#rodpod

[ritesofdescendancy]

Auditions are officially closed!

A huge thank you to everyone who has auditioned and wished success on the project! We will be reviewing auditions in the coming weeks, and expect to have casting done by the end of the month. Keep an eye out in your email inboxes for any information regarding callbacks, questions, and casting.

With love and thanks,

Twin Strangers Productions

[mirko78rm]

[earthspark-shockwaves-reduction]

listen... if my wildest expectations and greatest dreams come true and hot rod/rodimus shows up in earthspark... he can't just stumble onto the maltos' property or come in some generic ship or escape pod or even the fucking lost light.

...He has to crash land in the fucking rodpod.

[fierydare]

u know what im not even surprised anymore it's just a roddy thing to own things that are made in ur own likeness

[magicruned]

HELPPP

[driftkinnie]

surprised i havent seen any rodpod things you can buy on like, etsy

because ive mentioned it, rodpod ita bag when ⁉️

[daddymus-mamatron]

There is no such things as 'too many roddy stars' a'ight?!?

[rungssparemodelpieces]

Catformers AU

Rodimus

* Rodimus is a feisty cat, to put it mildly. He acts like he owns the place, being the first to seek out attention from the caretakers that show up to open the shelter and the last meow you hear when the shelter closes down for the night. Roddy, as he gets nicknamed, wants to be everywhere caretakers go and gets himself into a lot of trouble. He’s adventurous and daring, having figured out ways to escape his kennel and escape the play area he and the other cats tend to be in when the place is opened. It was probably due to his eccentric nature that he was relinquished to the Lost Light shelter along with some other cats like Drift.

* Rodimus is a cat that needs a lot of attention, often yowling and meowing at caretakers to pet and play with him. He also is a very active cat, enjoying teaser toys and the giant running wheel. Most days he likes playing with Drift, ignoring Magnus when he bats at him, or bugging Megatron, who either ignores or hisses at him to leave him alone. Despite his usually happy attitude, Roddy has some moments where he needs alone time or he lashes out and needs to be isolated. He’s a little fireball that needs a little stability and one on one care so being single and with no other pets, you were the perfect choice to foster him!

* To say Rodimus didn’t wreck your home after he showed up to your house would be a lie; the little deviant decided to explore his surroundings in the most destructive way possible whether it was dragging your toilet paper all over the house, knocking off pictures of knickknacks off the counter, and managing to get into the food and treats you bought for him as well as the ones not for him. Nighttime wasn’t better, the cat making all sorts of noises in the middle of the night, leaving you restless and exhausted coming in next morning with him.

* Rodimus needs attention so from the moment you brought him home to work and back, Roddy would beg for your attention either by meowing, rubbing himself against you, clawing at you, or his favorite, jumping up or climbing onto you to be right up in your face. With him needing you, it made it nearly impossible to leave home without him but it turned out Rodimus does well outside and on a leash, using the time to look around and also greet people you would pass. He soaks up all the pets and praises given to him. He even enjoys car rides, becomes your little co-captain when you take him on your errands.

* Rodimus enjoys playing with you as well as certain other cats, often having playdates with Drift but will try to play and mingle with other cats. He also gets the privilege of being an outdoor cat and as such, has brought over many a dead, semi-dead, and alive critters into your home, in your bed, in your shoes, etc. But he always knows to come home by the end of the day, either finding his way to your lap or ending up sleeping in a cat bed you’ve nicknamed the Rodpod. With him by your side, you help each other out, becoming more social and outgoing as you take him around, boosting your confidence and helping Roddy find some stability and reassurance that he’ll always have you around to shower him with attention and praise.

* Rodimus is a heater. He could curl up next to you and you would be the one to move away because he’s that warm but it’s nice during the winter time or when you’re sad, needing the comfort. If you end up in a depressed state, he’s the one who gives you attention, licking your face and cuddling up into your chest or face before you manage to get up at least to take care of him. He has scratched you before out of anger, hissing and spitting but you don’t blame him, giving him space before he approaches you and tries to lick the scratches to say he’s sorry.

* If you chose to adopt Rodimus, life with him is never boring! You might end up adopting a few others along the way, making a little crew where he, again, acts like he’s in charge but really, you’re both in charge and try to remind him of that. If not, he still has a home at the Lost Light shelter and though other cats may come and go, he’s still along for the ride, begging for your attention and never giving you a moment’s rest but you wouldn’t have it any other way.

[singingcicadas]

Realized that even though it's a shame that there wasn’t much Drift/Megatron interaction in the story, we still got a fairly detailed one-sided account of Drift’s opinion.

Because this is in no way an accurate assessment of the mentality of the crew members on Necroworld. Drift's either doing some really bullshit armchair psychology or he's projecting his own feelings and assuming that they're shared by everyone else.

Once you break everyone down individually you can see that Drift’s theory applies to very few people:

Rodimus and Minimus have sort of an ambiguous friendship going on with Megatron. Rodimus literally chose to save his life when he could have let Megatron explode with Tarn. Minimus immediately proceeded to give himself congnitive dissonance b/c he thought Megatron betrayed them by running away.

Nautica Velocity Cyclonus Tailgate Ten have no preexisting history against Megatron.

Nautica has more Other Problems than to pay attention to Megatron.

Velocity’s conversation with Megatron after the psychological attack was nothing but caring and friendly. Megatron even felt comfortable enough to admit to her that he was happy. She and Nautica are amongst the few people who sees Megatron as a person first, before his deeds.

Cyclonus might even admire him a little with the romanticized way he talks about the Decepticon ideology.

Tailgate's knowledge about Megatron's past comes entirely from datapackets and documentaries. And his response to that kind of threat level is to pull a gun on him and then try to shadowplay the evilness out. Point is, Tailgate's method to dealing with threats is to be very hands-on, especially after he got his spark spasm superpowers. His way of coping is definitely not brainwashing himself into thinking 'he's not a threat' and being unconsciously nervous all the time.

Whirl hates Megatron with a passion but he also saved Megatron in the time travel. He views Megatron as less of a threat than the functionists.

Nightbeat doesn’t care about anything other than his mysteries; his response to threat of imminent demise at sundown is to go exploring.

Rung’s… Rung. He’s forgiving and compassionate, and also a professional therapist who should be capable of employing healthy rational methods to cope with Megatron being in his life.

Rewind, like Nautica, has a whole slew of Other Problems, I'm sure Megatron's not a very big priority right now.

Skids is dead.

That only leaves like three people unaccounted for and they’re all branded Megatron sympathizers for a reason: they all said no to Getaway when he asked if they were pro ‘mutiny and kick Megatron off the ship.’

Drift's only been back for seven days, even if he got filled in with everything that happened since, he's still in no position to be making that kind of assessment. He doesn't have the context. He wasn't there when Megatron was captain of the ship. He didn't even meet Nautica Velocity and Nightbeat before he left, he has no idea what they're like or what they think of Megatron. Even Rewind's not the same one from before. (Add: he also didn't know Ultra Magnus was actually Minimus in a suit)

Most importantly his entire response in the second two panels is the complete opposite of Ratchet's original question. Ratchet's question was "Is it me or is everyone a little skittish?" Skittish. as in nervous. uneasy. jumpy. Drift's like "Megatron's gone so they can relax." But skittish is the opposite of relaxing? and they only started being skittish after Megatron left? He's the only one to bring up Megatron in this?

Rodimus' reasoning in the first panel (sans Rodpod) makes much more sense.

TL;DR: Drift's nervous around his old boss and can only relax after Megatron's gone, so he assumes that everyone else must feel the same way too. Everyone else: not really?

[zilodak]

Rodimus A plot: Alright, gang! Who's ready to kick some ASS, get DRUNK, and PARTY

freaky

style? All abooooooooard the Rodpod, gaybots!

Megatron sub-plot:

[7er1ch0]

whats zeypher’s opinion on the Rodpod

She fucking hates that thing

[twinstrangersp]

Our next original show being added to the TSP roster, Rites of Descendancy has ANNOUNCED ITS CAST! We’re so thrilled to see all of the amazing talent and effort being put into this production — you won’t want to miss it!

RITES OF DESCENDANCY OFFICIAL CAST ANNOUNCEMENT

(Part 1 of 2)

As Leonardo: Alejandro Pedroza [He/Him] @Alej_Pedroza

As Luka: Marvin Sohl [He/It] @marvinsgardenVA

As Perlah: Vanessa Benoit [She/Her] @VanessaBenVO

As Norah: Morgie Bee [They/Any] @morgiebeeVA

As Ezra: Julian Dailey [He/They/She] @dailey_julian

As Keeva: M. Molder [They/Them] @themooncrownpod

As Ayden: Asher Amor-Train [They/Them] @AsherATVA

Our cast is quite large, so this announcement is split up into two parts! Please check our page for part 2 if it doesn't show up on your dash alongside this one! We couldn't be more happy to bring these talented folks onto the project, and we're looking forward to beginning production this month!

[mirko78rm]

[popculturebuffet]

Transformers More than Meets The Eye Retrospective: Issues 31-33: The Road Not Taken (Patreon Review for Brotoman.EXE)

Hello all you happy autobots and welcome back aboard the lost light as we venture deeper into space and into the awkardness of having a captain who defintely murdered at least one person you know. Megatron: The Blood Soaked Kevin Bacon of Cybertron.

Anyways last time we had a time skip that Rodimus spent moping in his quarters as Megatron was named co captain because Optimus really dosen't have boundries, Prowl continued to see civil rights as a suggestion and is thankfully gone for the foreseable future, Nautica arrived and was the best, Megatron got some much needed therapy, Chromedome did not and saw his dead husband, and the ship done disappeared. Now your all caught up, let's see what those wacky robots are up to now in the second half of this story.

And this second half.. is the better half by a mile. It's why it feels like two diffrent, if consecutive story arcs: While the first part sets up the mystery and the new status quo, it also feels dour and bitter: no one is happy Megatron is there, everything's about that, and thus the cast is all bitter and angry. While there is some great material here: Megatron in therapy, his fight with Whirl, Nautica and Brainstorm being best friends, FINGER TO THE HEAD and Rodimus unhinged behavior and clear sexual tension with megatron when he finally rejoins the story, it's more.. bitter than usual, not helped by the long trial segments and Rodimus being largely abesent. Even in the darkest moments ther'es usually a sense of hope and camraderiy that's largely absent.

We get that sense back as while the first issue is full of tension, i'ts more intresting given the setup and the series goes back to it's strengths: it's strong characters, dialouge and high concepts. The result is one of my faviorite bits of storytelling that I was happy went down just as well this go round. So let's get on board the rodpod under the cut as we have a mystery to solve

We open with the secret origin of the lost light... it was the day before the big announcment and Rodimus, being rodimus, didn't even have a ship yet and sent someone else to take care of it, in this case Drift. Riptide is here too. Commuincating with some Nails via paddycake, Drift easily secures them the ship. All that's left is a name and while Pipes, whose also there, suggests a contest. Sure they could do that...

We're back in the present and Megatron is being grumpy about storytime. Turns out Riptide wasn't saying it for nothing though: Nautica asked, as the Lost Light is far from a normal ship.

As it turns out the Engines are far more advanced, even past Perciptor and Brainstorm levels. I also find it very cute that she calls Perciptor brainstorm levels of brilliant. It's about time someone put respect on the name. He may be a weirdo, but who on this ship isn't a bit weird or has deep baggage to deal with? It's what makes this book great.

Anyways she points out something that the audience and the crew weren't aware of: Quantum Engines shouldn't be able to have made the jump these did... with her help of course. And after some nervous Nautica noises as she's not used to people actually respecting her, complimenting her or attention in general.

So with everyone intrested, Nautica decides to give a brief lecture. Best I can break it down as even in a one panel lecture it's.. a lot, the engines are powered by the pull between what's possible and what's impossible, the reality of the ingines weighed against the heft of the IDEA they can go faster than light. It's a bizzare yet neat idea. Nautica theorizes the reality part one and the Lost Light poofed itself out of existance.

Megatron.. still grumbles: they know a POSSIBLE why, but not what to do now with a small scattered fleet of ships and him stuck in the worst one. I find his disdain of the rod pod both unsuprising and a nice character bit to tuck away for later. I told you the rod pod would be important and while this isn't why, it does play off that intrestingly.

Blaster, whose one of the bots aboard, gets a commuincation from Rodimus> There's a planet they can rodevue on, Ofsted. Ofsted was a lectureworld, a world that taught knowledge. This one focused on Ethics and was presumibly taught by emma frost. Naturally being deeply corrupt the Galactic Council took it over, changed the cirriculum and instituted fees. Cyclonus finds this objectinable as does his new pal Crosscut. Crosscut... I guess has always been here, but hasn't been relevant yet. The Lost Light has a LOT of extras aboard.

Crosscut is one of 20 autobots aboard: Along with him and Cyclonus we have: Megatron,Crosscut, Skids, Gears, Blaster, Getaway, Nautica, Ammo, Huffer ,Chromedome, Swerve, Hoist, NIghtbeat, Riptide, Tailgate, Dipstick, Hound, Ratchet and Highbrow.

I highlighted the main characters... Riptide counts at least for this arc.

And then.. Crosscut disappears and the concept begins. People are gonna start vanishing and our heroes are gonna try and beat the clock. A cool thing the comic does is use a page of everyone on board to keep track of who goes missing.

Bot Count: 19/20

It's then things go sideways as everyone panics a little.. but Tailgate decides to pull a gun on megatron

It does not, though to his credit Megatron doesn't pull a gun back and is more.. amused than anything. Things break down the second Megatron pulls his gun though, not wanting to be locked up for something he did not do.. or period which given his horrifying pass being tortured in prison.. is reasonable. Sadly the autobots aren't and all pull guns.. while they were on his side, Riptide ven admits as much, this is a step too far and it's not long before Cyclonus, being the adult in the room, trying to deescalate things leads to calls to throw them in the brig.. then tailgate. Then uh... (checks chart) Hound pulls a gun on Nautica whose understandably freaked the fuck out. Only it's not her he's aiming at it's RAVAGE!

Bot Count: 20/21

Yup the cat is here. And having always loved Soundwave's casettes, I just love the concept, this cassette beast joining the cast was welcome. Megatron has no idea WHY his old friend is here, and knows damn well no one buys that but it's the truth, advising the cat to play dead for his own sake via sign language. Good for Megatron for being talented in more than just murder, literature and being a grumpus. While he trains a cat, another talent in itself, Cyclonus is pissed Tailgate did a stupid.. while Getaway compliments him for being brave.

While all this was going on though.. .a BUNCH more people disappeared Megatron, Skids, Getaway, Nautica, Swerve, Hoist, NIghtbeat, Riptide, Tailgate Dipstick, Cyclonus, Ratchet and Ravage

12/21

With the party dwinlding Nightbeat tries to solve the mystery and Megatron rather than grousing about things.. actually helps. He points out the power outages before each dissapearnce aren't a concidence but a symptom: whateve'rs going on with the ship, the lights, the rumbhles.. it's connected.

So Nightbeat tries to find a common denominator and asks who was forged and who was constructed cold? While this concept was introduced in Remain in Light, here it gets fleshed out more as we find out there's two generations: first were the ones back on cybertron that lead to all the debate and what not, and the second were MTO's, models forged not for work or what have you but for war, not even having a birth city: just whatever conflict they were made for. It's a truly bleak concept but one I love: that part of the reason so many cybertronians are having trouble moving on.. is they were BUILT in war. They were built for this. It also leads to another intresting train of thought, one we won't fully get into this time, but will be the backbone of our next arc

It's an engaging double edged sword: Megatron's reign of terror murdered billions.. but it also created billions. Removing him could save lives.. but it'd also cause undo genocide by well.. undoing a genocide. Are the lives that would exist worth the ones that would be lost?

Megatron dodges the question, and this will naturally be important later as "This will be important later' could be the series catchphrase, but Ratchet knows whose who.. and construction isn't a related factor.

As Nightbeat bangs his head against the table in frustration the rest give us some more worldbuiding: originally MTO's were given a through course, ten steps from frozen to gun in your hand. They eventually wittled them down as High Command assumed learning about the world wasn't important as "can you shoot people y/n?" We also find out religion is more common in MTO's and that info creep may be the cause..that what could've just been a flash of light becomes conversatoin with the primes over time. Nautica then breaks down, wishing Windblade and Chromia were here as she feels their better than her, and wondering if she'll never see them again. It's a sobering reminder that some of the lost lighters DO have friends outside this ship and how close they are to death. Quite a few bots didn't make it out of season 1 alive and without giving away who, several will not make it out of this one in one piece.

One blip later and we're down to the main cast... and down one of the main cast.

Megatron, Skids, Getaway, Nautica, Swerve, NIghtbeat, Riptide, Tailgate, Ratchet and Ravage

10/21

So things are only getting worse: Magnus arrives in his holomatter avatar.. but has nothing. Their having the same problem and he too is soon gone.

Nightbeat grasps for straws trying to find ANYTHING that matches.. but no go and with that we're down to our final roster for the arc

Megatron, Skids, Getaway, Nautica, NIghtbeat, Riptide, and Ravage

7/21

Nightbeat finally gets his break though as Riptide mentions all the crazy stuff "they" got up to... and is thrown off. Wasn't riptide in the origin story? He was, and fully intended to go aboard, but when investigating the guys they got the ship from found they were shady and got beaten into a coma. As a nice bit of tying up loose ends their also WHY the sparkeater was on board as they were transporting it and left it to be the next owners problem.

So with that , if you hadn't figured it out, we have the common deniomnator: everyone left came onto the lost light AFTER it first took off. Skids was picked up in issue 2, Getaway joined in the season finale, Nightbeat during the crossover, and Megatron, Riptide, Chromia and Ravage all joined when the ship left cybertron the second time.

Megatron gets one final moment of being a dick about things telilng Nightbeat he failed because he failed to figure it out BEFORE everyone was gone... Nightbeat admits the how has to count right... and spoilers it totally does. And the evidence of it is right in front of them as our maginficent seven find.. the lost light... looking beat to shit and surrounded by weird red bands

We begin the next issue with some context for what the heck the creepy red stuff is: it's quantum foam, which sounds nice and sciency but like many a thing with a nice sciency name will kill you if you so much as look at it wrong so our team does their best to manuver inside.

The atmosphere is eerie: the lost light is trashed and while they arrive at swerves.. it dosen't look like a bar, more like a theater. The kinda Nautica would've gone to on caminus had her anxiety not noped her out of there anytime she got within ten feet of the place. Or whatever the transformer equilvent is.

Everyone thinks this is the future.. and i'll just let "thinks" do the heavy lifting for now as Megatron has arrived with Ravage to no one's pleasure, with Megatron pointing out that he can pay for trying to attack them later, right now they need his sniffer. So the team splits up gang... not the wisest move in any derlict spaceship surrounded by space-time blood slowly leaking out of the engines, but Chromia explains they dont' have long before said space-time blood explodes, so they need to find any possible survivors. Chromia's alt mode can go short distances in space so she has night beat get inside her

While the rest find Magnus corpse. There is some dithering for a second as despite Ravage identifying him by smell, Minimus has been dragged out of the armor. Thankfully drift knows about all that and confirms the corpse.. and that it was killed by fusion canon. While Megs protests his innosense, he had that thing smelted, this time.. he actually agrees to be locked up in a show of character. He realizes he really CAN'T prove it's not him and geninely dosen't want to hurt anyone. This is entirely for his own good too: the only two around him are Riptide, whose a dick and Skids, and he has Ravage as backup. No one would know until everyone came back, if they came back.. but he does the right thing anyway because he just dosen't WANT to kill people. He will but for all Megatron's faults, his ego, his coarsness, his lack of empathy... he genuinely WANTS to be better on some level.

So while Megatron gets locked up, Natucia and Nightbeat bond, with Nightbeat filling her in on rewind and his ghost earlier, and just flat out asking if she's single. I mean I would and yes i'm aware she dwarfs me in size, that's part of it. Same goes for Rodimus though just for one night... the dude is even messier than I am. I can't see that ending well.

Chromia admits that no, same with Night beat and the two find something intresting to distract from dwelling on both being single: brainstorm's briefcase.

Back with Megatron, he's busy talking to his cat who quickly scratches him in what has to be the most violent garfield comic ever made using space robots.

Ravage is PISSED though as Megatron abandoned the cause.. and while Megatron points out the decipticon cause isn't him, Ravage disagrees, revealing Galvatron is leading them now and saying outright that if Megatron said the word he'd gut their new glorious leader himself.

Unsuprisingly Ravage was sent by Soundwave, who is also spinning out over this and wanted to make sure this was REALLY megatron and if so have Ravage take him out back and claw him a bit so to speak. Ravage is also the reason those decipticons attacked the trial a test for megatron he failed. What follows.. is the second best scene of the arc and one of my faviorites series wide

It's a great callback to Chaos Theory and the main reason WHY I covered it: it covers the gap between the over the top evil of megatron in the previous runs and the tired layred old man in this one. He was once a better man.. but that quote up top says it all. I also love Ravage's face... his sheer worry as he realizes the man he knew isn't the same... that part of why this all weighs on him now.. is time. There isn't much left, Megatron is aware of this: even if the quest goes on for years, he dosen't HAVE years left. And he's aware of it. He's too tired to be a monster, to keep doing horrible shit and justifying it... he doesn't want to be that person anymore and took a quick cheap route to get there. But as Ravage puts it when megatron answers who he was was dead "dead... or just sleeping?". It's the core of Megatron's character arc: can you really atone or is your worst self always there, watching you?

For now there is no answer, just corpses... but there is at least an id on who the murder victim is as he finds... a brain cog. The others also find corpses thoguh before that Gateway talks with Riptitde, who feels guilty.. as Gateway puts it "the bigger the tragedy the harder it is to process". It's hard to put what Megatron did into sheere scale so it's easy to forget just HOW much harm he's done.

At any rate the corpses not only include Overlord, who should be gone.. but spell out WHO did this and why they need to run the fuck away: the DJD. After the omnious set up of them last time they've crashed into the main plot in a bloody rampage.

Nightbeat is starting to figure it out though: they found a beheaded overlord... who shoudln't BE here to get beheaded as he supposidly died when Rewind sacrified himself. Still the ship's collapsing so they should get going... but Ravage finds one survivor and well.. i'ts worth showing twice

It's a fantastic panel not only showing that Megatron has indeed changed, happy SOMEONE surivived.. but also leaving the reader in shock. Rewind LIVES... and we'll find out why.. right now.

So everyone attends to Rewind whose understandably in shock.. not just due to what he's been through but finding out Skids is alive, Nightbeat is alive (Both were assumed dead), Megatron is an autobot and there are female cybertronians. He isn't a dick about the last part mind, wish I didn't have to clairfy that but .. the times we live in. He just..d idn't know it was a thing and is fine with it. He gives Nightbeat a data slug.

Meanwhile Chromia while talking with Riptide finally figures it out and we get the big twist this has all been leading to: the lost light didn't disappear... it split in half back when the launch happened. See quantum engines work by getting someone from point a to point b using quantum stuff. The point a is always fixed.. but B could be billions.. and the explosion threw it off, so instead of narrowing it down to ONE option.. it became two. Thus two lost lights were born and two perfect copies.

As Nightbeat and Skids found from the data slug, the Alternate Lost Light went through a diffrent set of circumstances: Rung died in the crash and was replaced as bait and Rodimus timing in throwing the spark eater into the engines was off so part of his head got clipped, hence his corpse.

In the aftermath Drift came clean about overlord... and that's what caused the massacre. Someone on board learned about him.. and leaked it to the DJD who came for Overlord.. and then kept going with everyone else. They learned the traitor thing as Tarn's a sadistic bastard , of course he's going to tell them about the betryal before he tortures everyone.

Rewind.. was forced to film the massacre to save Chromedome's life, and it's just.. an awful thing ot think about: recording everyone you care about dying... only for them to make the condition of your partner living that he erases his memory of you.. and jamming his needles into his head when he refuses. We'd seen from their intro how bad the DJD were... but this arc really hammers it in: their monsters, sadists who use their loyalty to megatron as a thin excuse to kill people and satisfy their addictions. Rewind barely survivied falling into the magnus armor and they mercifully left.

He dosen't have time to process this, nor does anyone as the foam's getting tighter.. and what's worse.. it's going to envelop the planet bellow. Priority shifts from "save ourselves" to "save the world" as tends to be for the autobots.... with Megatron holding out. If their not cybertronian why does it matter. Skids counters perfectly: If wearing the badge dosen't alter his behavior.. waht the fuck has any of Megatron's time as an autobot meant. If he can't see all sentient beings as valid... why be here.

So he relents. The Foam is tight but rewind offers to squeeze through as he's tiny. Chromia appricates it, but points out they need tow people to deactivate the quantum drums simeltaniously: if done it should erase the other lost light and thus the paradox. As for why it's only happening now it's simple: the two lost lights got close enough for the universe to stop ignoring the paradox.

Getaway makes a quip about "unless someone can pull a minimus ambus".. and Skids gets an idea; Search Brainstorm's lab as he used a shrink ray that one time. While searching it we iron out how all this works in way si've already descirbed, and our heroes find Brainstorm's corpse... who has a face. I geninely forgot about that.. and the reveal attached

Brainstorm was the traitor, something poor Nautica dosen't take well. They don't have time to process this reveal, and the fact if they restore him THEIR brainstorm is a traitor too. It also begs a question I forgot the answer too: if brainstorm learned about overlord, why didn't he tell the DJD on everyone even if he'd just blown up real good? Or report into the other decipticons present when the crossover happened? Why'd he stay undercover?

The next arc will answer these questions for now we find out that Brainstorm never made the mass displacement gun in this timeline... but Megatron pipes up: he could once transform into a smaller carryable gun and once your spark is primed for mass displacement, it's always primed. He just didn't stand up because as he puts it "when people are lining up for heroic sarcifices, stand at the back of the queue". And while pragmatic ... I get it. If they could get EVERYONE to do it with the gun, then they all could go through the foam. More numbers. There was no sense playing his hand until he had to.

SO Rewind and MEgatron bond with some sycnronized dodging the death goo and Megatron tiptoes around his horrible death. The two make it to the drums.. and Rewind is hit with a relization... if the lost light is restored and the duplicate goes away... won't he go away too? Nautica is horrified to realize this while Megatron asks if he wants to go back. It's a human moment from a very stoic asshole: that if they have to find another way out they will, he won't force someone to make a sacrifce they didn't sign up for.

But rewind.... is fine with it

So it's hours later. The lost light has remateralized, and everyone is slowly coming back. Chromedome arrives and skids has a suprise for him outside.. and we get one of the best sequences in the entire comic. Two entirely silent pages as Chromedome... finds exactly who you hoped out there and the two work thorugh their emotoins... before the ineveitble happens

I wish I could show you the whole thing. It's so damn beautiful. Just two people who thought they'd lost each other finding one another, thorugh time, through space and through pure fate. There will be more to sort out later, to the series credit it dosen't sidestep over the complications here, but for now it just lets us have the catharsis.

So how do I feel about Rewind's return? I'm okay with it. It dosen't dilute the impact of his death as that Rewind.. is gone. He blew up. He truly is dead and the pain Chromedome felt was still very real. And as I hinted at, the series does tackle the fact these aren't the exact versions of Chromedome and Rewind they fell in love with. It could do more with it, but they dont' completely just fall into "this is the same rewind." he went through diffrent stuff and the true horror he went through sets up the DJD as the big bad of this season very well: We saw them plow through some unamed decipticons and the scavengers barely escape.. but now we see they could easily kill everyone we care about with zero effort. They commited a gruseom slaughter that was easy to shake off the first time I read this: it wasn't OUR lost light... but on this run.. I got that these guys easily could've BEEN the crew we know. They aren't that diffrent. The few additions they gathered, first aid, skids, aren't enough to flip the tide. They have more NOW as seen with this issue, but it simply may not be enough. And Megatron himself thinks at first thier coming FOR HIM... and with Brainstorm seemingly a traitor, it's only a matter of time till word gets to them. The clock is ticking and our heroes may not be ready when it runs out.

Speaking of Brainstorm Megatron needs to tell Rodimus there's a decipticon on board.. and offers his decipticon on board a spot, pointing out that Ravage has now seen the worst extreme of the Decepticon cause... does he still want that?

Before our cliffhanger, Nautica has no idea how Rewind survivied. My honest guest is since there was no rewind on the lost light to replace, Rewind 2 stayed. But it dosen't explain another anamoly.. the other briefcase. And after being a mystery all series we finally find out what's inside.. kinda. Brainstorm realizing he's made opens it in Swerves and....

Yup. So that's where we're leaving for a few months. A bunch of the cast may be dead and Brainstorm is free to do whatever the hell he wants while also being a traitor maybe

For now we end this arc.. whic his good as I remembered it: it's an atmospheric tale on a derlict spaceship, perfect for this series with a heartwarming ending.. and a chilling vision of things to come.

Next Time: We travel in time to get answers as to what Brainstorm's endgame is. It isn't pretty. But that's a few months for now, we go back to the power rangers who aren't fairing much better.

[camp-mithril-lake]

“Megatron, on board the Lost Light? On board me? Megatron?” sputtered Rodimus. He rebooted his holoform’s audial sensors a few times, just to ensure he was hearing Ratchet correctly.

“It was either you or Metroplex,” said Ratchet. He was still staring at the new “Rodpod” in the hangar, aghast.

“What, did Metroplex say no already?”

Ratchet sighed. “We can lock him up if he steps out of line. But Prime wants to give him a bit of rope, and some responsibility, to see if he’s really on the level.”

“He wants Megatron running loose in me? Not even in my brig?”

“Well, we’re not going to tell him about your ‘condition.’ Like most of the crew, he’ll just think you’re a neutral that avoided the whole war and didn’t want to return to Cybertron.”

“Ah yes. Megatron: famous for getting along with neutrals,” He pointed at Ratchet, “I’ve heard stories from Drift, you know.”

“And if anything, Drift probably toned down those stories. Still, as a precaution, we’re dosing him with Fool’s Energon.”

Rodimus fumed, crossing his arms.

Ratchet sighed, “Look, nobody’s going to make you bring along anyone you don’t want along. Especially after the debacle with Prowl.”

Rodimus winced, “About that. Could I get some advice?”

“Oh, Primus, you don’t have someone else locked up, do you? Who is it, Killmaster?

“No! Nothing like that, it’s just- here, take this.” Rodimus materialized a datapad and handed it to Ratchet.

Ratchet looked at it and frowned, “Is this from the ‘anonymous’ vote you took to see who wanted you removed as captain? I see there’s a list of names attached.”

“Well,” Rodimus scratched the back of his head. “I was thinking of using it to see who to kick off the mission, but…”

“But you realized that would be petty, especially since most of the crew doesn’t even know that would be possible.”

“Pretty much.”

“If I were Ultra Magnus, I’d be reminding you that Cybertronian laws still apply to you, even though you’re not an Autobot.”

“And trying to coerce me into another lecture.”

“Coerce,” Ratchet scoffed. “He’s been nothing but soft with you.”

Rodimus made a face.

“I’m serious. Ask one of the wreckers if you don’t believe me. Besides, this list is wrong.”

“How do you know?”

“I’m not on it.”

“You voted against-” Rodimus sputtered, “But you know that’s impossible!”

“You can’t leave the ship,” Ratchet shook his head. “But, you need to listen to Ultra Magnus’ advice more. He’s not going to make you do anything, but if he tells you to do something, you should still do it. Ancient titan or not, you’ve only got the memories- and personality- of a new spark. I know you’re excited about going wherever you’d like, but you can learn a lot from following someone else for once.”

“Fine. I’ll try and listen more. And if Ultra Magnus wants me to help Autobots, then I guess I can bring along Megatron. I’m still captain, though.” Rodimus leaned against the railing. He froze. “Wait, what did you mean by Optimus giving Megatron more responsibility?”

“Well,” said Ratchet. “I suppose nobody would ever accuse Megatron of being soft-”

***

(For context, I'm thinking Ultra Magnus was sent along as a mentor a la TFA or to see if he'd be a suitable cityspeaker. However, he feels too awkward to order around someone who hasn't been able to make their own choices for millions of years and isn't an "official" autobot, either.)

Oh, I love ALL of this. Ultra Magnus as a potential cityspeaker and being soft on Rodimus is lovely. Especially given the fact Rodimus isn't an Autobot plus Magnus isn't exactly being open about his identity as well. All on top of the fact Rodimus has only had free will for maybe a thousand years so he's sensitive about any authority he didn't specifically select.

Ratchet and Rodimus's relationship is fun!

The use of the holoform is perfect and the fact it is a secret from the crew is 100/100. You perfectly captured the vibes I have for this AU.

[cozzzynook]

I must confess I’m a glutton for inadvisable ratchrod. I’m talking Rodimus and Ratchet having a hook-up or a coworkers with benefits type situation that inevitably blows up in their faces. The drama and angst is delicious.

I’m like this because the scene where Rodimus is showing off the Rodpod to Ratchet and his disappointed face when Ratchet revealed he voted to remove Rodimus as captain had me feral. Even better is Rodimus being angry with Ratchet afterwards.

Without drift they are a crash waiting to happen lol