wandering far unless directly ordered by Optimus. Arcee wouldn’t even drive Jack home anymore. Jack, Miko, and Raf were almost always taken home by his Mom or by Fowler.

The worst part, at least in Jack’s opinion, was the way the bots always stopped to stare whenever he and his friends left. Whatever they were doing halted immediately and they all paused, watching critically as they left the hangar to get a ride back into Jasper with Fowler more often than not. It was a small detail, but oftentimes they seemed twitchy when it came time for Jack, Miko, and Raf to head to and from school.

They were almost upset by it, if Jack had to guess.

“You are NOT taking the kids to go talk to Megatron of all people! What the hell is wrong with you?!” Jack wanted to flinch as his Mom screamed, her face contorted in rage so bright it almost had Jack wishing he could shuffle away. But of course, he knew that wasn’t an option. The situation was tense enough that even Miko was quiet as she held Raf’s arm, trying to find some comfort as the scene unfolded.

“You already keep them here overnight whenever you can! And now you want to bring them out to face the giant metal beacon of DEATH that almost took over the world?!” His Mom’s voice echoed in the base, but not a single one of the bots moved. They all stood quietly, stiffly, even as they observed. All that could possibly be picked up from them was the faint sounds of their engines running and the ever-so-slight twitching of their eyes.

The bots had always been clingy. Jack had never been able to figure out why they’d tried to shoo him and his friends away only to then refuse to let them go anywhere when they had a say in things. Looking back, it was like a switch had been flipped. The bots never let him or the others wander far. They were always observed and always requested that they stay at base longer whenever it was feasible. It almost seemed desperate now that Jack thought about it. The way Arcee seemed reluctant to let him go when she drove him home. The look Bulkhead shared with Bumblebee when Miko and Rafael were similarly ordered to be brought back to their families. The strange expression of terror on Smokescreen’s face whenever Jack and his friends left for the evening…

Whatever was going on was finally about to reach its peak. Jack could feel it.

“I apologize, Mrs. Darby. We need the children. We cannot allow them to leave unless they are traveling with us.” Optimus’s voice was surprisingly quiet as he finally spoke up. Almost too quiet. A faint rattle in his words left Jack nervous more than anything else. How often had he ever seen Optimus upset? Once maybe? Even then, it was moreso a look of surprise. 

“What in heaven’s name could you possibly need my son and two innocent kids for? Bait?” His Mom’s retort was venomous, so much so that Raf stepped close to Jack on instinct. He didn’t think too hard about holding the younger boy’s hand and pulling Miko slightly behind him as Optimus’s eyes shrank down, the tiny pinpricks of glowing blue becoming smaller than ever before.

“We need the children. They are of us now. We cannot allow even one of our number to leave our sight, not like this, not right now.” Optimus twitched violently. His entire body seemed to lurch as he gripped the railing of the platform, putting Jack and the rest on the Prime’s level. The metal creaked, groaning under his strength as Optimus’s head tilted ever so slowly, his antennae drawn back in an almost aggressive manner.

Jack fought back the urge to run as he watched the rest of the bots crowd around, each of them staring quietly and in obvious agreement with their leader’s words. What was going on?

“Optimus, what’s going on?” Miko finally spoke up, her voice shaking with a hint of a whine as she looked between the Prime, Jack’s Mom, and the rest of the bots. He almost wanted to smack her for speaking up and possibly drawing more attention to them, but he couldn’t find the strength to do anything other than pull Miko closer to himself proactively. Whatever was going on here was beyond them.

“Miko, Jack, Rafael… I am sorry you were the ones wrapped up into this… but I will not risk my people dying. I refuse to condemn one of my own to the fate that awaits us if we are left alone.” Optimus twitched again, this time so violently that a crack echoed in the base. Jack winced but didn’t dare to move as Ratchet pulled Optimus back, his eyes never once leaving Jack and his friends.

“June, give them to us now. We aren’t asking, this is a demand.” Jack’s heart beat faster in his chest as Ratchet took Optimus’s place, holding out a hand and glaring at all of them like they’d personally offended him. Jack paused, too afraid to move, until Rafael tugged on his arm, gesturing toward Ratchet’s waiting hand. Miko seemed hesitant, but she was the first to obey and hurry over to the team medic. Jack didn’t have enough courage to tell her not to.

“Jack, Miko, Raf, don’t you three dare.” His Mom’s eyes were wide and filled with fear. Jack wanted to run, he wanted to scream. But what was he supposed to do? The bots were all so much stronger than them, and from the looks of it, they were willing to do just about anything to get their way.

“Mom, calm down. The bots have always brought us back from dangerous situations safely. This is pretty much the same, right?” Jack tried to soothe his Mom, but he felt a deep dread settle in his stomach as he finally got onto Ratchet’s hand, soon sitting with Raf and Miko pressed up against his sides as the tower giant that called himself a medic began to step toward the rest of the bots. 

Jack was only given a moment to see his Mom’s terrified face before Ratchet’s fingers curled enough that he couldn’t see. He wasn’t sure he wanted to.

“Jack, do you think we are going to be alright? The bots… aren’t going to hurt us, are they?” Rafael clung to Jack’s side like a little kid, which he arguably was. Jack wrapped an arm around him in what he hoped was a comforting manner as he felt Ratchet begin to walk. 

“They haven’t hurt us before. I don’t think they are going to start now. Besides, this whole thing seems off. They seem to just want us around like some sort of good luck charm.” He attempted to comfort the younger boy, but Raf didn’t seem all that at ease. Jack couldn’t blame him, especially when Miko was sitting quietly for once, her eyes glued on the light of the groundbridge.

“They will be returned safely once talks with Megatron have concluded.” Optimus reassured Jack’s Mom again, but it did little to ease her. Jack could still hear her crying out as the team stepped through the groundbridge, Ratchet still holding all three of them protectively.

The moment they arrived on the other side, Ratchet’s fingers parted just enough that Jack could see through the gaps.

“Prime! You’ve finally arrived.” Megatron stood on top of the nearest rock formation, a legion of Vehicons all around and on the ground beneath him. Soundwave and Starscream stood at his sides, both watching with grim expressions. What happened to all the vicious eagerness Jack had witnessed time and time again when he’d gotten wrapped up in the bots war?

“Megatron, I appreciate your cooperation.” Optimus stepped forward, speaking for the entire group. Oddly enough, the entire team of Autobots huddled close together, each of them looking a second away from surging into action or having a panic attack. Smokescreen and Bumblebee seemed especially stressed, both hovering near one of the bigger bots for support. Ultra Magnus became a bit of a beacon as Optimus left the group. Arcee, Bulkhead, Bee, Smokescreen, and even Wheeljack all crowded around the Commander.

Ratchet remained about a foot or two away from the Autobot huddle pile, for which Jack was grateful since it gave him a good view of whatever was going on.

“Doc, what’s happening?” Miko called up to Ratchet, looking far more terrified than Jack had ever seen her. Miko was always one for battle and excitement, but the strange, unsettling aura of trepidation was evidently getting to her. Rafael wasn’t much better as he clung to Jack’s side, not even adjusting his glasses as they slipped down his nose.

Ratchet did not see fit to answer Miko’s question.

“Have you come to surrender at last?” Megatron cackled, his evil grin on full display. Jack personally wanted to cringe at the sheer ego expressed in Warlord’s tone, but he was more worried about how the bots were reacting. There was no anger, not even a hint of combat readiness. They just… huddled.

“No. But I come to bargain for peace.” Optimus raised his hands, not in surrender, but something more… friendly? Jack didn’t really have another way to describe it as the Prime kept his back to the team, watching Megatron like a hawk.

“There is no bargaining to be done here, Prime. I will accept nothing less than complete and total surrender.” Megatron raised his blaster, his grin unwavering. Again, Jack wanted to cringe or scowl, maybe both. But looking at Starscream and Soundwave had him even more concerned. They seemed nervous, and looking at the Vehicons, they also huddled together in a very similar fashion to the team.

This was wrong. Something about all of this was wrong. 

“Megatronus, enough. You and I both know that we are out of time. There are too few of us left. We cannot continue as we are. Sooner or later, one of us will succumb.” Succumb? Jack felt a hint of fear begin to seep into his body as he looked up at Ratchet, then at his friends, and then back to Optimus. All of them were afraid, at least to his eyes. Ratchet’s expression was sharp, his eyes wide and glowing in a way he’d never seen before. Optimus was unnaturally twitchy, scratching at his armor periodically as he spoke. Rafael and Miko were unusually silent, seemingly copying the team as they huddled against Jack’s side.

He didn’t stop them, instead holding them close as things continued to play out.

“You underestimate the fortitude of the Decepticons. We do not need your Autobots to ensure our survival.” Megatron hissed, anger blazing in his eyes. Those around him flinched, even Soundwave. Survival. This was about survival. That meant that something serious was on the line that Jack did not yet know about.

Why would the Autobots want to ally with the Decepticons for the sake of survival? They’d only ever done that when Unicron woke up. And even then, that was just Megatron, not the entire faction.

“You lost most of your Vehicons to the virus that plagued your ship, and many more fell during the battle at Darkmount. You know as well as I do that your numbers are dangerously low.” Optimus’s voice continued to rattle, his fingers digging into his shoulders as he clawed at his armor. The team made worried noises, but they didn’t dare move. Ratchet’s eyes widened even further as Jack momentarily looked up at him.

Numbers. Was this about the survival of the species? Last time he’d checked, Optimus had said Cybertronians were on the verge of extinction. But again, why ally with the Decepticons? Had Optimus finally cracked? But if that was the case, why did the Decepticons, minus Megatron, look so eager to accept the offer. The Vehicons kept edging closer, their weapons lowered as they fidgeted in fear.

“They’re scared. The bots and the cons are scared of something.” Rafael’s voice was barely above a whisper, disbelief in his tone. He hugged Jack’s arm tighter, prompting Miko to do the same. They were way out of their territory here.

“Not low enough to bring us to our knees. We will never bow before a Prime.” Megtron’s retort came spitefully. His words turned into a strange mess of sounds Jack couldn’t pick out as he ranted for a while longer. Jack assumed he must have been talking in Cybertronian, but it certainly still seemed to make Optimus more and more agitated.

“You are a fool! We are out of time, Megatronus! None of us are safe! Not you, not me, and not any of those under our command!” Something seemed to snap in Optimus as he threw his arms up, gesturing to everyone and everything with such energy that Jack had to blink a few times to see if he was seeing things right. Miko and Rafael physically recoiled as they watched Optimus start to claw at his armor again, creating deep indents as he grunted, bordering on a growl.

“Would you like to see Soundwave succumb? Do you really want to potentially lose your last loyal ally? What about the rest of your troops? Do you want to watch them suffer as base coding takes over?” Again, Optimus spoke, his voice shaking in a way that was previously unimaginable. His movements were almost desperate as he continued tugging on and scratching his plating, almost like he had an insatiable itch. Jack couldn’t see much from where he was, but Optimus turned ever so slightly, letting him get a glimpse of the wild and crazed look in his eyes before he refocused.

The bots shifted all around him, huddling even closer and even going so far as to hold onto one another. Even Ratchet shuffled closer to the team, cradling Jack and his friends but not once tearing his gaze away from the scene.

“Your ridiculous chattering aggravates me. I need none of your Autobots to keep my troops secure. But you need us.” Megatron's tone was mocking, almost like he’d won some great battle. Optimus responded in short order, even more frantic than the first time, but in a quieter way.

“We need each other. This war has gone on too long, and if it continues as it has, we are going to fall.” Jack found himself more and more afraid just listening to the sheer amount of defeat in the Prime’s tone. He looked… scared. Well and truly scared as he started to hunch over a bit. 

“Then so be it! I will never succumb! I am Megatron of Kaon!” The leader of the Decepticons cackled, likely preparing to go on into another rant. But he was cut off by a choked sound from Optimus, one that left Jack fighting back the urge to close his eyes.

“You cannot-” Optimus lurched, his limbs twitching erratically as he continued to make an unsettling gagging sound. His antennae moved in unsteady motions, his armor rattled, and his fans blew open as he clutched his abdomen.

“Prime? Are you alright?” Bulkhead hesitantly called out, prompting Optimus to turn around for a brief moment. Miko looked like she wanted to say something, but she shut up the moment the Prime faced them. His optics were wider than wheels, and his jaw hung open in what looked to be a silent, horrifying realization. 

“Sir, step back. A retreat may be in order-” Ultra Magnus also tried to offer a comment, but Optimus just twitched again, his erratic movements turning into fullbody shaking as his voice became pure static for a long agonizing moment. He clawed at his arms, tearing off pieces of armor in terrified, desperate motions, almost like he was too hot.

“N-no…. This… this cannot be my end.” Optimus’s words were choppy and frantic, so much so that Megatron’s smile was wiped from his face. Jack felt his own expression fall as he pulled Miko and Rafael back, his hand coming to rest on their heads as he felt the instinctual need to prepare to cover their eyes.

This was bad. This was very, very bad.

“Everyone! Get back!” Ratchet all but shoved Jack and his friends into Arcee’s waiting hands. They all yelped, clutching Arcee’s fingers as Ratchet stood in front of the team, urging them back. Between the gaps in Arcee’s fingers, Jack saw a sight that would horrify him until the end of his days.

Optimus was still standing, but he was contorted in such a way that Jack wanted to feel sick. He was bent over, almost like he was trying to perform a gymnastics maneuver only to be stuck halfway. Metal-looking structures jutted out of his spine, possibly his version of ribs. They shone with a sticky substance that hung in strands, still connecting them to the Prime’s body. His expression was pulled taut in what Jack could only assume was pain as Megatron all but screeched for his soldiers to step back.

“Get away from him!” The Vehicons didn’t need to be told twice before booking it back to Megatron’s side. Jack took the chance to cover Rafael and Miko’s eyes as Optimus, usually so composed, fell to crying out in agony.

“H-Help me! I-it hurts-!” Optimus clawed at his armor, wailing as he grasped his head, pulling on his antennae and scratching at his face and neck like it would help him escape whatever was happening. He looked almost feverish as his armor flared and his fans roared.

“M-my spark! Hurts-!” Optimus’s words faded into a scream as he frantically tore off his own armor in a spray of energon. Anywhere he could reach, he dug his fingers under plating and ripped them off. It looked agonizing, almost like he was skinning himself to try and release some deep pain Jack couldn’t even comprehend. Wires were exposed, bright and scarred gray skin like surfaces bleeding as the Prime continued to tear at himself. Miko and Rafael shook against his sides, reminding Jack to keep his hands over their eyes even as he watched on, unable to look away.

“What’s happening!?” Miko whimpered into Jack’s shirt, but he didn’t answer her. Instead, he held her tighter, fighting back the urge building in his gut to vomit.

“PRIMUS HAVE MERCY! MERCY UPON ME!” Optimus screamed like a dying man, twisting like he didn’t know where he was. He flailed before falling to his knees, energon leaking from his mouth, his audials, his eyes, and his vents. He choked and gagged, trying to scream as his spine tore itself out of him, extending and spreading as small rib-like protrusions rose like wings, making room for strange bulbous masses to form all over Optimus’s back.

All over his body, the things Jack assumed were bones ripped themselves out of Optimus’s body in jagged, terrifying snaps. Any remaining armor started to melt, especially around his arms and legs, as more masses developed there. The masses were gray but had a strange hue-shifting look to them that made them glimmer like the world’s most messed-up rainbow, all accompanied by the agonized wail of the ever-stoic leader of the Autobots.

The whole scene looked like it crawled straight from hell, especially as gray looking sludge started to form around him as his armor continued to melt right off and pieces of what looked to be his version of skin began to warp.

“I knew one of us was going to bud!” Smokescream shrieked, covering his face with a sob as he stepped back, only stopped by Arcee who barked at him loud enough for Jack to wince as her voice rang in his ears.

“Shut up!” Jack only tore his eyes away from Optimus’s torture long enough to watch the team start to panic. Wheeljack and Bulkhead clung to each other like the Rapture was on the horizon. Bumblebee had fallen to the ground, watching in shocked horror as Optimus continued to wail. Smokescreen was only held up by Ratchet, who clutched his arm so tightly there had to be dents.

Only Ultra Magnus remained firm, but even that looked like a fragile façade.

“There’s nothing we can do now. Remain clear of the containment area.” Magnus stood firmly, placing a hand over his chest in what looked to be a salute of sorts as the horrific scene continued to unfold. 

Megatron and his Decepticons just watched. They didn’t even try to fire as they watched Optimus cry out in agony, the masses all over him growing like tumors combined with the world’s worst allergic reaction. His face split like dried and cracked earth, letting energon pour from the wounds. The same happened all over his frame, internals falling onto the floor as his very body melted from the inside out. The grows just kept getting bigger, cracking and shattering whatever remained of Optimus’s skeleton. 

Jack had to swallow the bile building in his throat as Optimus’s limbs snapped, bending backwards and at odd angles the shouldn’t have been possible. His jetpack had long since been torn to shreds, clinging to the mass on his back like some sort of thorn. The Prime had another growth on his chest that left him breathing frantically as he choked on what Jack could only assume were his own fluids. Two more hung off his arms, each creeping along him like mold. Two others infested his legs, popping off Optimus’s tires and consuming whatever mass was there.

He never stopped screaming.

“By the Unmaker…” Megatron’s curse was just loud enough to hear over the cacophony of sobs mixed with howls of torment coming from the Prime. Jack hardly registered his friends shaking against him, crying softly as they listened. He was glad they couldn’t see. Good lord, he was so glad.

Optimus desperately tried to move with his shattered body, the Matrix shining through a gap in his chest where the growth had not yet infested. The thing shocked him relentlessly as he pulled himself along, trying to get to help. His eyes exploded like light bulbs, leaving him blind and in even more agony as his very jaw began to melt right off, unhinging as if someone had knocked the screws holding it in place clean off. His fingers swelled like grotesque sausages, the armor on them distending until they snapped and the fingers turned into nothing more than good and bits of wire.

The Prime kept crying, trying to reach but ultimately being forced onto his stomach as he weakly pleaded for aid.

“Help… me… please… brother…” Optimus lifted an arm, one almost entirely overtaken by the growth. He reached in Megatron’s direction, but the warlord merely shook his head in horror and disbelief. Not a soul moved, and even Smokescreen’s sobs when quiet as Optimus whimpered one final time before his throat caved in.

Jack wasn’t sure if he was dead or not, but he certainly hoped so, if only for Optimus’s sake, as his body continued to twist and be devoured by whatever was on him. The growths consumed almost everything, bulking and breaking off of Optimus’s mutilated husk once they’d eaten almost all of him. Jack couldn’t bear to look at the corpse as the growths started to squirm, warping and changing.

Forming limbs.

“Is… is Optimus dead?” Raf’s voice was soft, almost a sniffle. Jack didn’t dare move his hands away from his friend’s eyes, decidedly not acknowledging the way his hands shook or how sick he felt.

“I don’t know Raf.” Jack’s words were surprisingly calm, but he chalked that up to shock as each of the masses continued to shift and change, forming into... their own entities. One by one they came online, their eyes lighting up a brilliant blue as they stood on unsteady legs. There were six, five of which appeared to be of similar design. Only the largest stood out, its armor sharp and its body built with a degree of elegance in mind.

All six of the new entities assessed themselves, looking over their bodies. The five smaller entities all had wings, but more startlingly, they all had Optimus’s eyes, albeit with slightly different takes on the design. It was almost like they were related somehow.

Jack wasn’t given time to think much about it as the biggest of the six quietly moved to Optimus’s body, or at least what remained of it. The five followed, the whole group staring at the Prime’s body for a long moment before the biggest reached down, and pulled out the Matrix. The relic was covered in energon, and yet it still somehow looked innocent as the largest one held the relic up, presenting it to Autobot and Decepticon alike.

“Hot Rod of Optimus Prime.” The biggest one, Hot Rod, announced themselves with a stoic expression that rivaled the fallen Prime. The rest of the five soon joined in the chorus.

“Silverbolt.” One of the five presented themselves with a proud salute, their frame blocky and obviously still developing.

“Air Raid.” Another followed in their lead, copying the first.

“Fireflight.” Again, another of the five spoke out, and each voice that rang out seemed to make the bots and cons shrink in on themselves.

“Skydive.” 

“Slingshot.”

The last two exclaimed their names with both glee and a degree of solemn understanding. Jack finally released his hands from where they’d covered Miko and Raf’s faces, letting them see these new bots. They gasped, and Miko began to cry the moment she saw Optimus’s corpse. Jack didn’t try to comfort her. It was useless.

The six stood there, as if waiting for orders. They were without color, and their armor was still shifting like goo. However, they all looked up to Megatron; their actions synchronized as they spoke in unison, leaving Jack’s skin crawling.

“We are of Optimus Prime, and we desire peace.” They all spoke, but Megatron wasn’t having any of it. He shook his head, terror etched onto his features as he threw himself into the sky.

“Decepticons! Retreat to the Nemesis!” Without hesitation, all the Decepticons flew back toward the warship looming overhead, not even trying to take advantage of the situation.

The six, for their part, turned to stare at the team, Jack and his friends included. He could feel their eyes raking over him, assessing him like he was some interesting subject in a lab. He hated it. He wanted to be sick, to sob, and then to never emerge from his room again.

“We will continue our originator’s work in his stead. We will not allow his death to be in vain.” Silverbolt, or at least the one Jack assumed was Silverbolt, collected the battered remains of Optimus’s corpse. The broken thing was little more than a few pieces of melted metal smelted together into an unflattering slab. The only reason it could even be tied to Optimus at all was because of the cracked remnants of a face that stuck to it.

Jack wasn’t sure he would be able to hold back the bile any longer as the six all smiled, the biggest one who still held the Matrix, stepping forward like they were always part of the team.

“Shall we return to base?”

[in1-nutshell]

One more before I forget... a delinquent senior in high school Buddy who secretly has a heart of gold, who would defend the kids. They have the mentality of 'You mess with them, you mess with me.' However, it's mostly Jack's and maybe Raf's(?) bullies. And would go against Megatron with only a spiked bat for the kids and for team Prime too. For this scenario, I'd imagine while defending one of the kids against their bullies. They get into a really serious fight with them and practically send the bully to the hospital. So how would the tfp team Prime react to learning this on the drive from school to the base?

Buddy is ready to attack anything that looks at the kids the wrong way.

Hope you enjoy!

Human Buddy protecting the Kids from bullies with Bulkhead, Ultra Magnus, and Bumblebee

SFW, Platonic, Mentions of injury and fights (nothing detailed), Human reader

TFP

Buddy looked like a heartless person.

They had a resting scowl on their face.

But they were one of the sweetest people the kids and Bots knew.

When Buddy found out that the kids went to the same school, Buddy made sure to look out for them.

They insisted on walking each one of them to class.

Jack coming out of class looking both ways in the hallway.

“Hmm—”--Jack

Buddy tapping his shoulder.

“Ready?”--Buddy

“Ack!”--Jack

Miko coming out of her class, sticking close to the wall.

No Buddy in sight.

Buddy looking over her shoulder.

“Who you looking for?”--Buddy

“AHH! How are you so quiet? And how did you even get here so fast? Isn’t your class on the other side of the school?”--Miko

“I have long legs.”--Buddy

Raf coming out of his class.

Buddy waiting for him by the wall.

“You ready for that test?”--Buddy

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”--Raf

Buddy just wanted to look after their friends, especially since they knew there were some awful people in the school.

The day of the incident was one to remember.

Vince had come up with the dumbest stunt yet.

After school Vince and some of his goons had managed to corner Jack.

“Hey Darby.”--Vince

“Vince? What—what are you doing with your… friends?”--Jack

The group slowly formed a semi-circle around Jack and Vince.

“What happened at lunch? You trying to start something? Huh, Dirt bag?”--Vince

“No—I mean—why would I? You tripped over your own foot—”--Jack

Vince punches Jack in the stomach causing him to fall on his knees wheezing.

“Don’t lie to me Darby! You stuck out your foot and made me trip!”--Vince

“I –wheeze—didn’t—”--Jack

Vince kicked him in the gut again.

“HEY!”--Buddy

The group looking at Buddy, Miko, and Raf behind them.

Buddy walking forward with Miko and Raf trailing behind them.

Buddy is standing between Jack and Vince, while Raf is helping Jack up and Miko is eyeing everyone around them.

“I’m only going to tell you this one-time Vince. Back. Off. Don’t come near my friends or me ever. Got that?”--Buddy

“Please. You think that this is going to work? Just come here and talk. I think its time to finally teach these losers a lesson, right fellas?”--Vince

One of the boy’s grabs Raf by the back of the shirt while another two grab Miko.

The ones who grabbed Miko threw her to the ground and started a few kicks to her sides.

Raf has just held tightly by his wrist trying to surpass the little cries from the pain.

Jack tries to help but gets slugged across the face.

“Guys! Vince, let them--”--Buddy

Vince spits in Buddy’s face as one of his goon’s slams Buddy in the back with a baseball bat, making them fall to the floor.

“Buddy!”—Jack, Miko, and Raf

Buddy shakingly got up with a large cut on their forehead and looked at the offender dead in the eyes with their split knuckles.

The goon tried to hit them again, but this time Buddy managed to grab the bat, twisted it from his hold making him let go.

Now Buddy had the bat and they saw red.

Maybe it was because of the blood slowly dribbling down or it was the pure anger they felt.

Buddy was delivering blows to all of them like they were candy on Halloween.

Did they see a tooth fly?

Yes.

Did they care?

No.

The group eventually had enough and ran away.

Buddy was mostly dizzy from the punches and kicks.

Jack, with his slightly bruised face, helped Buddy sit down.

Miko with a busted lip and split knuckles sat down next to Buddy making sure they didn’t close their eyes.

Raf, with some bruising around his wrists, managed to produce some tissues for them.

Buddy with a smile on their beaten face.

One hand still gripping the bat.

“That… that was something.”--Buddy

“We should call the hos—”--Jack

“No hospital.”--Buddy

“What?”--Jack

“Are you insane?! You look like you got beaten up by a monster truck! You need help! We all need some help!”—Miko

“Miko, we can get in trouble with the cops, which leads to them snooping around which can be bad for the bot’s cover. We can’t go.”--Buddy

“As much as I hate it, Buddy’s got a point. None of us need cops on us. How else are our guardians going to get us? We can’t keep asking Fowler for favors like this.”—Jack

“Finally, someone is making…”—Buddy

Buddy shaking their head a bit, blinking hard.

“Buddy?”--Raf

“Head hurts a lot… Maybe having your Mom look at this thick skull isn’t a bad idea…”--Buddy

“You look really bad.”--Raf

“It looks worse than what it is—hold up—okay we’re good.”--Buddy

“What was that?”--Miko

“The world was spinning for a second, but we’re good now.”—Buddy

“Felt that. Literally.”--Miko

“…”—Jack and Raf

“Now to the million dollar question.”--Buddy

“What is that?”--Jack

“How are we going to explain this to the bots?”--Buddy

“…”--Everyone

“Welp… I guess house arrest it is. Good thing I have some Uno cards with me.”--Buddy

Bulkhead

Bulkhead was sent to go get the kids after a rather late mission.

Since he had the most space to have all the kids ride comfortably, he went ahead.

He knew that it was late, so he went slightly above the speed limit.

The first thing he saw was the kids sitting and huddling close together.

This sent warning flags to his mind.

The kids didn’t huddle this close to each other unless something happened, or it was cold, and it wasn’t cold.

He nearly blows his cover when he sees the bruises and blood.

“Miko?! Buddy?! Jack?! Raf?! What in the name of—”Bulkhead

“Shh! Bulkhead someone might hear you!”--Miko

“But what happened?!”--Bulkhead

Jack and Raf helped Buddy into the back seat.

“Shouldn’t you guys go to a hospital?”--Bulkhead

“And…And risk your cover being blown? I don’t… don’t think so big guy.”--Buddy

“But—”--Bulkhead

“Everything we need is at the base in the med kits.”--Buddy

“And my Mom should be at the base by now.”--Jack

“How do you know this?”--Bulkhead

“…She left with Fowler…”--Jack

“If my chest wasn’t hurting too much, I would be laughing so hard right now…”--Buddy

Concerning car noises intensifies by a tenfold.

“Bulk, you okay—Woah!”--Miko

Bulkhead starts speeding to the base well above the speed limit because screw the law the kids are hurt bad.

Bulkhead comms in the base to get the med bay and the human med kits ready. When he is asked further, he just tells them that everyone isn’t looking too good right now.

Was his message cryptic and most likely sent panic to everyone listening?

Yes.

Did he care at the moment?

Not entirely, especially as he is splitting his attention between the injured kids and the road ahead of them.

When Bulkhead gets to the base, he is almost yelling for someone, anyone to help the kids out of the car.

Blame the yelling on the panic, Buddy and Miko looked like they were going to fall asleep.

There is a lot of audial gasps when the kids are taken out of him.

So far none of the kids have said anything. The beatings and adrenaline were wearing off and no one had the energy right now to recall all the events.

Buddy still hasn’t let go of the bat.

Since Raf and Jack were the two that were the least injured they had the task of telling them what happened.

Bulkhead had never had the sudden urge to squash a human than in that moment.

A little while later…

Jack, Miko and Raf are sleeping in their respective med slabs.

Buddy is awake shuffling some Uno cards the best they can with their bandaged hands.

Bulkhead comes into the med bay as quietly as he can.

“Buddy?”--Bulkhead

“Hmm? Oh Bulkhead.”--Buddy

Bulkhead walking a little bit closer to the group.

“How you holding up?”--Bulkhead

“Eh… Got a big pounding in my head and some bandages, but other wise good. You should have seen the other guys.”—Buddy

“Yeah… Raf said they ran away after you went ‘whack a mole’ on them.”--Bulkhead

“Ha! That’s one way to put it.”--Buddy

“Hehe… Thank you.”--Bulkhead

“Thank you?”--Buddy

“For protecting them.”--Bulkhead

“Bulkhead… they got hurt. I didn’t protect them…If I had tried—”--Buddy

“I’m going to stop you right there.”--Bulkhead

“Huh?”--Buddy

“From what Jack and Raf told us, you did everything possible to try and protect them. You went to fight for your friends. I could mistake you for potential Wrecker material.”--Bulkhead

“Ha… don’t let Ratchet hear you say that now.”--Buddy

“Yeah… but my point still stands. You’re a good kid Buddy and you protecting them just proves it even more.”--Bulkhead

Buddy trying to hold in some tears.

“Do you need Ratchet? Does something hurt?”--Bulkhead

“No—I mean I don’t feel good—but… just thanks… I needed to hear that.”--Buddy

Bulkhead gently stroking Buddy’s cheek from the tears.

“No problem, Buddy. Sleep, will ya? You’ll end up looking like those ‘raccoons’ if you don’t.”--Bulkhead

Buddy nods letting their eyes shut softly.

Ultra Magnus

Magnus is one of the bots helping get everyone out of Bulkhead.

He is the one who gets Buddy out.

In all his years holding injured soldiers, his servos shook more holding Buddy’s beaten body.

They were holding a bat in one of their hands.

“Bulkhead! What—”--Magnus

Buddy gently patted his digit.

“Hey Mags… how’s it going?”--Buddy

“Ratchet!”--Magnus

Buddy trying to soothe Magnus.

“It’s okay Mags… everything’s okay.”--Buddy

Concern truck noises intensifies.

Magnus quickly passed Buddy to Ratchet and June.

Jack and Raf retold the whole story.

Magnus was furious at the dirty fighting.

He goes off to the supplies closet to reorganize it, something to keep his mind off of the incident for a bit.

At least till he cools down.

Afterwards, Magnus is hypervigilant of the children after they are all patched up.

Magnus sits on a crate by Buddy’s side as they retell a bit of the story to him.

His servos clench hearing the boy who nearly decked them with a baseball bat.

“I don’t even know where that thing came from. It was like it came out of nowhere.”--Buddy

“Hmm…”--Magnus

Magnus is glaring with hatred at the bat.

Buddy takes notice and gently pats Magnus’s digit in reassurance.

Magnus and Buddy give each other a smile of understanding before Buddy tries to explain the game of Uno to him.

Bumblebee

Bumblebee feels the world stops the second Bulkhead is telling them to get the kids out.

He rushes over to get Raf out, gently cradling him in his servos.

“Beep bep bop?! (Raf what happened?!)--Bumblebee

Bumblebee gently turned Raf’s wrist to see more of the injury.

Immediately stops after hearing Raf take a sharp intake.

A quick little flashback to when Raf had gotten exposed to dark energon.

“Beep! Beep! Beep! (Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!)”--Bumblebee

“Its okay Bee, it just stings a bit.”--Raf

Bumblebee cradles him a bit closer.

Concern Beeping noises intensifies.

Bumblebee feels his spark drop seeing the rest come out of the car, especially Buddy holding on to a bat.

He is slightly hovering by the med bay with the other listening to the story.

He had the ‘pleasure’ of meeting the meathead once and that was enough for him.

He wants justice for the kids.

For Buddy.

He doesn’t leave the kids out of his sight for a while.

Ratchet walking into the med bay.

Bumblebee sitting on a corner of Buddy’s med slab, watching intensely at the human’s sleep.

Ratchet comes over gently placing a servo on his shoulder.

“They’re safe now Bumblebee.”--Ratchet

“Boop bop… bep beep boop bep bop? (I know… but it doesn’t hurt to have an extra set of optics watching them?).”--Bumblebee

“It doesn’t but you need to recharge.”--Ratchet

“Beep—(But--)”--Bumblebee

“They’ll still be here when you wake up. I will personally let you know when they wake up, as long as you go recharge.”--Ratchet

Bumblebee taking one last look at the kids, whispering a gentle ‘Thank you” towards Buddy, and leaves to recharge.

[that-one-weeb-but-it-transformer]

Your Optimus' Older sister, and he's always looked up to you even as a Prime headcannons

When Optimus was "born" you were still young, you could remember holding him

Basically you guys were inseparable since you were young

You helped him get through his schooling and a job at the archives actually

You were kinda like that embarssing mom, especially infront of Femmes you caught him glancing often

"Ooo is that your little-" "no! No! No!"

In an honest respect you both have each others back, you've been there for every big ceremony he's been apart of.

He told you about becoming a prime first

You were more than proud of him.

And even as a Prime he really still found you a roll model

Always looking up to you like he did when you were both younger, either it be in battle or in simply speaking.

Its unfortunate but you both broke apart with the wars final days

He to earth and you, well he didnt know exactly what had happened to you

He hadnt forgot about you, but pushed you to the back of his mind.

Maybe he hoped you'd find your way to him like all those times you did when he got lost as a youngling, telling him it'd be okay as he cried scared he had lost you forever

"I always come back. Don't I Orion?"

What a way to run back into each other, back on earth that is

Everyones shocked to be honest.

They had never known Optimus had a sister, none the less one so different from him.

Also. He showing a happy emotion? Its a good day

"Still light as ever I see!"

Not you picking him up in a hug, basically embarssing him.

The bots were glad to have another well rounded fighter

And Miko was just glad to meet another kick ass bot

"Optimus has a sister? And that sister is you?"

"Bam! Right on the dot! Me and ol Blue and Red here! Together again! Huh?"

Despite your outgoingness you do keep silent, they've realized Optimus started doing your little finger on the chin thing as you think

"I didn't think Femmes could be so tall."

"You're just mad because she's taller than you, Jackie."

Tall femme supremacy

"So! What did you do on Cybertron?" Miko asked happily.

"Do?" Y/n questioned hands on her hips, "what do you mean do?"

"I bet you were a Wrecker like Bulkhead and Wheeljack! Are you a prime?"

"Oh my occupation!" Y/n smiled as she thought, finger holding her chin in thought, "well i did a number of things, anything to get some energon on the table."

"I thought you and Orion lived in Iacon." Raffle spoke.

Y/n nodded, "We did. Didn't mean it was easy. I did do a number of things Im not proud of Anything for my little brother." Y/n answered with a smile.

"I was more than happy to ruin my own reputation and life to get him where he needed to be." Y/n spoke.

"Wow." Jack responded, "I'd wish I had siblings like you."

Y/n smiled with a nod, "never break up a set. I use to tell him that all the time."

Megatron? Terrified of you

Mostly because you've been able to kick his aft more than once in his life time

Picking up your injured brother

Protecting your injured brother

Taking the shot for your injured brother

Ratchet came out of base to even get Optimus immediate medical attention, but you snapped back and wouldn't let anyone touch him as you held him close

Ratchet knew you before hand so it was a bit helpful that he knew all the things you been through.

Arcee argues with you for it

"You could of gotten Optimus Killed!' She shouted at Y/n, pointing a demanding digit at Arcee.

"I know what Im doing. Back off!" Y/n demanded, "and don't point at me."

She slapped Arcee's servo away.

"You shouldn't even be here! You're a liability! You don't help in anyway and disrespectful Optimus!"

"Disrespect? I'd kill myself before I ever disrespected my little brother-"

"Thats just it! He's a leader not your little brother! Not no more! He thinks your embarrassing!"

"Oh please." Y/n spoke

"You're just dead weight-"

"Thats enough!" Ratchet demanded pulling the two apart.

"If Orion thinks Im such of a dead weight. He can tell me. And I'll leave." Y/n spoke, "and I won't come back."

"His name is Optimus." Arcee argued.

"And thats where you miss." Y/n defended, "This isnt just a discussion about war. This'll be a discuss about family."

You ended up leaving after dicussing it with Optimus

"But Y/n I don't understand why you are leaving"

You didnt tell him what had happen.

"It's just best for the team. If you need me, Im a comn link away."

It's almost like a big sister going off to college, but instead of coming back after 4 years, you won't come back at all

Kinda just fell off the face of the earth again :(

He never did comn you, and you never did come back.

He felt as if he's disappointed you in some way

That could be the only reason you left in such a way

Sure though, he'd find you again on the feild.

In a cave specifically, slumped against a wall, sword at your side, dead cons around you.

Sure, you did defeat all the cons, evident by the slashed chasis, decapitications, and sliced off body parts.

Turns out just one too many injuries got you this time around.

How his spark ached seeing you in such a stature

Never to see you alive again, never able to repay such a debt he had as you being his big sister

It's even more unfortunate that he never learns of why you truly left

[idlepollingofcybertron]

Humanity Workshop

So I am outlining the humans to develop them a bit for this continuity. I figure while voting for a lot works some things just need to be done in the backburner.

Specifically thinking of Isaac and Sari Sumdac currently, though the others are on the table.

Like with Isaac having a Mumbai accent specifically per TF Wiki, which per Wikipedia has an older Jewish community, and Sari also being named Sari, which can derive from Sarah. I am thinking making them Jewish and Isaac have moved to Michigan when he was younger. I'd need to more research but brief look over says it would fit.

Also Isaac is clearly still an inventor and genius, but without the Megatron corpse to work off of. What if the project that ends up connecting humanity to Cybertron is a joint project between him, with him as development lead, and Astoria, who inherited her father's company, and is just investing? Ties into the bigger issue of why humanity is in space, but I'll be tying that up with some of the major plot choice polls I'll be doing.

Also, and hear me out, I know its a bit of a crackship but...June/Isaac with seventeen year old Jack suddenly getting a very excited seven year old stepsister?

I'll reblog this with updates as I plan more.

[witchofthesouls]

I have this image of Jack standing next to Arcee as June introduces her new boyfriend, the Titan (insert name here). Jack was already mortified when he learned his mom was a robo-fucker. This is a humongous mech who turns into a space ship and a city. A cybertronian sized city! The teen is floping down on the base couch having a full on nervous breakdown trying to push away all questions he realy doesn't want to think about, let alone get the answers too.

Meanwhile you have the Autobots marveling over June becomeing the first new cityspeaker since before the war. Also just the Quintessions being active is Alarming™️.

Who knows what our unhinged Titan friend is going to do when he learns human lives are so short especially if he's got a personality that's part Ratchet's and part Optimus.

Jack is having a breakdown for entirely different reasons because the Cybertronian gods did a coin toss to see if June will have Megatron and his child at Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays or if she will plan Megatron's demise. They'll either get along like dynamite in a mine, someone will end up dead, or both.

He has no idea how it will turn out, but when his mom has a Project. It's hers.

And I meant it's June that has a personality between Ratchet and Orion Pax. Like every good hospital worker with shitty administration, she's very much a person who has Malicious Compliance embedded in her bones with the addition of spite, energy drinks, and hidden contraband somewhere you wouldn't expect under a serene smile and a spine of steel.

If you are her people, then she'll mother-hen the shit out of you. She's intense and she knows that. June has gotten better over the years in that aspect, but should a friend or family need help, she's there.

20/10 will drive you to your surgery at 4 am as a designated driver, terrify your shitty apartment managers into compliance, or help plan a massive heist to take back all the money your cheating lover has stolen over the years for their side piece(s). She's built on solid alibis and documentation, documentation, and oh documentation.

She made a nest of giant pillows in the garage for Arcee, and even partitioned it out to give the femme the privacy to be rest in her root-mode when June needs to use the clicker. And Jack uncovered the plans to target Airachnid, and he has no idea how to feel about it because he can tell that his mom is heavily utilizing the medical commentary from Ratchet, the details of the 'bots' exploits that Miko manages to wheedle out, and his own experiences with 'bot-eating parasites...

The unhinged Titan has found a match, but it's not romantic. Oh no, June Darby now has a life-long project to spruce it up. And said Titan is not only over the moon that its new favorite person with similar levels of devotion, but has a lineage with a son that looks so much like her. It was once a major research facility that dealt with xenobiology. It's not above looking into ways to expand their lifespans. Anything for their favorite. Anything. Even if it must lure the resident scientists to its bosom and trap them to make use of its repository of accumulated data.

[searchingforatrail]

WIP Shades of Me Chapter 2: In which Megatron does Jack a favor. Summary:

There are many different shades of Optimus Prime. And at some point in their complicated history, Megatron had become familiar with them all. The data droid, the Prime, the fearless, Autobot leader? He had grown accustomed to his former rival's varied existence. But Optimus Prime, the bot who decided to insert himself into the lives of three human children and their families? The mech who has devoted himself to the lives of humans? This is new. -- (Optimus "adopts" Miko, Raf, and Jack. Megatron becomes an unwilling secondary-creator)

(TW: mention of drug use amongst teenagers, nothing serious)

In Jack’s defense, today had been a very bad day. He had failed a science exam he’d actually studied for, had left his wallet at home so had no lunch, had been harassed by drive through customers again, and had gotten passed up on another “mission” Fowler had assigned the team on (all thanks to Arcee, actually. According to Wheelkack, she had “mother henned” very badly, apparently.). So now he was alone without Raf and Miko for a good week and a half. 

He had made it a point to block them both on social media for that time too. 

So who could blame him for partaking in the #1  run-of-the-mill illegal activity for America’s youth at the time? Besides, it wasn’t like it was meth. It was just weed.  And at least he actually got along with Vince this time. Sure it took twenty dollars and sworn secrecy, but they’d managed to speak for five minutes without cursing the shit of each other. So he considered that a win. 

He planned to spend the rest of the day, alone, stoned out of his mind.

He nestled himself in between a stack of empty energon crates, making certain that the base was completely empty before he lit his joint. At least in the base robots couldn’t smell the scent of weed. Parents on the other hand could.  And he wanted to be as far away from his mother as possible. 

Jack stayed by himself for a good while, letting the smoke work its magic. 

“I was not aware that humans needed to inhale gas to survive.” 

Looming above him, peering into the open space amongst the tower of metal cubes like a scientist looking at a lab sample, was Megatron. Jack nearly choked. For two reasons��one, being caught high as a kite, by Megatron of all beings, was not how Jack wanted to spend his evening. At all. He was already pissed off. No need to add fear to his growing list of emotional grievances. 

Two–where Megatron was, Optimus was sure to follow. Megatron did not casually associate with humans for no reason, and avoided The Base alone at all cost. His appearance, from what Jack could tell, was relaxed, and he had no Decepticon guard accompanying. So that meant Optimus was close by. 

Great. Optimus knew enough about humans to know high schoolers shouldn’t be smoking. And Ratchet would know enough to know they shouldn’t be smoking weed. He could already see it–the ridiculous butterfly effect of Optimus telling Ratchet, who would tell Fowler, who would tell his mom. 

He swallowed dryly. The anxiety overriding the calming effects of his joint. That was frustrating. 

“Um.. Is Opti–”

[rxtchetprime]

i think the kids have definately witnessed one of the bots panicking or something

tw: depictions of panic attacks, pstd/trauma, implied drug use/withdrawal (synth-en), slight self harm

especially optimus and ratchet during the orion pax arc or during stronger faster.

specifically, ratchet during orion pax arc, and probably after stronger faster. optimus after orion pax.

hell, even arcee when arachnid shows up, starscreams entire vendetta with megatron, breakdown and MECH, bee and megatron, and im sure theres multiple others.

kicking my feet rn <- loves to torture his favs

when they see arcee, they try to calm her down and reassure her. they know how difficult it would be to face your enemy head on. jack stands near her, its just them now. she's on one knee, and he's rubbing her kneeplate comfortingly. he has one of her servos placed snugly on his chest. jack guides her through getting her vents straightened out. it takes a while, but it's only them now. arcee knows they're safe. they can take as long as they need.

bulkhead is a tricky one, but also a bit easier to handle than the others. miko sees him tapping his digits quickly and erratically on a nearby surface. his eyes are darting around, hes jumpier than usual. the only one who can get him out of this is usually wheeljack. miko finds him, tells him bulk's condition, and off he goes. he places a servo on bulkheads rapid digits, he asks him if he wants to go out for some air. bulkhead is larger than the other bots, but claustrophobic nontheless, especially after being trapped in a cave, the only one able to hold the roof from collasping. so the two go out, bulkhead quickly returns to normal, they stay there for a while, lobbing or talking.

bee starts to rub at the spot where his voicebox once resided. his optics become just a bit dimmer and his doorwings droop. tears start to well up in his eyes. at this point, raf notices, because as bee starts to cry from the stress and memories, his noises that are akin to sniffles and hiccups come through glitchy and garbled. he's holding his helm and crying now. raf tries to comfort him, but isnt sure what to do. hes scared for his guardian and wants to get him help. so raf turns to ratchet, and if not him, then whoever else is around at the time. if its arcee or bulk, they go and get ratchet. if ratchet isnt there, they get optimus.

if its ratchet, he'll gently push his field into bee's with comfort and support. he eventually either moves them both to a quiet area, or everyone has cleared out at this point. ratchet slowly moves his hands up to bee's servos which are gripping at his helm. ratchet makes sure to keep his arms and servos in bees line of sight. he pry's his servos from his head and starts to affectionately stroke the scouts helm. bee eventually gives in and melts into the touch. now ratchet isn't a touchy mech, but when it comes to bee, he lets him sink into his chassis and just hold on to him. he eventually tires himself out, the pain in his throat too much to bare, and slips into recharge. ratchet carries bee into the medbay and lays him on a berth and stays nearby. when bee wakes up, he feels much better. he knows ratchet will never let megatron hurt him like that again.

everyone knows ratchet and optimus are the oldest of the team, but that doesn't mean that they don't have their memories, insecurities and moments. granted they're much rarer than the others, but equally important. the others know that if one of them are panicking, something's really wrong.

it started shortly after ratchet had stopped using synth-en. he was sitting at the console of the base, typing away. he watched as the words appeared on the screen, slowly, they started to turn to gibberish as he started to tap the wrong keys of the keyboard. ratchet looked down to see his servos shaking. his optics widened and his venting hitched. he brought his digits up to his faceplace to inspect them. they continued to tremble in front of him, his venting picking up quickly, before he knew it he was locked in place. he was just standing there, trying to get a hold of his shaking and venting. ratchet looks around sporadically, looking for the only thing that he thinks can ground him in that moment, synth-en. he feels himself spiraling, he feels the want for it, and he knows he needs to stop but he can't bring himself to.

after a few moments, he feels a servo on his shoulder, then that deep voice in his audial, "ratchet."

then all in one moment, everything seems right again. shuddering his vents, ratchet turns around, trying to get air into his system. optimus and ratchet make eye contact briefly, before optimus just smiles slightly, before whispering, "i'm proud of you, you've gone so far from when it first happened. you're better off without it." and then ratchet nods, a few tears rolling down his face, and optimus just lets him stand there for as long as he needs. he knows ratchet doesn't like others seeing him like this, and as a gentle reminder, optimus slides his servo to cup ratchet's cheek before walking off somewhere in the general area. somewhere that ratchet can see him, can hear him, can simply just feel his presence. that calms him down, just, someone being around him. he realizes he doesn't need the synth-en to be helpful to the team, so he starts to pick up on his work again, this time with steadier servos.

optimus, unlike the others, is a different story.

he'd just gotten back from being on the nemesis as orion pax. they had the data of some of the iacon relics, but now came the decoding part. for the next while, optimus would spend his free time decoding whatever he could of the texts. he squinted at the screen in front of him, this all seemed so familiar, but he couldn't put a digit to it. it wasn't until a few moments later that it dawned on him. he'd done this before, aboard the nemesis, for megatron. thats when he stills, his venting picking up from 0 to 100. ratchet is working beside him, and the typing is too loud. the bots are playing with their charges, and he can hear every creak of their armor, every step of the kid's shoes. ratchet looks over as soon as he hears optimus lift his servos off the keyboard, "optimus?" that's when optimus whips his helm around, its all too quiet all of a sudden. he needs out.

optimus can hear his own vents picking up, and he watches ratchet's face turn from concerned to downright worry. optimus crosses his arms over his chassis and quickly walks down the hall. the others just stare in the direction that their commander walked off to. they never see him like this. never not a pillar for them. ratchet takes initiative immediately and tells the others, "don't worry and don't follow me. it'll set him off more, just stay put and keep quiet." the kids and bots stare at him for a moment before nodding and exchanging worried glances before ratchet quickly, and rather quietly, jogged off down the hall to optimus.

ratchet can hear harsh vents behind a closet door as he passes. he stops, and knocks his digits on the large door. "optimus?" the only response he gets is incoherent and glitchy cybertronian. ratchet slowly turns the doorknob, letting the other know that he's coming in. ratchet sticks his helm in, spotting optimus in a corner of the closet, his knees up to his chassis. his faceplate was activated and his servos were gripping and scratching at the metal. ratchet quickly walked into the closet, closing the door softly behind the pair. optimus jumped slightly at the small noise, tears starting to stream down his face. ratchet got down on his knees in front of the prime, whispering in cybertronian to him, "hey, hey, hey... optimus. optimus, can you look at me?" ratchet would take optimus' servos into his and slowly separate them from the faceplace. "optimus, if you want to vent better you need to deactivate the mask." optimus stared at ratchet in horror, his vents picking up a little bit faster. quickly, ratchet held optimus' servos to his own chassis, letting the leader feel his chassis rise and fall as air made it's way in and out of his system. "just shutter your optics, i'm not leaving you. you're okay, just vent." he watched as optimus closed his eyes and started to take control of his systems and vents. after a while, he was breathing normally and his faceplace quietly shuttered back off of his face. ratchet smiled, the two would sit there in silence for a while, just listening to the muffled sounds of the base around them.

the kids know that their bots have hard times and they want to help them. they try in the best ways that they can, but sometimes, their bots need another bot to help them.

[nonameshotgun]

Mini werckers shenanigans

looking over to the left looking at the new lamp there caretaker had just bought, ultra Magnus walked (more like waddle) over to the lamp to get a better view of it. tilting his head he looked at the lamp from all different sides and angles, looking at how the colours shifted with him as he moved. He smiled up at the lamp with amazement and awe at the unique lamp and its colours, though his smile didn’t last long as he heard the cooing and beeping of one of the sparklings that he was forced to play with. Looking over at where he heard the beeping and cooing he spotted wheeljack dragging a stool his way, ultra Magnus panicked as he watch wheeljack move closer and closer to the lamp with the stool, beeping and honking in alarm he tried to tell wheeljack to stop pushing the stool, only for his beeps and honking to get ignored, wheeljack looked at ultra Magnus and chirped giving him a big grin and he finally got the stool over to the table that held the lamp. Ultra Magnus frowned as he saw wheeljack reach out to the lamp, ultra Magnus moved forward and grabbed wheeljack in a hug like way around wheeljacks waist and pulled him back making them both fall on there aft’s. Letting out a whine wheeljack turned around and pushed ultra Magnus away, ultra Magnus let out a honk in anger as wheel jack pushed him. Ultra Magnus stood up and pushed wheeljack back, wheeljack stumbled back and beeped in shock, in only a few seconds wheeljack had tackled ultra Magnus to the ground and went to go slap him, ultra Magnus beeped in shock as his back hit the ground letting out a wail in pain. Ultra Magnus and wheeljack had kept on fighting mostly beeps and honks to what people assume are insults to each others energon line, with one final push in anger wheeljack had shoved ultra Magnus towards the stool making him fall into the table making the lamp fall to the ground and shatter. Both stood in place from the frightening sound, ultra Magnus looked behind him and saw the broken lamp, standing there in shock and sadness he didn’t notice wheeljack transforming and driving away. The sounds of footsteps fast approaching him made him snap out of it as he looked around looking for a place to hide, transforming and driving out of the living room he drove straight into his caretakers foot making the caretaker wince in pain, as the caretaker bent down to pick up ultra Magnus he couldn’t help but start beeping, honking and chirping in sadness and sorrow. Even though he technically didn’t break it he still felt responsible that it had broken. The caretaker looked into the room and saw the broken lamp “ultra Magnus did you do this?” The care giver said walking into the room while holding a weeping Magnus, putting ultra Magnus down the caretaker bent down in front of the small sparkling looking disappointed “I’m not mad just disappointed, I thought you would be the last sparkling I would have to put with the wreckers”. With that said ultra Magnus looked down beeping in sadness, he couldn’t meet the caretakers gaze as he watched them stand up to go clean the broken lamp that he thought was really pretty. Walking over to a chair ultra Magnus pulled it out and pushed it into a corner, then he climbed up onto the chair and sat facing the corner in shame and just waiting to be forgiven by the caretaker.

Time skip to the next day

Walking into the daycare ultra Magnus stood next to Optimus chirping and cooing at in happiness with each other, the caretaker walked in and settled everyone into there respected groups with the wreckers at one table and the sneakers at another, with the main on in the middle being the nerd table (named by the wreckers as that table holds Optimus, ratchet, ultra Magnus, starscream, megatron and shockwave) as everyone took there seats the caretaker walked over to the nerd table and picked up ultra Magnus and but him over at the wreckers table which held wheeljack, bulkhead, breakdown, dreadwing and skyquake. The caretaker sat ultra Magnus down and patted him on the helm only to then walk away to get class started, ultra Magnus sat in shock and looked at the other sparklings around the table. He locked eyes with wheeljack and started angry crying, he looked down at the table and put his head on the table still facing the caretaker as they spoke about the lesson there were gonna learn today.

Bouns:

Time skip to recess

Ultra Magnus went to Optimus optics still filled with coolent from the shear anger he felt, as he reached Optimus, Optimus turned to look and ultra Magnus with a comforting gaze. Optimus opened his arms offering ultra Magnus a hug, Magnus took the offer and put his cheek onto Optimus’s shoulder as he let the rest of the coolent fall, Optimus cooed and beeped at him trying to cheer him up. From a far the caretaker watched as Optimus cheered up ultra Magnus assuming the the beeps and coos were him telling ultra Magnus that he could be like a leader to the wreckers, but that’s only a guess seeing as how after the last chirp ultra Magnus’s pulled away from Optimus with a smile and walked off with what seemed to be determination. (Though he didn’t get very far as the only one who would fully listen to him was bulkhead, dreadwind and skyquake listened but didn’t fully respect him, and then there’s wheeljack. I think we can all guess how that went.)

[notgonnaedit]

Given to Fly

One Shall Fall

Summary: Martha "Marty" Thorne was a basic teenager, a little antisocial maybe. But her life changed the day she met the Autobots and joined them in their fight.

Pairing: Optimius x Teen!OFC (Platonic)

Chapter summary: An injury takes precedence.

Warnings: Canon-typical violence, injury, flat line things going off, medical emergency, (If I miss a tag LMK)

Updates are sporadic. If you want to be tagged LMK

@dreamsight73

Master list

"And it was written in the covenant of Primus that when the 47 spheres align, a perpetual conflict will culminate upon a world forged from chaos, and the weak shall perish in the shadow of a rising darkness." Optimus stared at the computer screen, reciting an old prophecy he had read a long time ago. "No skies raining fire?" Arcee asked. "Goes without saying," Ratchet added. "It is a doom prophecy, after all."

"I say it's a load of hooey," Bulkhead huffed.

Ratchet turned to look at him. "I'd always assumed the ancients were referring to our home planet, but being that Cybertron has been dark for eons..."

"And considering what has befallen this planet since Megatron's arrival here..." Optimus trailed off, letting his suspicions speak for themselves.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Bulkhead said. "We've known about these superstitions for ages and never gave them a second thought."

Arcee nodded. "Why all the ominous rumblings now?"

"Because the planetary alignment to which the prophecy refers is nearly upon us," Optimus answered.

"And it would seem its end point...Is Earth," Ratchet deduced.

Bulkhead chuckled nervously. "Uh...Crazy coincidence, heh, r-right?"

"How long are we talking?" Arcee asked.

Ratchet hummed. "A few days at most."

Optimus furrowed his brow. "However unsettling this revelation may be, I am more concerned about those who might believe that the prophecy speaks to them alone."

A chill passed through the base. The Autobots knew he was referring to Megatron, the Dark Lord of the Cons.

                        )()()()()(

"Pass," Jack said as Raf scrolled through a series of photos dedicated to finding aliens. "Kid in a costume. Balloon. Nope. Uh, hold," he stopped short when there was an image of a yellow and black muscle car without a driver.

Marty chuckled as she leaned on the back of the couch behind Raf. "The camera sure loves Bee."

"What can you do?" Miko asked. "When you're a superstar, you're paparazzi bait."

"Wait. Is that Bumblebee?" Ratchet asked worriedly.

Raf adjusted his glasses. "On a conspiracy website where users post evidence of close encounters. But we have it under control, Ratchet." 

The boy deleted the image and moved a new file to take its place. "We just scrub and replace Bee with..." He trailed off as a little cat in an astronaut's suit danced.

"Mars cat says, ‘take me to your feeder’."

"Ha ha!" A laugh came from the medic's direction.

Shocked stares covered the faces of the kids. 

"Ratchet actually laughed?" Miko asked.

The medic in question pressed his lips together as if surprised at them for letting joy escape.

Jack chuckled before turning to the tallest Bot. "Um, Optimus, do you want to see something funny?"

"No," the Prime answered bluntly without looking at them.

Martha chuckled. "Heheh."

"Don't take it personally," Arcee told her ward. "Primes are built that way."

"Never seen Optimus laugh, cry, or lose his cool," Bulkhead added.

"While Optimus certainly keeps his emotions in check," said Ratchet, "I've known him far longer than any of you have, and he was different before he was made a Prime."

This had Marty's attention. "Optimus wasn't always a Prime?"

"On Cybertron, one isn't born into greatness. Rather, one must earn it."

Miko raised a brow. "So, different how? We talkin’ party animal?" She wiggled for emphasis.

Marty groaned and rubbed her hands under glasses. "Thank you, Miko, for that image."

Ratchet hummed. "No, no. Optimus was more like... Martha."

The brunette snapped her head up. "There's no way I'm like Opti–"

"Prime!" Fowler's voice cut her off. "Those techites my department's been tracking – We figured it was MECH on account of the stealth tactics until moments ago when a security feed at the Pennington ebbs particle collider captured this–"

The screen flashed to an image of a faceless Cybertronian.

"Soundwave," Jack noted as they walked over.

"Raf can swap that out for you with a funny cat," Miko offered.

"The Con without a face made off with a cutting-edge phase conductor. Here's a punch list of everything else we've confirmed stolen to date."

"Plasma injector, neutron shield, tesseract?" Ratchet read off the list, surprise lacing his tone with each item. "There's only one thing missing if they are intending to build a space bridge."

                       )()()()()(

It was evening when Fowler called again, this time from a helicopter. "Prime, the 'Cons really stepped in it this time. They hit a U.S. military lab. Our boys in green will fend them off till your team shows."

"Agent Fowler, I fear that Megatron's desperation may be at its zenith, and you know that I cannot condone even a single human casualty," Optimus reminded the agent.

Fowler sighed and called off the troops as Ratchet readied the bridge. Bumblebee and Raf were not present, probably out racing for fun.

The medic commed the scout. "Bumblebee, the team may require backup. They are three clicks north from your current position, just off the highway. If you drop Raf at the exit ramp, I can bridge him back to base from there."

It wasn't ten minutes later that Optimus' voice came through the comm. He sounded panicked, almost. "Ratchet, bridge us back now!" "We must have an Autobot down," Ratchet figured.

Marty furrowed her brow, exchanging glances with Miko and Jack. As the portal activated, two figures walked through. Bumblebee, his door wings hanging dejectedly, and Arcee, cradling something in her arms like a baby. 

Marty looked at it closer. "Raf??"

"No!" Miko cried.

Ratchet rushed over to them. "What happened?"

"Megatron," Arcee snarled.

Ratchet's eyes widened. "Quickly, into my laboratory."

The kids rushed down the stairs as Arcee set the boy on a cot.

"Martha!" Ratchet barked. "I need your hands. Slid the IV into his veins."

The brunette nodded and took the needle, gently sliding it under Raf's skin. Her hands were steadier than she felt.

"Rafael isn't responding." Ratchet worried from the computer. "We must run diagnostics of his assemblage –eh, vital statistics. Oh, my tools –they're all wrong!" He threw them to the ground.

"We need to call my mom," Jack said, already dialing her number.

"Your mother may be a nurse, but does she know anything about the effects of Energon on the human body?" Ratchet asked.

Jack reeled on him. "Wh– do you know anything about the human body?" He turned away. "Mom, it's urgent!"

The medic looked down at the boy. He was pale, and his eyes had dark circles under them.

"‘The weak will perish‘," he muttered. "Be strong, Rafael."

It wasn't long before June came driving through the ground bridge. She parked in the middle of the base.

Jack ran over to her. "Mom, thank–"

"Grab my bag!" She ordered, already halfway over to Raf. She Immediately checked his pulse and breathing, her expression serious.

"Measuring the extent of the absorption should determine the proper course of treatment," Ratchet told her.

June glared up at him. "If I don't get this boy stabilized now, he will not leave this table alive. Do you understand me?!"

An angry buzz, followed by a loud bang! sounded. Bumblebee's fist was in the wall.

Arcee surged forward and pinned him against the wall. "Bee, listen. You think I don't know how it feels to watch a partner... Harmed? Revenge won't help Raf right now. You need to keep your emotions in check."

Marty looked away from the yellow Bot to glance at his sick ward.

Then she heard her own guardian over the comm talking to Ratchet. "Pull yourself together, old friend. Rafael needs you."

"And I have grown to need him," the medic admitted.

"Lock on to my coordinates and activate the ground bridge," the Prime ordered.

"Jack, help me get Raf to the car. He's going to the emergency room," June decided, putting away her stethoscope.

Ratchet turned to her. "Nurse Darby, your doctors won't be able to comprehend what's afflicting him – not without a decade of study."

June waved him off. "I don't have time to argue."

The medic looked back at his monitor. "The effects of an Energon blast on an Autobot can be devastating enough, but this is a human." His eyes widened. "I'm not getting any readings." He gasped. "How could I not have seen this? Rafael's been infected with Dark Energon."

Marty's throat went dry. 

"I need Energon," Ratchet cried.

"Wait," June said. "You said Energon was devastating to humans."

"Under normal circumstances, quite. But I am relying upon the dark matter currently invading Rafael's body to meet it head on."

Bumblebee walked over to Ratchet and held out his arm. The medic nodded and room a syringe, sucking the Energon out of the scout.

Raf's monitor started beeped furiously.

"I need him over here now!" Ratchet shouted.

Jack and June rolled the cot over to the decontamination chamber. Once they exited, Ratchet worked quickly. The chamber began to glow brightly. Marty shielded her hazel eyes from the blinding light.

Once it was over, they ran back in. June took the boys hand, her fingers resting on his wrist. "Pulse rate is stabilizing."

The boy's eyes opened, slowly but surely. His chocolate hues settled on his guardian. "Bee," he croaked.

Marty sighed. She hadn't realized she was holding her breath. She turned back to Ratchet and gave him a small smile, but then she saw another figure.

When did Bulkhead get there. And where was Optimus??

"Bulkhead, you let Optimus face Megatron alone?" Arcee scolded.

"I didn't have a choice," Bulkhead explained.

Marty looked up at Ratchet worriedly. "It could be a trap."

"We need to get a fix on his location," he agreed. "I'm locked onto Optimus' signal." His eyes went wide. "Wait. How is this possible?"

"What? What is it??" Marty asked.

Ratchet whipped around. "We need to get Optimus out of there now!"

Previous

[melishade]

Number 33?

This ask game

asked so far.

Chaos

Examination

Explanation

Miko and everyone else dealing with some trauma during the new age anthology.

TW Panic Attack

Armin didn't know when he fell asleep. All he knew was that he was tired. He found himself crawling to the ridiculously soft bed in the room he was quarantined in and curled in on himself. Not even bothering with the sheets.

He was...exhausted. So exhausted. He finally had the chance to rest after...everything. The power of the titans...was finally gone. The Survey Corps completed its mission. But now what? Would their world even find peace? How many lives were even lost in the chaos? Who was watching over Paradis now that Historia was here with them? What about everyone else? Mikasa? Optimus? Megatron? Were those three even alive? Armin ended up passing out from exhaustion with a tidal wave of questions that flooded his mind.

However, he was immediately awakened to the sounds of someone screaming in terror. Armin shot up from the bed, wondering who was screaming.

"What the hell happened?!" Sasha demanded as she and everyone else were alerted to the screaming. Armin turned his head to the screaming, and saw Miko scrambling out of her bed in a panic. She quickly crawled into the corner of the room where the glass and wall met, right next to Jack's room.

"Miko! Miko!" Jack screamed for her, running to the end of his room closest to Miko. Miko had stopped screaming, but she was breathing heavily, and her eyes were unfocused and clearly panicked.

"Miko, can you hear me?" Jack asked her, "Miko, c'mon. Talk to me."

"I....I..." Miko tried to form the words, but nothing would come out. Jack placed his hand against the wall and took a deep breath.

"Okay: can you tell me five things you can see?" Jack asked. Armin snapped his head to Jack at that while Sasha's voice got lodged in her throat.

"Uh...um...." Miko was slowly calming down as she was trying to find the answer, "Bed...glass....wall...ceiling...feet."

"Four things you can touch," Jack continued.

"...clothes..." Miko touched the fabric on her body before moving her hands to the ground, "Floor..." Her hands moved upward to the wall, "Wall..." She clasped her hands together, "Hands."

"Three things you can hear," Jack said.

"My voice...your voice...the fans," Miko listed, her breath slowing down to a normal pace.

"Two things you can smell," Jack said.

"Wall paint and alcohol," Miko answered.

"One thing you can taste," Jack finished.

Miko raised her head and took a deep breath. "Does spit have a taste?"

"I'm pretty sure it doesn't," Jack answered her.

Miko chuckled a little. "...thanks."

"You want to talk about it?" Jack asked.

"Not now," Miko decided.

"Talking about it might be good," Hanji chimed in. Armin leaned against the glass to try and look at them and noticed the way that they were examining the bottom corners of where the glass and walls met, "Might make you feel better, and most of us here are soldiers, so we'll have a better understanding on how you feel."

Miko didn't respond to them, but Hanji decided to talk without being prompted to. "The eye loss is actually pretty recent. Happened...yesterday, I think. Eren attacked us and I barely managed to dodge it. Honestly, I'm afraid of going to sleep right now because I'm afraid I'll wake up but I won't be able to see anymore."

"You're going to crash if you don't try to sleep," Jack scolded them.

"Well, that's future me's problem," Hanji proclaimed before walking over to the drawer next to their bed. They pulled on the drawer and felt a creak before grinning.

"Yessssss," Hanji started pulling on the drawer and bringing it close to the window.

"Well they seem surprisingly cheery," Miko remarked as Hanji hopped on top of the drawer to look at the top corners.

"They're pretty much always like that," Armin declared.

"...That technique," Sasha spoke up, loud enough for Jack and Miko to hear, "Arcee...she used it to help Connie calm down."

"She did?" Jack asked her.

"Yeah she did," Sasha nodded, "Someone that hurt Connie and took his family away came to the island for alliance reasons. Connie wanted to shoot him down, but Arcee managed to calm him with the technique you just used."

Jack couldn't help but smile at that. It was nice to know that his partner was going out of her way to help others. "Good to know you had Arcee in your corner."

"She saved my life," Sasha proclaimed, "I'm really grateful to her....but...I....when they prepare Connie for his funeral-!"

"They'll be respectful about it," Jack reassured, "They're probably going to make it a closed casket though. You can probably make some requests to General Bryce while you're at it."

"Okay," Sasha said, "Can I pick where he gets to be buried?"

"You two seem to be good friends. I'm sure you'll be able to do funeral arrangements," Jack assumed.

"...are the people in Liberio still alive?" Gabi felt tears streaming down her face, earning everyone else's attention.

"Will we even get to bury what's left?!" Gabi started sobbing, covering her face with her hands.

"Hey, Gabi, it's gonna be okay. We'll figure something out," Colt tried to reassure her as she kept crying.

"...I'm no doubt going to need to set up protocols once I return to what's left of Hizuru," Kenshin lamented, "I hope...I hope my aunt's alive. Maybe she can handle things while I'm here."

Kenshin sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I still don't know how bad the damage is."

"The U.S. will no doubt come up with plans to help with your planet's environment," Jack reassured, "They'll also do what they can to ID victims through DNA testing."

"Don't need to do 'DNA' testing...they died right in front of me," Kenshin muttered the last part.

"...It wasn't the feet," Miko began, "It wasn't the giant feet stepping down on me, trying to pummel me and kill me."

"Miko, you don't have to-!"

"It was just...seeing the aftermath...feeling the heat through the Apex Armor...seeing those giant footprints in the dirt...I-!" Miko covered her mouth to prevent anything else from coming out, "I'm going to bed."

"Miko, wait," Jack called for her, but the girl didn't listen as she grabbed the sheets and covered her whole body with it.

"...Sorry about that. I hope you guys can gets some sleep," Jack told the others before going back to his bed.

Armin...just felt so guilty as he pulled the covers over his body this time and hid his face from the glass window. This was all his fault. Time and time again he made excuses for Eren. If only he didn't. If only he actually listened to Megatron, then they wouldn't be here.

But now it was too late, and the damage was done. And the people who were left would have to live with the consequences of his actions for the rest of their lives.

(In Guren No Yumiya, Miko in the Apex Armor gets thrown off of Eren's Founding Titan form and gets trampled by the Colossal Titan's, only surviving because she had the Apex Armor. She ends up seeing the immediate aftermath of the Rumbling and...yeah that would mess up anyone. Whatever is left on that asks is free game. We're pretty close to the end.)

[blueikeproductions]

@nukeli Ok so “DEI” refers to Diversity Equity & Inclusion, a relatively new initiative that was designed to show off minorities, women, and people of color more.

Now on the surface, that’s not a bad thing, we’ve had plenty of diverse shows before like Diff’rent Strokes, Cyborg 009, Family Matters, Everybody Hates Chris, Kim Possible, My Life As A Teenage Robot, The Golden Girls, The Magic School Bus, and more.

This includes people behind the scenes like actors, writers and directors. Stuff we’ve had before too.

But the modern version of it, via DEI, has evolved into let’s just trash white people, and to quote the South Park line grifters use annoyingly as their rallying cry “Put a chick in it, make her lame & gay!”

So we’ve gotten stuff like Tee-La from He-Man being the stereotypical butch lesbian with a side shave haircut who just seems to hate everyone now and feels personally attacked, pushing Adam/He-Man aside to be the hero, and similarly Skeletor being pushed side in favor of making a similarly stereotyped butch lesbian Evil-Lyn the main villain. A big complaint among other things was how Tee-La was just incredibly unlikable and hard to root for, along with giving her and Evil-Lyn The Power in a manner that doesn’t make sense for their previously established characters in the 80’s and 2000’s cartoons. Thankfully the sequel show to MOTU: R corrected these problems, bringing Adam/He-Man & Tee-La on equal footing like they always were, and making Tee-La far more likable. Also Tee-La inheriting The Power from her mother The Sorceress, is used much better here and it makes more sense how she uses it here, vs the previous coddled, stereotype “I am woman hear me roar” direction they tried.

DEI has also poorly affected other things, like little people not getting jobs in the Snow White reboot movie to play the Dwarves, both because it was seen as offensive, and also Peter Dinklage running his mouth (somewhat justifiably in areas) and ruining it for everyone. Cleveland Brown in Family Guy being recast because his original voice actor was white being replaced with a black actor who impersonates the voice rather than doing his own thing with it, and DEI informing a new form of segregation, as only black actors can be black characters, whites can only be whites, Asians Asians, and etc in animation. Never mind popular black actors like Kevin Micheal Richardson and Phil LaMarr have done non black characters before with LaMarr famously being Samurai Jack, an Asian character. Some Asian actors who were for the casting changes realized too late it affected what they could do as it meant they can’t do anything other than Asian characters when they wanted to read for a non Asian human character. The point of voice acting is everyone can be anything like how many male characters are voiced by women like Tommy Pickles or Timmy Turner or how some female characters are voiced by men like Linda Belcher.

DEI also tends to over focus on how a show has only diverse actors and characters, and ergo EarthSpark’s marketing was going all in on how it had black characters, putting them as top billing over the Autobots on toy packaging. It also tended to favor its female cast, making the (non Megatron) men look incompetent. Like how GHOST is almost exclusively female, with the few male members being complete idiots. (To be fair, Schloder is supposed to be more of an Inspector Clouseau type but still.)

The more egregious instances to me is despite emphasizing kali, they don’t do anything with it that would make it look cool to all kids watching. Like Twitch using it to fight a Decepticon, outwitting him or her, using a skill she inherited from her adopted human father makes sense! As well as emphasizing the Terrans being Earth natives and learning its culture. Instead it’s just left hanging there, and I feel like someone internally said it’d be cultural appropriation if Twitch or Nightshade used it.

The production notes also intended Robbie to be the leader, something the second season went back to, but the first season emphasized Mo way more leaving Robbie little to do, to the point when he was practically dead, his parents instead showered Mo with affection for her problems when he was laying right next to them barely holding on.

Also Nightshade’s everything, causing the controversy that saw more casuals and parents reject the show hard. Nightshade is another example of DEI, over focusing on their being nonbinary as their sole character trait, despite their geeky, scientific side being just as important. The second season again corrects this, focusing entirely on their personality more and properly showing off their gift of science. It was too little too late though.

Really when you look back on it, the first season, despite its decent ideas, emphasized a lot of the DEI stuff casual audiences hate, with the second season going back to a traditional Autobots vs Decepticons conflict, and using more of the earlier ideas in the production bible. I still believe the more intriguing Megatron steals the Emberstone plot was repurposed into Starscream wanting it, because someone clearly didn’t want Megatron to relapse into being evil again.

This also feeds into another modern problem of not really having true villains anymore, and how due to DEI, most of the villains we get are only entitled white people to antagonize the people of color or female heroes (now we HAVE had this before off and on but not to this extent, and even then it was handled organically and made sense), vs stuff like the modern Invincible adult cartoon having a diverse villain cast like its comics did. A lot of modern stuff similarly tries to paint the Decepticons as being the true heroes despite the writing and the audience not supporting it. It’s why the Micheal Bay films are still popular because despite making the Autobots into more violent 80’s-90’s action heroes, they’re still defending the Earth and humanity from the monstrous Decepticons who intend to blow it up to obtain the trendy MacGuffin of the day. As for the cop/military stuff, one, it makes sense that the Autobots would ally themselves with the Earth military to help humans have a fighting chance, and two it’s not going away, because of the movies shifting to incorporating GI Joe as the human military force over NEST/Sector 7. Even Noah was ex military via RotB. The only bad cop was Barricade, a Decepticon, and any bad faith humans in military power were usually proven wrong for their hubris in thinking they didn’t need the Autobots.

Even TFONE has largely returned to a more simple black and white approach in having proper heroic characters in Orion’s miners turned Autobots, and properly evil villains in the Quints, Sentinel, Airachnid, and Starscream. Even D-16 makes sense as being evil again as he let his frustrations and anger at Sentinel, who he looked up to, consume him in a more believable way than Prime and Cyberverse making it look like he was just throwing a tantrum for 4 million years because Optimus got what he wanted: control.

So ultimately diversity is still a good thing, but the modern approach to it by embittered people who thought they knew better has instead pushed us back a few decades when things were largely ok in terms of diversity and making natural strides in improving.

Family Matters and Static Shock were among my favorite shows growing up, but now, because of current trends, I can’t look at characters like Liko from HZ or Hazel from New Wish without thinking they were the result of DEI and not an organic desire of trying out something else. And that’s not at all how it should be thought of.

[lets-try-some-writing]

In the grim dark archives what would happen if the kids died? Whether it was by the autobots or some outside threat. I vaguely remember you posting something a little more in depth regarding the kids but heaven forbid I can ever find anything with Tumblr’s horrible searching system. So correct me if I’m wrong

But I remember you said Optimus specifically needed Raf for something. So if he dies we might have an issue

But Jack and Miko are solely there to keep their respective bots occupied. So if those two died would they just replace them with kids who looked similar enough and prayed the bots didnt notice?

The Grim Dark Archives: Transcript #003 Hypothetical

[Transcript taken [Redacted: Sensitive data] from [REDACTED] after concerns regarding the children were raised by personnel and the higher ups. I decided to ask [REDACTED] a few questions about a hypothetical where the children perished.

It was mostly for my own sake, so I decided to keep it all as a transcript. The higher ups don't read transcripts as often since they technically aren't official.

Transcript begins.]

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Agent Witwicky: The children... what would happen if they died? [REDACTED]: Rafael won't die. Prime won't allow it. He's going to join the Archive soon enough. The Archive protects its own. Agent Witwicky: Then the other two. What about them? [REDACTED]: Let's not get it twisted. Miko will die. She's with Bulkhead. He will kill her eventually, probably in a fit of boredom. Jack will likely expire at some point too. Arcee doesn't know how to care for squishies like you lot. Agent Witwicky: Answer the question. [REDACTED]: Dang, harsh crowd here tonight. [REDACTED]: Miko will get replaced. Simple as that. It isn't hard to find a rambunctious kid on this planet of yours, especially since your culture is swimming in media that paints alien lifeforms in a positive happy go lucky light. Agent Witwicky: So Bulkhead doesn't care about her? [REDACTED]: I wouldn't say that. To him, I can only assume he views her like how you humans may see a pet goldfish. He will take care of her, but when she expires, he will get rid of her and move on quickly. Agent Witwicky: How long do you think she has until she... expires? [REDACTED]: Hard to tell. Wreckers take pets a lot. Some care for them properly, others don't. I didn't exactly take the time to get to know the Wrecker units since I valued life. Agent Witwicky: Right... and Jack? [REDACTED]: If he dies and Arcee fails to bond to another human, Arcee will likely be executed shortly after the boy's death. Prime keeps Arcee around simply because she's vicious and because it invokes fear in the enemy. Agent Witwicky: He isn't concerned about eliminating a threat then. [REDACTED]: Exactly. I think there is a core element most miss when it comes to Prime. Everything he does is two sided. Agent Witwicky: That's not surprising. [REDACTED]: No its not. But what I mean by that is, well, he's not the mech I knew. When he joined the Archive, he was still a mech that I could recognize. Now though? It's like someone else is walking in his frame, and that person thinks this whole war is FUN. Agent Witwicky: Can you confirm that? [REDACTED]: No. I have my theories, but they aren't relevant right now. For the time being, just know that when those two kids expire, Prime will find replacements for them or for Arcee.

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[Transcript ends.

The more I hear about the Autobots, the more my childhood dream of being friends with aliens dies. Prime is terrifying and I haven't even met him in person before. I don't think I want to. If he is as [REDACTED] says, then we are better off hoping that this Megatron character kills him soon.

Agent Witwicky signing off.

Recording end.]

[in1-nutshell]

Hey it's me again sorry if I'm overwhelming you with my multiple asks what could you do more old Predacon buddy with maybe just hanging out with the kids and stuff along with they're adopted son aka preking (I hope I'm saying his name right) Just some wholesome fluff and possibly make sure ratchet actually recharges and doesn't stay up all night working including the Optimus and the others old Predacon buddy has those sweet old Southern Grandpa vibes or you could do some old Predacon buddy interacting with Megatron during his glory days or something similar to that whatever you choose I'm not really picky also Make sure not to overwork yourself and make sure to hydrate every now and then and eat something at least healthy =]

They are back!

Caution: Grandparent vibes nearby

Hope you enjoy!

Bot Buddy the Old Predacon slice of life

SFW, Platonic, Familial, Cybertronain reader

TFP

It had been a rather busy month on base.

After the latest Decepticon mining activity, all the Autobots were on edge and running around like crazy.

Buddy mainly took care of the humans while everyone was busy on base. They swear if they didn’t have such an eye sore of an alt mode, they would pick up the kids instead of having to remind some of them to do it themselves.

Buddy lumbering around the console behind Bulkhead.

“Bulkhead? What are you still doing here?”--Buddy

“What do you mean?”--Bulkhead

“Bulkhead why isn’t Miko here? Is she sick?”--Buddy

“She at school today.”--Bulkhead

“Bulkhead its Saturday. Miko doesn’t have school.”--Buddy

“…”--Bulkhead

Bulkhead transforms quickly and drives out.

Buddy shaking their helm at Ratchet.

“Kids these days.”--Buddy

“You said it.”--Ratchet

“You count too Ratchet.”--Buddy

Ratchet raises an optic at Buddy and vents a bit.

“You may be old by these young bots but don’t forget I’m the eldest here.”--Buddy

“Yet you try to do things a young bot would. It’s not good for your joints.”--Ratchet

Buddy gentle flicks Ratchet in the back of the helm with their tail.

“My frame allows some extra movement.”--Buddy

Buddy stretches their arm.

SQUEAK!

“…”—Buddy and Ratchet

“…Buddy—”--Ratchet

“Not a word Ratchet. Not. A. Word.”--Buddy

Buddy knew that entertaining the kids with stories was only going to go so far. Especially when their guardians could stay with each of the children for long.

It was frankly getting on Buddy’s nerves.

It finally reached their limit when Movie Night came around.

The kids had gotten permission to spend the night at the base.

The original plan was to have a movie night with everyone.

Just some quality time with one another catching up on everything.

But it looked like most of them had forgotten about it.

Buddy didn’t like this. At. All.

And their spark broke a little seeing their disappointed faces.

Buddy looking down at the kids.

“Kids meet me at the exit with the gear.”--Buddy

“The gear?”--Jack

“Yes, you which one I’m talking about. Meet me over by the exit, we’ll have that Movie Night when we are done with it.”--Buddy

Once the kids came with the gear, Buddy knelt and had them climb on using their magnetic seatbelts.

These were almost light the Earth car seats but they were specially designed to be placed on Buddy via magnets.

Nothing was going to peel them away from Buddy until the end of any trip.

As soon as everyone was ready Buddy shot upwards.

Did they scare the kids a bit?

Yes, but it was worth it.

Buddy flying through the night sky.

“You seem pretty fast for an old timer.”--Miko

Buddy huffs a bit.

“This old timer still has a few tricks up their metaphoric sleeve.”--Buddy

“Buddy.”--Jack

“But you shouldn’t fly too fast, you can pull something.”--Raf

“Buddy.”--Jack

“Oh, my sweet Rafael, I’m spry for my age.”--Buddy

“Buddy!”--Jack

“Yes Jack?”--Buddy

Jack points forwards.

“Predaking!”--Jack

Buddy wasn’t too bothered by the sight of Predaking.

But they might have forgotten how the kids didn’t know the other predacon like they had.

Soon the two Predacon’s were flapping their wings circling each other.

The clouds around them slowly formed around them.

Through a series of clicks and roars the two talked.

‘Buddy.’--Predaking

‘Predaking, how are you? It’s been too long.’--Buddy

‘Fine Buddy. How are you faring with the enemy.’--Predaking

Buddy huffing.

‘They are not the enemy of mine, Predaking. I’ve told you before.’--Buddy

Predaking’s turn to huff.

‘There’s a reason you wanted to talk isn’t there?’--Buddy

‘…You know me too well.’--Predaking

‘I would be an awful ‘grandparent’, as the humans say. At least that’s how I remember the saying.’--Buddy

Predaking huffs.

‘I have been considering… leaving the Decepticons.’--Predaking

Buddy raising their optics.

‘You have?’--Buddy

‘Yes.’--Predaking

‘I can put a good word in with the Auto—’--Buddy

‘No. At least… not now…’--Predaking

Buddy nods.

‘You still need time. I understand. Just let me know, okay?’--Buddy

Predaking nods and flies the other way.

Buddy huffs a bit.

“What.”--Jack

“Was.”--Raf

“That!”--Miko

“Oh yeah I forgot you don’t understand the clicks yet.”--Buddy

“Yet?”—Raf

“I will teach you three one day.”—Buddy

“Sick.”—Miko

“What did he want?”--Jack

“He just wanted to talk, nothing more.”--Buddy

They continued their flight before it was time to go back to base.

As Buddy touched down, they could see some of the Autobots come out of the base to see what was going on.

Buddy simply walked inside with the kids still on their back.

Buddy kneeling down so the kids could get down and take the gear off.

“Where were you four?”--Arcee

“Flying around Arcee. It can get stuffy in here.”--Buddy

“You know that someone could have spotted you?”--Arcee

“I am fully aware of that Arcee. I think with one of the largest alt modes here, I’d keep that in mind.”—Buddy

“Then why—"--Arcee

Buddy stands back up to full height.

“I do believe that there was a ‘Movie Night’ that you all needed to attend.”—Buddy

Buddy stretches a bit.

POP!

SQUEAK!

PANG!

“…”—Everyone

“…I’m old, okay. Haven’t you all heard of joints popping?”--Buddy

“Yes, but not like that.”--Bulkhead

Buddy lays down near the projector.

The kids follow with their blankets and pillows.

“Beep boop bop bep? (Do you need to see Ratchet?)”--Bumblebee

“I’m fine. Now let’s watch the movie the children have chosen.”—Buddy

Team Prime give Buddy a side eye, but ultimately gives in.

The Autobots crowd around the projector to watch the movie into the late hours of the night.

Buddy looks around, just happy to have a family together.

[maiselyormaiforshort]

Facts in my Tfp prime au called "Secretly Frenemies"

•the jasper trio got hit with the fanfiction canon divergence and instantly got a growth spurt, RazorEzquivel(Raf) height reaches to megs shoulder,CrimSonJaeger(Jack) is 4 centimetres taller than meg,Microzus(Miko) is 2 centimetres taller Crimson but its hard to tell

•Microzus gets mistaken for a mech Alot because in this au her build is more Mech like so people mostly assume she's A mech instead of a femme,they wouldn't really care if they knew tho because screw gender rules

•RazorEzquivel's design is very similar to G1 SoundWave minus the face plate and speakers

•Microzus wears the Cybertronion equivalent of makeup to look more mature except she's terrible at it(smudged lipstick,smudged eyeliner,I think that's all she would wear,of course knockout can't bare to see this and helps her do it)

•Micro and Crimson are friends with benefits

•they play out an event that would make a big impact,Razor's left eye has been malfunctioning so he needs to get it surgically removed,Microzus suggests she "punches" it Infront of the whole battlefield dramatically,she would then "banish" him from the decepticons,Crimson plays along because he could really use some help with coding,Razor plays along becuz hes tired of starscreams bs,after the event Crimson lets Razor "join" the autobots,Ratchet notices Razors eye malfunction and starts yapping bout it(similar to how someone would point out something obvious)

•Crimson would randomly drop lore,he would say sht like"yknow,before my name was CrimSonJaeger",he would then proceed to show the autobots pictures of the trio before the war while yapping,1 of them includes MicDrop hugging CrackerJack while HackRate sits on her shoukders,most of the pictures are the old trio just being happy,Optimus feels pity for Crimson and proceeds to tell him about his backstory with Megatron,Crimson is like:oh sht i guess I'm a fraud now,Ops is glad he can relate with someone

•Microzus's colours are more purpleish and very dark pink because she wants to be respected seen as mature and thinks the pink makes her look unprofessional childish (ignore how this is out of character,she would totally not gaf and be bright pink)

•the cybertronion population is still good in this au because I love it when there are lots of characters,this translates to cliffjumper,breakdown,anyone else that dies in the series,doesn't die

•im not sure if I want this au to take place on earth or cybertron but I think it would make more sense on cybertron because humans don't play a big part in this au

•tge au ends when Cybertron is almost in shambles leading to Both decepticons and autobots having nothing else to fight for,in an effort to make things better again Microzus and Crimson both agree to stop the war that they have been playing with.

•the trio can only bite their tongue knowing all the lives that were sacrificed are probably rolling in their graves because their sacrifices were useless

•they make a cybertronion equivalent of declaration of independence stuff,the war is over, cybertron is currently being restored,the autobots and decepticons who loved mechs/femmes on rival sides are now Conjuixes and they all live happily ever after

[nevis-the-skeleton]

Why do we hate Airachnid that much?

I saw a short but rather interesting post from @cosmics-beings, which questioned why most of us hate Airachnid that much: here

A possible first answer was that it was because she killed Breakdown. But as cosmic says, Starscream killed Cliffjumper and Megatron killed Dreadwing, yet that doesn't stop us from liking one or the other, or even both : here

So what is different with Airachnid? What makes us don't love her, sometimes going so far as to hate her. Because deep down, she's not much different from Starscream. Both are characters who don't really belong to one side, and who are selfish and calculating. They both have:

-Tried to betray Megatron

-Became MECH Allies

-Killed a partner of Arcee/or other (so Breakdown for Airachnid)

And yet, despite these striking resemblances of actions, the two did not do it for the same reason, or in the same way.

*

First, why do both of them want to betray/kill Megatron? Starscream attempts to do this because he is being abused by Megatron. He's actually one of the few Starscreams to be at least loyal as long as you treat him well, and meet some of his expectations. In the beginning of the series, Starscream shows no signs of betrayal, until Megatron begins to hurts him. It's from this moment that Starscream begins to think again of betraying him, by killing him. This is one of the first reasons, the second being an undeniable thirst for power from him, which he somehow tries to fill. Adding the fact that he led the Decepticons for three years, and as soon as Megatron returned, everything started to go wrong. Thanks, Dark Energon…

But, Airachnid? Why does she do it? Why does she want to betray Megatron so badly too? For power? Like Starscream? But what is the motivation behind it? She seems more the type to live alone, and all of a sudden she wants to lead? In fact, we don't understand her intentions unlike Starscream, this is one of the first points that makes us not like her, because we can't understand her. A character on the villain side can be appreciated, but has to be understood.

*

Then why did they try to ally with MECH? For Starscream, the answer is simple: he was literally starving to death, and MECH had the resources to solve that problem. Afterwards, one might wonder why he betrayed his species in such a way by revealing to the MECH how to build an artificial Transformer. Already, because it suited him, the MECH was bound to look for energon for their robot, and he knew that in return for his information, he could have some. In Starscream's head you don't get anything for free, if you don't have anything to give back, you get nothing. This, he already learns with the Autobots, because if he didn't have the necessary information, Ratchet wasn't even fixing him. And surely it was already like that even with the Decepticons. Starscream also indeed shot Bumblebee's T-cog, but he had no real malice behind it, in fact the shot practically go off on its own. And, yes, he mocks Bumblebee. But at the same time it's Starscream, we can't expecte from him to have compassion for an enemy.

Airachnid on her side does it for her vendetta against Arcee, nothing else. She just takes pleasure in making Arcee suffer, by threatening her human family: Jack and June. She doesn't gain much, except the pleasure of hurting her nemesis. She is not necessarily looking for a refuge, or an ally. She was planning to betray MECH right after anyway. Because, let's be clear, she has no real reason to hate Arcee that much… Airachnid hurts Arcee more than Arcee hurts her. Except maybe her pride.

*

Then, both killed robots, but the way to do it is different. Starscream usually tries to kill in one shot. We saw it with Cliffjumper, both in the scene where he kills him, and in the flashback. In episode 1 of TFP, Starscream kills Cliffjumper in one shot, aiming directly at the Spark, he does not seek to make the prisoner suffer.

So yes, it's frankly not cool to kill a prisoner, but the Decepticons are not angels in this series, nor are the Autobots. So it's not necessarily surprising for him to do so. Especially when we're talking about Starscream. Afterwards, we see that he is not necessarily interested in killing an enemy in pain, because in the scene in the past, with the first appearance of Shockwave. Starscream has a multitude of choices to kill Cliffjumper, more or less painful.

He had the choice, but between making suffer Cliffjumper, or make him silent forever, he prefers the second option. He prefers a standard, quick way, a hit claws straight into the Spark.

Even with Wheeljack, if Soundwave hadn't stopped Starscream, Wheeljack's death would have been instantaneous.

When Starscream kills, it's to be effective, he doesn't seem to really enjoy hurting others. Except perhaps with Arcee, but the little desire for revenge must have been just as present as for our dear warrior. But here, too, he wanted to kill in one shot, like against Airachnid with his missiles. But I also add that's he don't hate makes suffer others, he's not a cool bot you know. But, he seems to have a preference of instant kill instead of painful one.

While Airachnid takes pleasure in making his opponent suffer. She never kills them right away, prolonging the fight, or imprisoning them in her webs. Already to put pressure, but also to make his opponent totally at her mercy.

And sorry but, is it me, or does she really don't know what "personal space" mean? It's kinda interresting in fact.Why is she doing this?

Anyway, like I said, you can't really hate her for that, killing in the back or when the enemy is helpless is the Decepticons way in this series (except Dreadwing). But, even there, she does not kill them right away. For example for Breakdown. Well that's technically a case of self-defense, because he was trying to kill her too. But given Breakdown's scream of pain, it clearly wasn't quick. And then you just have to see the state of his corpse! Why cut him up like this?! Clearly, it wasn't necessarily to do so, especially since there was always Dreadwing, which could have happened at any time. Yet she took her time, literally tearing Breakdown apart piece by piece.

Even Megatron is more lenient on this, often giving a quick kill or an effective hit, like against Ratchet. And, for example, he shooted directly into Dreadwing's Spark, without trying to torture him.

And, yes, Airachnid killed Tailgate with one hit, but she had tortured him beforehand, in front of Arcee! Not to mention that she massacred entire species, for her morbid collection, which is super creepy. And, again, apart from showing that she's a psychopath, I don't really see the point of this collection.

So, Starscream and Airachnid are selfish and calculating as I said before, but Starscream mainly uses this as a defense mechanism, whereas Airachnid seems to be aware of it and enjoy it.

*

We also see that unlike other Decepticons, she shows no signs of empathy, or bonding with others, or even weakness. For example, Starscream has empathy for Breakdown and that's kind of what drives him to save him, beyond orders. He is also disturbed by the state of his corpse with Cylas in it. We also see his weaknesses, or when he doubts, which also pushes the viewer to have empathy for him. As another example, we have KnockOut who is enraged when he finds out what Cylas did to Breakdown. Or Dreadwing, who is a super endearing character because of the love he had for his brother. Even being a Decepticon, he kind of mourns his death. There is also the friendship between Megatron and Soundwave. Just see Soudwave's reaction, when Airachnid tries to betray Megatron. And we have a moment of vulnerability from Megatron when Orion Pax somehow returns, which is what stops him from killing Optimus. While Airachnid is cold, and shows no real emotions. Even Shockwave who is supposed to be emotionless has more than her, and he has a bond with Predaking. We can for example see small affectionate moments between them.

Airachnid has no friendly relationship, even if it's not unheard among the Decepticons: Breakdown and KnockOut, Starscream and KnockOut, Soundwave and Megatron, Megatron and Shockwave, Predaking and Shockwave, Skyquake and Dreadwing, and even Soundwave and Starscream (in a way). Airachnid seems to have only enemies and no friends.

The fact that no character is attached to her or appreciates her, makes that the viewer does not get there either. Major characters like Starscream, Arcee, and even Soundwave don't like her. And they are characters that fans appreciate. So, inside, without realizing it, we don't love her like them.

*

We don't always understand her intentions, and she seems to take too much pleasure in making others suffer, which makes the viewer unable to appreciate her. We also don't know much about her, especially on an emotional level. In fact, Airachnid isn't deep enough, and doesn't really show any weakness. We rarely see her being scared, sad, or having doubts. Things that you can actually see in the other Decepticons. I think the reason most of us don't like Airachnid is because she seems to us as totally unsympathetic and sadistic to an extreme degree.

Unlike Starscream or even Megatron who don't necessarily seem to take pleasure in hurting or killing. This is also the case with most of the other Decepticons, the only exception being KnockOut against Cylas, but he does it mostly out of revenge. For example even Megatron when he beats Starscream doesn't seems to appreciate it. It's impulsive and out of anger, whereas Airachnid most often does it hyper-premeditated. She's a psychopath, so it's hard for the viewer to get attached to her.

But, it's don't mean that we can't appreaciate her, or that we can't appreciate a character like Airachnid. For example, Overlord, who's kinda like Airachnid, is like by many fans. But the difference is that he shows emotions, even sadness or doubt. Not just joy about hurting people.

All I said doesn't mean she's a bad villain, quite the contrary. If she had been exploited better, they could have easily made her the main villain of Season 3. I made an analyse, where I explain that she's could have been a really cool villain, but that they don't show her full potential, and that her character has not been explored enough : here

If you have others ideas about why we don't like her that much, I would be happy to hear it :).