#they’re still going to rip any autobots apart

[splendidbadger]

Speaking of neo:u starscream is a threat not bc hes willing to betray the cons but because hes extremely loyal to them. The cons would rather die than betray or harm each other. So starscreams bullshit plans that would work if he wasn’t a little Weasley bitch? The ones that get plot armored from his own selfish stupidity? Actually have merit because he’s the trusted 2nd in command and everyone backs him.

..,hes still an absolute self-absorbed cunt tho 💜

[bots-and-cons]

Heyyy since requests are open can we have something about the autobots (can be 3, you're fee to chose any) trying to help and comfort reader after being rescued from the decepticons but ended up v6eing traumatized, feeling terrified to touch or even be near any cybertronian?

(If this is too dark you dont have to do it)

A/N: Uuuu, this sounds like some fun angst, I shall deliver (or at least try to). I just did Optimus since this ended up kinda long for me, but I might use this prompt again for someone else. This ended up being just angst rather than angst and comfort, because I forgot to look at the request after I started writing

You’d been gone for days. Optimus didn’t even want to imagine what you were going through right now. He felt so powerless, so helpless, because he couldn’t do anything to help you. Invading the Nemesis was not an option, the decepticons had surely fortified their defenses anticipating just that.

He couldn’t risk the team getting hurt, not even to save you. The autobots were already low on energon and if even one of them got hurt, it might not end well. He couldn’t risk it, that’s what he had to keep telling himself. Optimus had tried contacting the decepticons, but he hadn’t gotten an answer. Megatron clearly intended to torture him by keeping him in the dark.

“We found them!” Smokescreen suddenly came barreling into Optimus’ habsuite.

Optimus stopped pacing, he just froze for a moment partly in fear, partly in relief, before swiftly following Smokescreen to the main area of the base.

“Their phone came back online. I sent Bulkhead and Bumblebee to see if…” Ratchet trailed off

Optimus couldn’t even think of it. You had to be alive, there was just no other choice.

The few minutes of silence over the comm line felt like hours. Optimus felt like he was frozen in time. He just wanted to know. If you were dead he just wanted to know. He felt like his spark was being ripped apart.

“We’ve got ‘em, they’re alive. We’re coming back” Bulkhead’s voice came over the comms.

Optimus felt like a giant weight got lifted off his shoulders. You were alive. You were alive and everything would be just fine, right?

You were unconscious when you were brought back to the base, and you remained so for almost a full day. Optimus didn’t leave your side the whole time. He stayed there, pacing next to the hospital bed that had been brought to the base just for such an occasion.

Ratchet had scanned you and checked your vitals, and everything seemed to be fine. You were most likely not waking up due to exhaustion and the stress you’d been under. Optimus finally stopped pacing after hours and hours of walking, and sat down. In some dark corner of his spark, he was hoping that you wouldn’t remember what had happened to you. He of course didn’t know exactly what had happened to you either, but the marks on your body told a terrifying tale.

Optimus didn’t even notice himself dozing off as he sat there. He had almost fallen into recharge mode when something caught his attention. There was a small shuffling sound coming from the bed. You were looking around and the expression on your face was one of terror and pain.

“You are safe my light, you are safe here” Optimus said.

He reached for you to try and comfort you, but you backed away from him so fast, you would have fallen off the bed if the sides of it weren’t preventing you from doing so. Optimus pulled his hand back quickly, confused as to why you seemed so terrified. Perhaps you still thought you were on the Nemesis and in danger. He would just have to convince you otherwise, make sure you knew you were safe.

When you woke up you didn’t know where you were, but you knew you had to be quiet. Megatron had grown bored with your screams and forbidden you from making a sound. You soon realized you weren’t on the Nemesis anymore, but you still couldn’t bring yourself to speak. When you looked around, you saw a huge hand reaching for you and you felt the panic welling up in your chest. You instinctively tried to move away, but the railing on what you were now realizing was a hospital bed, was luckily preventing you from falling off. You looked up past the now receding hand and saw Optimus. He was looking at you with a worried expression.

You were just shaking your head and burying your head in your hands. Optimus didn’t understand what was making you so scared. You’d seen him, so you knew you weren’t on the Nemesis anymore, so what was wrong?

“Do you recognize your surroundings? Do you know where you are?” Optimus asked gently.

You raised your head to nod at him, just once, but your eyes were still filled with terror.

“Everything is alright, my light. No one’s going to hurt you again” he tried to assure you, reaching for you again.

“Stay away from me” you whispered with a voice full of fear.

“I don’t understand. You have nothing to fear here” Optimus said.

“You’re all the same, you’re all monsters” you said shakily. “This is your fault, I wish I’d never met you”

After you woke up, you left the base as quickly as you could. You absolutely refused Optimus’ offer for a ride home, so June came and took you away. You never returned and you cut off all contact with the autobots. Optimus never got the way you looked at him out of his mind. That fear, anger and pain that now stained your eyes, it was all his fault. For what had happened to you, he was a monster. If he’d never met you, you would have never suffered like that. He didn’t deserve you anymore, he wasn’t sure he ever did, and you certainly didn’t want him.

[sparklingpax]

sorry bout any typos aaaaA o///o’’

Ratchet is much more of a scaredy-cat than he lets on, and he hates that about himself. He tries to control himself but sometimes, he has a nightmare that was too disturbing, hears a noise that makes his blood run cold, or sees shadows in the dark that make him feel as if there's an unwanted presence.

But Optimus is always there to reassure him, to comfort him when he freaks out.

So one night, Ratchet peers over the shoulders of Miko and Rafael, wondering what it is on the TV that's kept them quiet for such a record amount of time. 

It's dark and it seems...they're watching a particularly disturbing horror movie. Ratchet watches for a little, feeling is plating crawl with discomfort as the minutes pass and a lone boy crawls through the halls, terrified. 

Ratchet swallows, equally as scared. He starts to shake as a shadow covers the boy and at the other end of the hall, no one comes forth. 

There’s a blood-curdling cry for help, then nothing. The medic tightens his grip on the tool he’s holding, wondering why he’s frozen in place like this. The camera pans around to the back of the hall, blood and claw marks scored across the walls, the floor, and the ceiling. 

The....thing everyone's been running from finally rises from the shadows, dripping in fluids Ratchet wishes he knew nothing about. 

By this point, to his absolute surprise, the children are fast asleep, having been bored by the film's initial slow pace.

The thing onscreen makes one horrifying scream and stumbles closer, and Ratchet is Done.

He utters a choked, whimpered noise, feeling his chest tighten. He did not want to see that, he hated it, and that was all he needed to finally snap out of his trance. Dropping his makeshift wielding tool to the ground with a resounding clanging noise, Ratchet transforms impulsively, and leaves. 

In the middle of the night, Ratchet goes for a drive under the stars to calm down.

Optimus hears the commotion from his room and steps out to see. He peaks his head around the corner of the hallway, wondering who--besides the kids--could be up this late? 

Looking around, the abandoned tool glinting in the dim light catches his attention. He strides over and picks it up, knowing who it belongs to. He then notices the small, glowing TV screen, still playing that movie from a while before. Onscreen, Optimus witnesses the monster as it screams again and digs its sharp claws into a human corpse, ripping it apart hungrily.

He instantly knows what had just happened.

Optimus transforms and chases Ratchet down, finding him not too far down the main road near the base. The ambulance driving at a ticket-worthy speed, repeating to himself over and over something in Cybertronian, swerving from left to right just slightly.

He slides up next to him. "Ratchet?"

The medic utters a yelp of surprise, speeding up briefly, then he registers the voice and backtracks, slowing down again. They drive quietly for quite a bit, until Ratchet sighs. 

"I'm no good Optimus, I just get more jumpy as I get older, more afraid of everything. I can't be a real Autobot like this...." He sighs once again, more deeply, shakily, "I'm sorry.."  His voice is a mix of frustration, shame, and sadness. Optimus feels a spark of frustration himself--but not at Ratchet. 

Not on my watch. Ratchet of all bots will not be made to feel unhappy over something like this, something that isn’t his fault. 

"Old friend, you are more deserving of the name than anyone else." Optimus tells him almost immediately, firmly. He pauses, then laughs a little embarrassedly. "Well, everyone on this team is.... don't tell anyone I said that..." he tries almost instantly to correct himself. 

Ratchet feels a twinge of amusement and laughs a little. It reminds him of a mother accidentally telling her favorite that they’re her favorite. 

Optimus feels warm hearing the laugh, relieved that he seemed to be calming down gradually. He finishes what he had meant to say.

"Remember that you must never let yourself think it is a flaw to be afraid, even of small things. All of us fear, and those who claim they do not...have the most fear in their hearts. An Autobot is not how many Decepticons he can stare down without care, it is how many lives he can keep, but at the core of it all, it is really the good intent of his spark. It is that he was given life by Primus, and chose to be an Autobot out of the will to help others and protect them."

Ratchet and Optimus roll to a halt in the middle of the road, feeling a soft breeze dance against their plating. The stars sparkle noiselessly above, like precious stones in a dark cave of rock.

"You...you won't tell the others of this, will you, Optimus?" The medic asks quietly, shifting back a little. Optimus smiles internally, chuckling.

"No. And that is a promise, old friend."

They drive back in silence. Except for the part where Optimus tells him about all the silly things he feared as a young bot, that Alpha Trion comforted him and taught him about.

"I saw a scroll that told of the end of the world, and I believed it! And...." He laughs. "So did Megatron."

"You're joking!"

"I tell no lies, old friend."

“That’s what you two were up to at that park! Now I remember! How long ago was that...” 

///

Back at the base, when the kids wake up in the morning, they find the movie has long finished, and Ratchet is still at his workstation. Optimus is standing nearby. The two of them have funny looks on their faces.

Miko is awake instantly and nudges Raf, who gives a small cry of protest as he yawns.

"You see the way they're looking at each other?" She whispers. "Isn't it strange??"

Raf squints at them, still only half awake.

"Miko, the strange thing here is how Ratchet still hasn't finished constructing his new tool....thought he only had wielding to do..." The boy yawns again, half tempted to go back to sleep. 

The two mechs continually slide (what they think are) hidden glances to each other. Ratchet motions for Optimus to come look at his work from much closer. The Autobot leader complies, placing a gentle hand on the medic’s shoulder. He smiles almost proudly as Ratchet chatters on about the intricate details of it. 

Miko folds her arms.

"Hmmm..."

[sparrowsworkshop]

“Promise” by OneWingedSparrow

Summary: Set after the first episode of Transformers: Prime Season 2, "Orion Pax, Part 1." Arcee wrestles with her grief over her failure to get past Soundwave and save Optimus Prime from his captivity on the Nemesis.

Main Tags: Arcee & Optimus Prime, Team Prime & Team Prime, Light Angst Reblogs are appreciated!

Read on AO3

~

The moon was waning over Jasper.

Silver beams loomed over the Autobot base, stretching long shadows across the desert. Not that the Autobots were paying much attention to the scenery. Most of them were penned up indoors, despair settling like a black cloud over them all.

Though gathered together, no one cared to converse. Unnatural silence gripped the base, making Ratchet’s insistent tapping at the keyboard sound like relentless, angry precipitation. Bulkhead paced the floor, each lumbering step even heavier than usual, creating a thunderous accompaniment to the lighter percussion. Bumblebee slumped with his back against the wall near the Ground Bridge passage, head hanging so low it nearly touched his chest. A stray remote control car lay discarded on the floor beside him, the only remaining testament to the kids’ earlier visit. Jack, Miko and Rafael had long since been dropped off at their homes; and though their nightly departure was routine, on this night their absence left the base empty and forlorn, void of any cheerful chatter or sympathetic encouragement for the Autobots.

Hugging his knees, Bumblebee dejectedly buzzed under his breath.

The keyboard smashed beneath Ratchet’s fingers.

He whirled around, glaring.“That wasn’t the last chance, Bumblebee!” Ratchet said severely. “We will find a way to rescue Optimus. Do not speak folly.” He shot an accusatory glance at Bulkhead. “You said you would prevent Arcee from going off on any more unplanned jaunts. And just where is she now?”

Bulkhead did not cease his pacing, or even bother to look up. His voice was husky as he gave a simple reply that, given Arcee’s well-known tendencies, needed no further explanation.

“Alone.”

 *        *       *

Cliffjumper’s cairn was all that was holding her up. In a way, that was a small comfort; even from his distant resting place with the Allspark, Arcee’s partner could still provide her with much needed support.

She leaned back against the rocks piled over his grave, lubricant spilling freely from her optics. The last time she had cried this hard, she’d been grieving Tailgate.

But back then, she hadn’t been left alone.

Arcee touched one hand to her opposite shoulder, where Optimus’ hand should have been resting instead.

Even before coming to Earth, she had vowed to never cry in front of anybot. Having a witness to her heartache over her first lost partner—and in shame realizing that her surprise spectator was an actual Prime, for that matter—was unintentional; undesirable; utterly unthinkable. Yet, that day, when Optimus found her in such a sorry state of vulnerability, he did not belittle her for mourning. Instead, he quietly sat beside her, gently placing his hand on her shoulder, allowing her to weep and holding her close until the pain subsided enough for her to rise and move on. Against her initial judgment, Arcee had learned that day that her newfound leader—the last living Prime, no less—was somehow the only one she could trust to share her tears with.

This time, however, no one would ever know her sorrow.

Why don’t you remember us? Will you ever come back?

She couldn’t pinpoint everything she was feeling. Her spark was a cyclone of emotions...anger, fear, despair, guilt, and hopelessness preeminent among thousands of others, all churning in a vicious, endless cycle that threatened to rip her apart from the inside out.

I failed you, Optimus. I should have been faster. I should have taken down Soundwave. I should have—

She ground her teeth together as stray tears slid into her mouth.

Who knows what they’re doing to you? What are they telling you? Megatron will surely be bombarding you  with lies. That’s the only language he knows. If your memory is faulty, you need to hear the truth! If only we could get to you...if only you would listen….

In her blurred vision, the stars were merely blobs, strobe lights that faintly flickered from lightyears away and barely repelled the surrounding darkness. Despite their overwhelming abundance, the stars contributed little to illuminate the sky; it was the moon, the great, lone moon, that shone the strongest.

Morale is low. We’re at rock bottom. Who can lead us while you are gone?

“Optimus, we need you,” Arcee whispered.

Deep in her spark, she could almost hear him whisper back, gentle voice transmitting over a comm link no one else could intercept.

 And I need you, Arcee.

She wiped her face, a frustrated growl rumbling in the back of her throat like the roar of an ignition. Arcee forced herself to rise. Pebbles fell from the gaps in her armor as she stood, straightening her back and clenching her fists with resurrected resolve.

She had been too weak to save Tailgate, too slow to save Cliffjumper. If all went to scrap, she would not be too late to save Optimus. She could not allow herself to be.

Stubbornly, Arcee glared up at the moon.

“Optimus Prime, I know you’re in there. I swear upon the Allspark I will bring you back. Whatever it takes.” ~

[megatronswaifu]

wrote a fanfiction and wanted to draw something to go with it!!

if you want to read some sickeningly sweet ooc overlord with nightlight please take a look under the cut. i’m happy with how it turned out because i really didn’t take it seriously like i’ve tried in the past.

“Nightlight’s Shadow” <2k words rating: GEN tw: mild canon-typical violence

-------------

“What’s wrong?”

Overlord peered through the door, hunching over significantly. The phase-sixer was incredibly bored, having killed everyone he felt like and no missions assigned to him for a long while. When Overlord was bored and without those to maim, he went to go bother Nightlight.

The minibot sat in the shape of a ball on her berth. Her helm was tucked between her knees, and her little horns poked out, the only thing clueing Overlord in that “Oh, that part of the purple dot is her head.” When she looked up at Overlord, he thought to himself that this was the most pitiful face she had made to-date. 

The towering bot squeezed into the room, scraping the doorframe with his shoulders as he stomped in (he wasn’t stomping on purpose, it was simply a feature of his size), his pillar audials threatening to pierce the ceiling. Nightlight’s accommodations were definitely made with efficiency and budget in mind. Why would anyone waste shanix and space on the ship just in case someone larger than a pea wanted to visit this room? Overlord thought he should carve out the wall and ceiling so his visits weren’t so difficult.

“What’s wrong?” Overlord asked again, and Nightlight turned to face away, “Why the long face?” 

“I’m not a good Decepticon,” the tiny bot started. Her voice was quivering and hoarse, like she had been crying. Little cheekplates having subtle remnant streaks of tears confirmed this. “I’m not scary. Everyone keeps being mean to me. The bigger bots push me and call me names, even when I don’t do anything to them.” 

“Why don’t you kill them?” replied Overlord like it was obvious. He had slithered onto the berth, laying sideways lazily behind Nightlight, his legs curled so he could fit. Luckily the slab was medium size, having not been made specifically for Nightlight, but it still creaked horribly under Overlord’s weight.

“I can’t do that! I’m not strong enough like everyone else. I’m not big. I can’t beat them up....I...every time I try to fight back,” her face scrunched up and her voice became even higher pitched and even wobblier, “I...I get my- my tailpipe kicked!”

Nightlight choked and whined, stifling a staticky sob in her forearms. She clearly felt so strongly about these simple tussles that it pained her enough to cry. The poor thing. The blue mech brought her into his chest with his big servo like a hockey stick to a puck.

“Don’t cry,” Overlord cooed, “I’ll give you advice.” Nightlight peeked at him from her arms. “You can’t beat them up and you can’t grow any. But that doesn't have to stop you.” 

“When I walk around, everyone moves. As if I have a force field. Nobody gets in my way.” He gestured to Nightlight with his chin. “Why do you think that happens?” She looked away again, not in an attempt to hide her tears, but in thought.

“Um….because you’re really tough,” the moped said, “And, um, you’ll, maybe you’ll beat them up if they’re mean to you.” Nightlight always said things like “maybe” when talking about if Overlord would do something violent or not. Like she wasn’t sure if he was a bad mech, or she didn’t want to accuse him of anything. How kind.

“Yes, that’s true. I’m very tough.”

“But I’m not...it wouldn’t work for me. I’m not really-”

“Yes it would.”

Nightlight stuttered a few syllables of denial before resorting to looking at Overlord with a tipped helm in confusion. Overlord couldn’t help but laugh.

“When I walk around places where nobody knows me,” he said, “Where nobody knows I could mash them to a slurry, my force field still works. That is because I hold myself a certain way. I hold myself with an expectation that everyone fears me,” the duocon puffed out his chest plating a little, and it made a “clink” sound when it tapped his tiny companion, “With confidence. Confidence in myself and that the force field will work no matter what.” He smiled triumphantly. “Lo and behold, the seas part.”

Nightlight looked at him like he was the coolest mech on Cybertron. She had uncurled and instead was facing him, sitting with her knees forward and her pedes behind her. “So,” she spoke with a bit more pep in her voice, “they don’t know you’re strong...but they still kind of know you’re strong because you walk so confident.”

“Exactly.”

“But...but I don’t think I could do that.”

“Why not?”

“Cause what if I pretend to be strong and then they figure out I’m not and they beat me up?”

“If you walk with enough confidence, they won’t challenge you. And if they do, you threaten them. Then they run off like little glitchmice, with not a finger lifted.” Overlord waved his free servo as he talked, and Nightlight rubbed her fists on her optics and cheeks as he spoke, scooting closer to him.

“If I was injured in a way that left me unable to fight, but able to use my words, I would still win. In that moment, when I threaten them, it is not pain they are afraid of,” he explained, half-lying. Overlord loved to taunt, but he rarely threatened. If someone challenged him, most of the time he smashed their head in immediately. “I’m not touching them. They aren’t experiencing it. What they fear is the prospect of pain. All you have to do if you want to scare them off is make them believe you’ll rip them apart.”

Overlord had a feeling he was losing her, given her big optics staring at him. Or maybe that’s just how she looked. He poked her in the chest with acquired gentleness. “I can teach you. I can make you like me,” he said, “You can be intimidating. And nobody will ever bother you.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

-------------

Nightlight had such a tall stack of datapads in her arms that the top of the pile concealed her face. She had to stumble slowly in the hall and occasionally, carefully glance to the side of the stack to see that there was nobody in front of her, and issue out “excuse me”s and “I’m sorry”s accordingly.

Overlord’s lessons on being braver and more intimidating had not yet been put into practice. Fortunately so, in Nightlight’s optics. The two wheeler hadn’t come across anybody who felt like bullying her for a whole week, and she was hoping her lucky streak would last forever. She didn’t want to try out what she had learned from the phase-sixer, even though out of everybody on the ship, he was probably the best person equipped to teach it. Nightlight didn’t want to mess up.

Turning a corner like an old bot driving slow on the highway, she scooted forward on her pedes and shifted her grip on the datapads. She felt the datapads sliding, and she “eep!”ed as she steadied them, and they settled back in place. “Whew,” she whispered.

Despite her dearest wishes on shooting stars, Nightlight didn’t get much time to be relieved. Just as she found her footing again, some mecha decided to sneak up beside her and stick their pede out. The minibot made a brief yelping sound before landing on her front, some of the datapads breaking her fall, layered like a deck of cards. The rest scattered and clattered around them. The floor and the pointy edges of the datapads poked and scraped her chassis and hands.

“Oops,” said the bot above her, laughing. She recognized him from his voice. She didn’t know his name. “Heh, watch where you’re going, squirt.”

Nightlight stayed on the floor for a moment, facing down, steeling herself and her urges to cry. It was action time. She got up, pushing herself with her tiny servos, whipping herself around with gusto and pointed her finger right in the mech’s face. 

“How about YOU watch where YOU’RE putting your STINKY PEDES, BUSTER!!”

The Decepticon stood with his mouth agape. He stared at Nightlight like she had grown another helm. Her being any bit of aggressive was pretty equivalent, really. “Wha-” he snorted, before barking out laughter that scraped Nightlight’s audials from being too loud. “What’s your problem, Autobot model? You think you can just waltz up in here and get sharp with me? You lookin’ to get pummeled?”

“You’re the one asking for a beating, stupidhead!” Nightlight yelled back with surprising volume, looking up at the considerably taller mech, even stepping towards him with gritted teeth. She stomped at him and almost jumped towards him doing so, looking like a dog trying to chomp at a chewtoy placed above it. “Get out of my way or pick these up,” she pointed at the datapads now, “and take them to room L2400! Or I’ll rearrange your face so much you’ll have to get your whole head replaced!!”

Nightlight, venting hard, felt equal amounts proud and equal amounts terrified. She had used the strategies Overlord taught her! Nightlight had tried her hardest and her best, put on her scariest face with her scariest voice. Hours of practice with Overlord, of him showing her how to be unabashed and angry, were coming to fruition.

The mech looked like he wanted to say something else, but instead he froze up, his expression contorting into a wide-eyed frown. He frantically vented, taking a few quick breaths before letting out what Nightlight could only describe as a “squawk”. His helm darted between facing forward and towards the datapads. He was shivering so hard his chassis rattled. Was it working?

“I’ll do it! I’ll do it, I’ll pick up the datapads!” he threw himself at them, scooping them up like they were shards of his spark. Nightlight couldn’t help but look on with her mouth in the shape of an O. “Just leave me alone, okay?! I don’t want any trouble anymore!”

“Really?!” asked the purple minibot, “I, I mean, yeah! And I don’t wanna ever see your dumb ugly face ever again, got it?!” She shook her fist at him, throwing in a growl to her intimidation tactics. It sounded like a baby cyberwolf.

Taking no time to look back or even respond, the mech rushed off with the datapads in his hands. He screamed and practically jumped in the air when Nightlight yelled “L2400!” to remind him of where he was supposed to be going.

When the bot disappeared in the hallway, Nightlight stood still. She seemed to start to gradually vibrate, before exploding in excitement, jumping around the hallway, squealing and screaming, dancing and throwing her fists all around. She did it! She did it! She was intimidating! She could stand up for herself! She didn’t have to be bullied anymore! She was a real Decepticon! 

Nightlight then felt a little guilty. She put her servo to her mouth and thought. The mech looked so scared. Had she been too mean? 

No, she hadn’t been. Overlord told her that she should stand her ground, go full force, and dish back exactly what her bullies were doing to her. There was nothing wrong with that. An optic for an optic, and then some. The moped bounced in place. Overlord would be so proud of her!

“...I have to tell him!” she said, out of breath. She dashed down the hallway despite this, giggling and cheering, back in the direction she came from.

As Nightlight skipped away, Overlord stood at the other end of the corridor, in direct line of sight of where her bully had been standing. He backed away into the darkness with a wicked smile.

[lostintransport]

(Headcanon meme) What was their first time meeting Megatron like? What inspired them to become a Decepticon?

//under readmore for length! Rosehip's is above the readmore though.

Rosehip:

"You know, I wish I could say it was some...awe inspiring moment when I first met Lord Megatron. In reality, we walked past each other in the hall, I saluted him in a really sarcastic manner, made some insulting joke about his vain aft second, he laughed and then moved on. I never spoke to him again, but I'd see him sometimes. On the battlefield shouting orders, on a screen givin' a speech. Honestly, I dealt more with the lower scale commanders before becoming one myself."

"As for what inspired me...I used to be a cop, or enforcer, however you wanna spin that, and I saw all sorts of slag go down. Corrupt cops, corrupt senators bribing those cops into silence whenever a nice pretty mech was found dead in one of their high end apartments, carriers ripped away from their kids 'cause they had to make ends meet and the only thing they had to sell was their body."

"...I quit that job because eventually I realized there was no changing a system that was made up of the very people fighting to keep it that way."

"The only way to change somethin' that big was to take the whole thing down and build it back up from the ground, from nothin'. I got into that system with the belief that we were keepin' people safe, that we were the good guys, y'know? When I realized that was wrong, I turned 'round and became a medic to try and help with the aftermath of the stuff I couldn't stop on my own. So...I guess I was inspired by the desire to help others. Megatron gave us a way to finally take down the system and make a new, better one. It felt like a good cause. It just felt right."

"I guess we went wrong somewhere along the way, though."

Legion:

"Oh, well, I never met Megatron. Never worked on any of the bases he ever visited, but I'd see that seeker fellow he kept around, Star-somethin', hangin' around the medbay and complaining. Always felt bad for him. He didn't seem like a happy mech, like a lot of slag was weighin' him down. War can be harsh on everyone, even a mech like that."

"And, honestly, I was a back alley medic when the war began. I lost my license after I helped this poor carrier pay her sparkling's clinic bill, apparently 'helping the addicts and criminals pay off debts' was against the law and I got booted. Jokes on them, when I left to set up an illegal practice in Kaon, half our patients went with me. The system that was in place was horrible, it was killing people or puttin' 'em in so much debt they killed themselves workin' so hard to pay it off. It was better to go to someone workin' in a dingy shack than a real clinic with updated tools and software."

"I joined the Decepticons 'cause some pretty damn good scientists went to 'em. Figured after everything, I could convince 'em to give me my license back and let me practice medicine without chargin' an arm and a leg. What the captain said - wanted to help mechs, not grind 'em down."

"Oh, and that carrier's jus' fine if you're wonderin'. Got her off to a great lil colony before the real slag hit the fan. Her sparkling's a fine young mech now, I'd reckon."

Spawnfire:

"...I went to one of Megatron's speeches once, right before we all went off planet. Never got to talk to him, though. I doubt he'd have listened to a little guy like me, but the way he talked about the stuff going on...the injustice, the inequality...I watched my carrier work himself to death trying to pay off a debt to some medic that helped rewire my dead optics into a visor so I could see."

"I was so damn angry about that...nobody should have to do that just so their kids can live full lives, y'know? I signed up for the army the day my carrier died. I wanted to make him proud, and I knew he'd spit on the Autobot's Prime and shoot himself in the pedes before he gave them a lick a support."

Chargestone:

"Never met him, didn't want to. He had the right idea, and I liked what he said and what he wrote, but honestly? I always thought he was just a nice figure head. He didn't look like the type of mech to write that stuff, or care about the little guy, it always felt like someone else was making him say everything, like a script. But anyway...good ideals, good cause, good leaders. Joining was just the right choice, nothin' inspired me. Now git, I got work to do!"

Technicolor:

"No, I never met Megatron, not directly anyway. I was in the same room as him and someone brought up the battle plan I had drawn up. He liked it and even told me I was very intelligent, had his second put me on as another strategist. Didn't last, of course, tempers run hot between seekers and grounders, and I was the only seeker in my base. Got demoted quicker than that old Screamer could declare himself leader."

"Vos. Vos inspired me. I was there. I saw the towers go down, I had to watch my kin go down in flames as they tried to flee. Why wouldn't I join the Decepticons after seeing what the council was willing to do to us? I still...I still dream about it....I feel like I can still hear them screaming as they fell...."

Moth & Beetle:

"Never met Megatron, first mech we met when we left our hive was Rosehip, he's the one that recruited us and painted the emblems on our arms."

"Yeah, what Moth said! Rosehip told us about the war, and he seemed to believe in the cause so deeply, and he was so passionate about how we were all created to help each other and be kind, not to cause pain and stuff and how the war was for a better future...it just...y'know, how could we not join him and become Decepticons?"

Vice:

"Oh, haha, I don't actually know? I was created after the war started. My...my carrier was an Autobot. I don't know what happened, but a lot of people said she was a traitor, that she stopped an execution so they killed her too....I didn't really know her, though. The Autobots didn't know about me, either. Carrier hid me from them. I think she was right to, when they found out she'd had a sparkling in secret, and with a seeker no less, they were so...so mad."

"I tried to leave an-and....I've never flown before. Hit a storm, and then there was an Autobot security mech coming after me - I crashed real bad, but I got away. I met a Decepticon recruiter at the port after I got fixed up, and he told me his ship was full, but he knew a mech that'd take care of me. Then Rosehip came and picked me up. I always thought the Autobots were cruel, even though they said it was the 'Cons that were evil."

"I've never felt safer than on the Nine. They're like a family to me. I bet it's like this on every Decepticon ship, if everyone is like the Nine's crew."

[imababblekat]

Imagine Optimus Having A Pyschic S/O Who Can’t Control Their Powers

~

Optimus stood ridged against the factory walls, arms crossed tight, and gaze focused low to the ground. While it seemed like hours had passed in only a few minutes, the Prime's spark thrummed faster then any second. Everything that happened only a short while ago played through his processor like a video on repeat. Only when he heard metal steps begin to echo into the hall was he able to be distracted away from his terrifying memory.

"How are they?", Optimus questioned, not caring about how urgent his tone was.

Ratchet looked up to his friend and leader, optics tired but willing to stay open should he have to work late into the night.

"(y,n) will be okay, but they need to rest. Their injuries were miraculously not life threatening. The biggest thing is a twisted ankle that they might have to use crutches for a while to it fully heals, but other then that, they’re going to be okay."

A breath Optimus hadn't realized he'd be holding in, whooshed through his intake and vents.

"Thank you Ratchet, I-"

Said medic raised his servo, stopping the bot across from him from completing his thanks.

"They bugged me to let you see them, now don't keep them waiting.", Ratchet instructed, his tone somewhat harsh, but the smile on his face diminished that.

Optimus only nodded, quickly stepping past the exhausted doctor and making his way into the medbay. Inside, his optics quickly landed on your form, head turned away from him, and body covered by comforting sheets. Sensing that you were not alone, you looked over to see your love, and had to choke back from breaking down right there.

"Optimus I-", you began, sitting up a little too fast and cringing in pain.

Optimus quickly stepped over, guiding you back to lay against the plush pillow that had been put onto the medical slab.

"Easy. You don't have to say anything, just rest."

You pushed Optimus servo away from your body, though most of the effort was on him, there's no way you'd be able to move just his hand without your powers.

"But I do have to say something, Optimus.", you pressed, brows furrowed and guilt settling in. "I-I have to apologize!"

". . .for what?"

"You know what."

Optimus looked down to his closed servos resting on the edge of the slab. He knew exactly what you were talking about, and just like that, the memories clouding his processor as he waited in the hall had returned. The sounds of terrified civilians, all running or trying to hide from the newest battle being waged in their city. A newer villain, a man who had been an ex scientist at Sumdac's, proved to be quite the foe against the Autobot's with his own, non sentient, robot creations. Half the city would be destroyed before the team would be able to take him down, till you had stepped in. Everyone knew about your psychic abilities, but they also knew how you had little to no control of them, as well as the immense pain it cost to use them. Optimus tried to stop you, along with your other close friends, but it was too late. Your powers sprung out of control just as you defeated the villain. It wasn't till you had passed out from the feeling of being simultaneously burned and ripped apart from the inside, that everyone was able to take a moment and see the damage done to Detroit. No one could tell what part of the decimated side of town was your doing versus the villains, but they could make a pretty good guess.

Feeling something lightly touch his servo, Optimus optics and mind came back into focus of where he currently was. You looked up to him, eyes glossed over and threatening to spill tears, but you held strong, as your partner opened his servo to gently hold your much smaller hand.

"Optimus. . .", your choked voice called him softly," You don't have to think about how I'll react. You and I both know what I did was wrong, and I want you to be honest with me instead of pretending for the sake of how I’ll feel."

Clenching your hand very gently in his, Optimus let out a small sigh before speaking his mind, tone stern and as you had requested, honest.

"What you did was very foolish, (y,n). Not only did you put yourself in great danger, but others as well. You know you can't control your powers, and you know the pain it causes you."

You swallowed the lump that had built up in your throat, taking Optimus scolding and still desperately trying to hold back from crying. This is what you wanted, and you were going to face the truth of what you did. So focused on the clenched feeling of your chest and holding a strong facade, a single tear managed to escape you, and it took everything you had from breaking down that instant. The cool metal of Optimus finger gently brushing the tear from your cheek was the only thing that kept you from doing so, and looking back up to his optics in surprise, you saw a very soft, kind smile grace his face.

"However, I know that you had good intersessions in your decision to go against us. Just please, don't do that ever again."

You sniffled, voice croaking out.

"I. . .I want to help."

Optimus nodded, knowing how deeply you've always wanted to be apart of the team more. It's all you dreamed and spoke about, but could only stand back and take cover because you could not trust your abilities to keep from causing more casualties. Suddenly, an idea struck Optimus, and he knelt down further so that he could lay his helm over his arms on the slab.

"How about a deal? We'll help you train, take control of your psychic abilities and be able to endure them. But you can't engage in battle no matter what till I think you're ready."

At that, you gave up holding back your tears, and just let them stream down your face as you rolled over to hug Optimus servo to your body.

"D-deal!", you sobbed out, but wore a huge smile on your ecstatic face.

Optimus smiled as well, but his brows quickly furrowed when he took note of the multiple bandages wrapped around your body that had been covered by the sheets.

"B-but if you feel any pain at all, or if it gets to be too much, tell us and we'll stop training then!"

You sniffled, a wobbly grin settling on your face as you pressed a light peck to the thumb beside your face.

"I will, Optimus. I will."

~xXx~

[thanksjro]

Eugenesis Part Two, Scene Three: Today Isn’t About You, Prowl

The Quintessons read the shuttle under them. Like, immediately. The warship fires on the Autoshuttle, and they go down.

Then there’s this rather tense moment where Hound, after cutting the power to the shuttle to drop them out of laser fire, is completely frozen in fear and unable to get it back online. They’re plummeting towards a human-populated area, and all he can do is watch as they’re about to kill thousands of people. Luckily, he’s got a co-pilot, and they manage to not cause millions in property damage. They’ve lost the warship, but that won’t be the case for long.

Back on Cybertron, in the Autobot Underground, Prowl is making an official announcement on what happened at the inspection, and this announcement connects several little vignettes. It’s a nice framing device, one that’s used pretty effectively. We see Nightbeat taking apart a surveillance camera, Rev-Tone and Quark sitting together sullenly, Kup standing vigil over Rodimus- where it’s implied that he shoots the intercom so he doesn’t have to listen- and ends on Prowl himself, standing in Rodimus’ office, miserable and in temporary command.

Prowl, people died today. Let’s try not to make this about your preferred career path.

We currently have two new leaders of our warring factions. Interesting.

In another neat framing device, Nightbeat’s gotten the camera just how he wants it, and rewinds the footage to see what happened to Thunderclash. We see the world in reverse, working our way to the point where the Autobot Second in Command was “killed.” This is just a fun section to read.

Going forward from the point where Rodimus and Doubleheader were shaking hands, we see Thunderclash and Red Alert book it towards the Prime once the bomb is revealed. Rodimus rips Doubleheader’s arm off, I assume to try and prevent the pressure-trigger in his hand.

Meanwhile, Kup is sitting with Rodimus.

Rodimus isn’t doing so hot.

The doctors have managed to fix all the physical damage, but for whatever reason, he’s just not waking up, and his vitals just keep going down. The only reason he’s still alive is because of the Matrix, and that has a demon inside it. First Aid gives him a week. Kup is, obviously, less than pleased with this turn of events.

Meanwhile, in Autobot City, Ultra Magnus, very politely, asks the Enslaver to identify itself before coming any further into their airspace.

And that word was FUCK. It’s okay Roberts, I know you’re a bit limited by your publishers, I got you man.

The city goes on high alert, and General Rodern- you remember him, don’t you?- plays a dirty little trick, saying that their ship is escaping from the scourge of the Decepticons, and oh, won’t you please help us poor little babies?

Directly after, he orders the first wave of their fleet to start razing everything to the ground.

Today has been a lot for Magnus.

He orders Blaster to get Prowl on the horn for some reinforcements, but it seems like the Quintessons have jammed the frequencies. The city makes the transformation to battle station, and things get loud.

The shuttle buddies finally catch up, just in time for all the entrances to be sealed in Autobot City.

The real James Roberts would never say such a thing about a robot!

The shuttle gets hit, and they have to abandon ship, hitting the ground hard as their ride bursts into flames and lands in the moat.

Back on Cybertron, Prowl is quickly realizing that being head honcho isn’t all that it appears. It seems that Rodimus makes it look easy.

Prowl, you can’t just steal a man’s Uggs like that. Those things are expensive, he had them custom embroidered with flames and everything.

Despite not being thrilled with his new job, Prowl can’t seem to think of anyone who would be better suited to take up the mantle, listing everyone’s shortcomings, until he settles on Grimlock. They’ll have to pry this position out of his cold, dead hands before he lets fucking Grimlock back in the captain’s chair.

I can’t say I disagree with him.

He gets a call. He gets a few, actually, and really shows how bad he is at talking to people. Kup is last in line, with more bad news: Rodimus has taken a turn for the worse. He could very well be dead by the end of day.

And on that note, I’m ending the entry!

This section was really fun to read! We got some nice action, and the writing is picking up. Will Roberts kill Rodimus? I doubt it, but he’s surprised me before.

[ratgirl112]

*In all stories Kitty doesn't transform and she has a human holoform she uses for as a disguise.*

*Kitty is a doctor/healing bot and heals with a single touch*

*Kitty does fight if she has too. Except in More Than Meet the Eye, she doesn't have the strength to fight until later in the story*

*In all Continuities Kitty can fly by a pair of wings that she can retract at any time she needs to. How she got them is different in every continuity. In TFA/Beast Wars/Beast Machines/TFP/RID(2015)/MTMTE/Rescue Bots Academy, Optimus Primal created the wings and had them built into her as an upgrade. In Generation 1 and Headmasters, Ratchet already built in the wings when she was created. In Cyberverse, she created the wings herself and had a doctor put them on for her.*

Generation 1: Kitty was created by Ratchet around the same time the Dinobots were created(seems logical). Soon she started to become smarter than the Dinobots and she was able to heal bots by the touch. Soon she has feelings for Ratchet, her creator, and has a relationship with him until his death. Kitty went crazy after Ratchet's death and joins the Deceptions with Galvatron and Cyclonus as her leaders. She likes to tease and flirt with Rodimus and even says at one time that he reminds her of Ratchet. Kitty doesn't transform and has a human holoform that she uses as a disguise. She tends to be beaten by the Deceptions because they believe she's still an Autobot. But she thinks it's better than being an Autobot and feel guilt-tripped because she feels that she could of saved Ratchet and blames herself.

The Headmasters: Kitty goes back with the Autobots and has a relationship with Rodimus. She's not really part of the story, and she's mostly just a side character. Doesn't transform and has human holoform to disguise herself.

Beast Wars: Kitty comes in a pod and doesn't remember anything and she can't transform. She messes with Rattrap alongside with Dinobot, which leads to her having a relationship with Dinobot. She's good friends with Airazor and is as close to her as Cheetor is with Tigatron. Of course, Kitty is buddy buddy with Cheetor, considering the fact that they're both Cheetahs. After Dinobot's and Airazor's deaths she loses her mind and almost joins the Predacons, but Blackarachnia stopped her and she becomes close friends with her because of those events. She soon has a relationship with Waspinator and protects him when the others mess with him.

Beast Machines: When they get back to Cybertron, Kitty can't find Waspinator and spends the whole time trying to look for him. While Thrust,(who has Waspinator's spark), tries to flirt with her. She gives up and believes that her Wasp is dead.

Transformers Armada/Energon: She doesn't do a lot in the show, but she flirts with Hot Shot and Rodimus a lot. She occasionally gets into fights with the Femme Deceptions.

Transformers: Animated: Kitty is an autobot and she was originally a cheetah, but was created when the Allspark fragments had spread through the planet and created them, she's an autobot, but she can not transform, she was with Waspinator until he was destroyed, she was also good friends with Black Arachnia. Black Arachnia had sent Kitty to Earth through a portal to send a message, when Kitty came to Earth, she showed up on the Dinobot Island and met the Autobots when she helped people out of a burning building. She now stays with the Autobots and she found out that she was sent to Earth because she's the Guardian of the Allspark and meets Prowl because he's within the Allspark.

Transformers: Prime: Kitty is from the past back during the Beast Era. She is the only living Beast that hasn't been experimented on by Shockwave and isn't a clone. She has an interest in the doctor Ratchet and works with him a lot with helping the bots heal and get better. She later has a relationship with Ratchet and stays with him through the entire show. When Knockout joins the team he flirts with her and gets smack by Ratchet when he does so. By the end of Prime, Kitty stays on Earth with Ratchet when the others go on Cybertron.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise(2015): Kitty is second in command on Bumblebee's team and is a little Fiesty towards the whole team. She acts like a cat whose tail was just stepped on. She doesn't get along with Drift and has a love-hate relationship with him. When Ratchet comes back she can't stand to look at him and when he's around, she's not around.

Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy. She stays on Cybertron and helps out Optimus once in a while to train the new recruits on Cybertron at the Academy. She's like their Gym coach and will push them to their limits if she has to.

Cyberverse: In the past, Kitty was a laid back type of Femme and she liked to play tricks with the other bots. She liked to tease Hot Rod the most and said that if she could, Hot Rod would be the mech for her. In the present, Kitty is awoken with the other bots and is a wise Femme and is careful with her decisions. She remembers what she said to Hot Rod, but wants to wait until the war is over to settle down with him. Even if he begs her to be with him. She basically is a Femme version of Optimus.

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye/Lost Light: Kitty joins the Lost Light crew because she admires Rodimus and wants to be just like him. She a young bot and is inexperienced when it comes to fighting until Drift trains her and she becomes a ninja bot. Drift helps Kitty get closer to Rodimus and is insanely blushing when she first meets him. She has a great relationship with Rodimus and soon become Conjux Enduras, which Ultra Magnus asks Kitty why Rodimus out of all mechs. By the end of Lost Light, she dies during the final battle and promises to Rodimus that she will be watching over him and thanks to him for all of the fun that they have together. She is close friends with Tailgate and she protects him at all costs.

Power of the Prime Trilogy: In Combiner Wars, she was only just a minor character, only showing up for the final battle between Starscream and not explaining how she got there. She mentions that she used to have a relationship with Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime but broke it off because he was always busy and was never talking to her. In Titans Return, she works with Perceptor to figure out what the Titans want and figure out how to stop them, she occasionally flirts with Perceptor but is turned down every time, with Perceptor saying that science is more important than love. In Power of the Primes, Kitty meets Optimus Primal and falls head over heels for him. She instantly tries to protect him at all times even if it gets her almost killed and ripped into two by Overlord. By the end, she creates a relationship with Primal.

Bayverse(Michael Bay Movies): Kitty is first introduced in Age of Extinction and has no back story, but says that she did once have an interest in Drift but was never with him. In The Last Night, she has a relationship with Crosshairs and always flirts with him, which gets Bumblebee mad a lot.

Knightverse: She shows up on Earth shortly after Optimus shows up on Earth. She mentions having a relationship with Hot Rod but never goes into depth about it. She gets into arguments with Arcee a lot because Arcee says that she deserves Hot Rod and not Kitty. Optimus or Ratchet usually have to break up the fights.

War for Cybertron Trilogy(Video Games): Kitty isn't much of a warrior and more of a medic, she was only on the field fighting when she needed to grab injured Cybertronians. She's with Rodimus and works with him until his dying breath. Kitty doesn't see him die on the field, but she hears about his death from Optimus and screams. She wanted to stay with Rodimus and wished that she could have saved him. After a short time, Cybertron was destroyed, Optimus calls a team of Autobots to join him on Earth. Kitty decides to go to this planet to see new scenery, she knew Optimus and wanted to join him, she wanted to try to stop thinking about Rodimus and accepted that he was gone, no matter how hard it was, she couldn't ever forget about her Roddy.

Transformers: More than Meets the Eye Part 2: Before Kitty went to join the Lost Light, she was in the DJD, she was in a relationship with Glitch and stayed with him when he became Tarn. She was crazy enough to stay with him, he did show her affection, but when she failed, he would punish her for her mistakes, so she had to leave when she heard that the Lost Light was asking for people. When Tarn was getting destroyed by Megatron, she took his mask and holds on to it remembering the good memories she had with him when he was still Glitch. BTW she gets therapy from Rung.

Transformers: Cyberverse Part 2: Before the war, she was with Starscream, but was torn apart from him when it came to choosing sides. From time to time Starscream still calls her his queen and always says that when he becomes the next leader of the Decepticons, she will be forced to be with him.

Robots in Disguise 2001: Kitty is basically a child in this series, she basically messes around with SideBurn and teases him about red sport cars. When Ultra Magnus came around, she was amazed by how professional he was, she would always follow him, but not follow what he does, she still takes orders from Optimus, unlike Magnus. Sky-Byte is amazed by Kitty and she's worried because he likes her, but she's an Autobot and he's a Predacon. Even though she's with Ultra Magnus, she still thinks about Sky-Byte. BTW Sky-Byte doesn't like the fact that she likes Ultra Magnus and always keeps an eye on him.

IDW Comics(Before More Than Meets the Eye): Kitty starts off as a Decepticon, originally created by Overlord and Trepan as an expirement. She was infused with a special energon that makes her different than anyone else, which is why Megatron recruited her to be with the DJD, but unlike the others, she kept her name, she loved to feast on the Cogs after Nickel didn't need them, but only if they were damaged, which didn't happen very often, but she still enjoyed it none the less. Although she had a relationship with Tarn, she still messed around with the other DJD members, including Nickel. But before she joined the DJD she went against her creators and became an autobot for a short time, but after confessing her love to Ratchet and being rejected because he didn't like her back, she went crawling back to Overlord and he recommended her to join the DJD. When she was an autobot, she had a thing for Glitch, which is why when she joined the DJD she fell in love with Tarn because she knew what he once was.

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Part 3: Overlord and Trepan found Kitty's parts to build her from scraps that were left after an area that was destroyed by Rodimus. So Overlord and Trepan knew this and told Kitty, so when Kitty met Rodimus she was a little scared, because she was an Autobot when she met him and he's the captain of a ship even though he destroyed an area full of Autobots. When she confronted him about this, he said that it was the only choice and was sorry. She also told him that her parts came from there and he was shocked, Kitty was one of the only people who saw the true Rodimus and she trusted him more now that she knew the truth about him. He was shocked to learn about her past.

Beast Wars 2(The Anime): Kitty was always getting herself in trouble, even though she wasn't a Destron. She always seemed to get captured by either Starscream or Megatron, Lio Convoy always wondered if she liked to get kidnapped or if she was just getting herself into trouble. Tasmania Kid even had to watch her one day when she tried to sneak out of the ship to find Starscream or Megatron. Tasmania wondered if she liked them.

[blueikeproductions]

So having watched the first season of Transformers Cyberverse, I’ve got some thoughts to express. Overall I thought it was boring and a bit uninspired in places, but I generally think that’s more on me as a veteran fan. The first season aims to tell the abridged origin of the Great War, which seems loosely based on the Aligned and IDW origins: the Decepticons came to power to overthrow a oppressive government. As such it doesn’t do much new, so it’s nothing I, or other veterans, haven’t heard before, but as an entry point for new fans, I think it serves its purpose to give them the general gist of things. Interwoven with the backstory is Bumblebee and Windblade’s exploits on Earth, as they dodge enemy Seekers, fix Bee’s memories (which is where the flashbacks come from), and locate The Ark to reunite with the other Autobots. Like the Bumblebee movie, the titular Autobot has lost his memories, and fumbles his way around in a child like manner, needing Windblade’s Cityspeaker skills to refresh his memory so he can tell her where the Ark is. This part of the story is a little better, as it offers more original material, with additional flashbacks as to how Bee and Windy met. Their friendship is rather touching, if mildly cliche from a teenage romcom scenario. Back on Cybertron, Bee was a charming dork while Windblade was the new girl in town (like in IDW, she’s from Caminus), and feel in with the popular clique: Starscream’s jets. Charmed by Bumblebee’s antics and disgusted by Starscream’s cruelty, Windy decides to hang with Bee and a friendship is born. The sparse prewar segments are generally the best parts, showing a simplified glimpse at what Cybertron was like. There’s a hint of mild Shapeism, in that the jet Transformers think they’re the cream of the crop, and look down on ground vehicles. Similarly, cars don’t have a high opinion of the smarmy jets either. Nevertheless, everyone seems to generally get along just fine at MacCadam’s Old Oil House, with Soundwave and other Seekers providing musical entertainment. MacCadam’s is probably the best episode of the first season, which shows the subtle collapse of Cybertronian society though small timeskips. Cities are reduced to rubble, tensions are high, but the Oil House stood firm for the longest time, helped by MacCadam’s strict no fighting policy. When Megatron intends to rip the place apart looking for Deadlock, owner Mac transforms into an unseen form to frighten the tyrant off, and lets the future Drift stay for as long as he likes. Also a new Cybertronian sport, Cube, is shown, which seems to be Quidditch mixed with football. It’s honestly not that interesting, but Bumblebee was such a big fan of the sport, he tries to sneak into the stadium to see it, ultimately interfering in a game (though at this point he was trying to stop a bored Starscream from ruining the game). Worth nothing Cyberverse’s sister series, Rescue Bots Academy, also includes Cube and it’s other biggest fan Hot Shot. The present day stories though do have their flaws. There’s really no point for the Autobots to be on Earth, as it feels obligatory more so than anything else because that’s what previous stories did. The Robots in Disguise factor seems largely abandoned as nobody bothers to scan Earth modes, and freely run around in their space forms. Grimlock seems to be the only one who scanned an Earth form however, though this wasn’t made immediately clear in flashbacks since he still had saurian like kibble. (Hindsight suggests he probably turned into a vaguely saurian tank however). Really, outside of Grimlock’s brief backstory and Shockwave’s plan to raze Earth in order to kill the Autobots and collect the Allspark, the Transformers could’ve been running around Pluto or Mars instead. Nobody interacts with or befriends humans, so there’s not much of a drive to defend Earth beyond it’s the right thing to do. And also the Ark, but still. Character work is probably the worst aspect of the show unfortunately. Outside of Grimlock, MacCadam and Teletraan X, nobody really has any interesting personality or quirks. Bee is transplanted from his Movie and Prime incarnation, while Windy seems mostly defined by her sisterly relationship with Bee. As such she doesn’t really work on her own, as she lacks any of the traits possessed by her earlier counterparts. At best I can say she’s loyal and a good fighter, but without someone to bounce off of, she’s uninteresting. Bee doesn’t have anything new going for him either. He still speaks with his radio and is the little buddy, but that’s about it. Oh, the Allspark apparently reacted to him on Cybertron, implying a greater destiny, but nothing else is said about this for the time being. The only other major presence are Slipstream’s Seekers, but they might as well have been Vehicons, as there’s little to no character development for any of them. They’re all little more than dumb thugs. At most, Slipstream wants to look good in front of high command, but this isn’t explored much. Really the only interesting Seeker is Acid Storm, who due to animation errors and, perhaps a lack of communication between the show runners and Hasbro, is said to be gender fluid to cover up the error. It’s actually a fun idea that could be fleshed out more, among other things, on how other Decepticons view it (Slip is fine with it, but Shockwave sees no combat value in it), but I fear they’ll not be allowed to do so. The other legacy Autobots and Decepticons seen have nothing new to offer, and are who they’ve been in the original G1 cartoon. Grimlock is an exception as he has a split personality, being prim and proper in robot mode, but his classic caveman brute in beast mode. In an example of telling, not showing, Grimlock was revealed to have reigned on Earth during the dinosaur age, allegedly creating an advanced dinosaur society. It’s another cool idea, but as we’re not really shown how this worked, it feels half baked at best. Many wish we would’ve gotten a spotlight episode of Grim and his dinosaur friends instead, but who knows, maybe a possible IDW Cyberverse comic might dip into that more. Because of the show’s 10 minute time frame, a lot of more emotional and impactful scenes are stunted pretty badly, most notably a flashback detailing a heroic sacrifice by Blurr, but it’s clear the writers are doing their best with what they’ve got to work with. Similarly new Decepticon Shadow Striker also gets the shaft in development. Characteriszed as a shortfused, competitive girl, Shadow was at one point the Decepticons’ top bounty hunter and sharpshooter, but an accident following the capture of Optimus left her severely crippled. Now having a mishmash body cobbled together by Shockwave, she’s no longer able to do a lot of what she was able to, and is driven by an insane fury to get revenge on Bumblebee, who played an admittedly minor role in her accident. They’re supposed to be arch enemies, but their limited interactions feel very forced. If anything she had more chemistry with fellow impulsive wreckloose Hot Rod. It does feel like there might be set up for her to switch sides, as Bee has been shown to cut her some slack that she partially acknowledges, but I might be looking too hard into it. Overall, Cyberverse repackages what came before it, but does very little new to innovate. The season finale ends with the Decepticon Battle Fleet zeroing in on Earth to wipe out the restored Autobots. This at least suggests a straight forward 80’s style clash between Bots and Cons next season. I’m hoping the second season has some better stories, but talk of killing off a lot of the characters (a jokey comment in particular says Optimus dies immediately in the second season, with another implying Bumblebee becomes Goldbug), makes me a bit skeptical of the show’s story going forward. I’m still gonna check it out though, and if the Goldbug thing is true, I wouldn’t mind seeing that side of Bee again.

[bots-and-cons]

negative request. human has been kidnapped by decepticons and held hostage for a long time no one can find him. after human is rescued he doesn't want to see any more bots. he cries and screams that he hates Optimus. autobots feel guilty for not being able to help him in time, even though they couldn't do anything

I did it with only Optimus. There are these HCs about the same thing, which I'm guessing inspired this ask. The reader is OP’s s/o I guess, gender neutral!reader. I guess a dash of Stockholm syndrome too. I did it kinda so that the reader gives the cons the location of the first base and in the end they’re at hangar E. Let’s say I had some shit to get out of my system, so I kinda stuffed it all in this.

It had been almost a half a year since you had gone missing, so when Optimus got contacted by Megatron to “come collect his pet” he couldn’t believe it. He heard your voice on the recording, but he just barely recognized it, you sounded so different, so… broken.

When the time came for the autobots to take you back, Optimus couldn’t believe his optics. You were only wrapped in a blanket standing next to Megatron, not even trying to get to him. What he could see of you, was covered in bruises and cuts. Your hair had grown out during your months of captivity as well.

“You can go now, pet” Megatron said and gestured towards the autobots.

Optimus could see you looking up at Megatron, as if asking if he was sure that he wanted to let you go.

“Go!” the giant mech bellowed when you didn’t start moving.

The sudden loudness made you flinch, but you started walking towards the autobots. You could feel the tiny rocks and sticks under your bare feet, stinging the bottoms of your feet, but you didn’t care, it just felt a little uncomfortable. It was nothing compared to the pain you had gone through for the past six months.

When you got to Optimus, instead of hopping on his servo he offered you, you just passed him, not even sparing a glance in his direction. You couldn’t even look at him, not now, not ever again. You walked through the open ground bridge and found yourself in some kind of a hangar. You didn’t stop to greet Ratchet or to wait for the team to come through the portal, you just walked up to the nearest person you could see and asked how you could get home.

The woman you walked up to, looked horrified by the state you were in. She told you to sit on the nearby chair that was in the hangar, and that she would be back with some clothes and medical supplies for you. You sat down and wrapped the big, tattered blanket around yourself even tighter.

The whole team had come through the ground bridge, and you could feel Optimus standing behind you. Optimus didn’t say anything, he didn’t know what to say. You had undoubtedly gone through horrifying things by the decepticon’s hands, but he had no idea what you were about to hit him with.

“My love-” he started but you cut him off.

“Love? Yeah right” you scoffed coldly. “If you loved me, you wouldn’t have left me with Megatron for all those months. He told me about how you never even tried to rescue me, he told me the truth about you” you spat out the last word like venom and even though you talked to him, you never raised your head to look at him.

“You must understand, we didn’t know you were alive, I didn’t know…”

“I must understand?! I have to do that?! No! You’re not the one who lived in hell for six months!” you shouted, now standing up but still not looking at him.

Optimus noticed you had dug your nails into your arms, deep enough that you were drawing blood.

“Please my love, stop doing that” he said and grabbed your arms carefully.

“Don’t you fucking touch me you filthy autobot!” you yelled and forcefully ripped your arms away from him.

Optimus was taken aback by what you said, and took a step back.

The woman who you had asked for help came back with some clothes for you, gave Optimus a dirty look and left, telling you that if you needed anything else, to come find her in the next hangar.

You set the clothes on the chair. You dropped the blanket that had been covering your naked body, and Optimus couldn’t help but gasp audibly. Your whole body was covered in cuts, bruises, scars and what seemed like chemical burns. There were words literally carved into your flesh.

“What did they do to you?” he whispered.

You didn’t answer and just pulled on the pants and shirt you had been given, putting on the boots last. You were about to just walk past Optimus, but he wouldn’t let you. He stepped in front of you and asked: “What did they do to you?”

“It’s none of your business anymore, because we are through, we are done and I never, and I mean never want to see your face again. In fact I never want to see any of you again” you said and gestured towards the rest of the team.

“Would you please reconsider? We can keep you safe from the decepticons” Optimus said, even though it felt like a blatant lie, considering what you had just gone through.

“Ha! You? Keep me safe?” You scoffed. “Don’t you fucking understand? No one is safe from Megatron, not your little human friends, not you, the big “powerful” Prime. No one. He will take you all apart, piece by piece, just like he did to me”

“Plea-” Optimus started, but you cut him off again.

“Stop with the begging, it’s pathetic. There is just one more thing I want you to know. From the bottom of my heart, Optimus Prime, I truly hate you, and I want you to know that all that happened to me, all that’s going to happen, is your fault” You said his name like it was something disgusting and finally, you looked at him.

The only word he found that could describe the look in your eyes was dead. Your eyes were dull and you looked at him with such hatred it made his spark hurt. The sight of you walking out of the hangar was the last thing he ever saw of you, and that look you had given him, those eyes of yours would be carved into his mind forever.

[shikai-the-storyteller]

Cyberverse watch! Episodes 1-10

EPISODE 1

Bee you are ADORABLE

The cartoons always seem to start off in the middle of a desert huh

Lmao this is mean but imagine if bee missed the ju-- OH NO I WAS JUST KIDDING BEE

BUMBLEBEE IM SO SORRY I WAS JUST KIDDING, I SHOULDN”T HAVE MADE THAT JOKE

Gosh I’m so glad Windblade seems like one of the main three, like, she’s one of the main people in the intro and everything

Oh man we’re getting right into the bakstory huh

THERE”S TINY PERCY

“We couldn’t be sure if it’d actually work” Windblade says as she jumps through it without any concern or sense of self-preservation

AW SHE HUGGED BEE Windblade is so cute

IS THAT...SKYWARP

It’s so hard to tell the seekers apart

AW MAN I LOVE WINDBLADE’S SWORD And I love that her wings are retractable that’s so cool

STINGER that’s a new ability for ol’ Bee

OH THAT”S THUNDERCRACKER alrighty, sorry bud, I always think you should be green for some reason

JEEZ LOUISE WINDBLADE THAT CORTICAL PSYCHIC PATCH

I wonder if Windblade is still a Cityspeaker in this show :O

oh ANNNND THAT”S THE END OF THAT EPISODE man I forgot they were only 11 minutes. Alright, what the heck, let’s do some more

EPISODE 2

Alright I’m pretty sure that pretty purple seeker isn’t Skywarp but  idk what her name is yet

Aw grumpy Bee is cute

HER FANS JUST FLEW OFF???? WE’RE JUST PLAYING FAST AND LOOSE WITH THESE DESIGNS HUH I gotta say I’m a fan

“I’m going to create a distraction while you--” *camera zooms out to show Bee’s wandered off* I LOVE THEM

Yeah Windblade may not be a Cityspeaker in this series but she’s definitely a babysitter lmao, poor gal

OH SHE IS A CITYSPEAKER THAT”S AWESOME I wasn’t sure if they’d keep that part of her backstory :’) I’m so glad

Awww they hugged again :’)))) Windblade and Bee’s friendship is so cute!!

AAWW AND AGAIN!!! GOSH I LOVE THEM “We were friends once” “We still are” WEEPS!!!!

EPISODE 3

Windblade: BUMBLEBEE STOP DRIVING SO BADLY IM TRYING TO MONOLOGUE

Windblade: I’m going to plug into your brain with this cortical psychic patch and access your memories Bumblebee: I don’t believe this woman’s ever gone to medical school

Lmao way to sum things up Bee

TRIFORCE CUBE ALLSPARK

I wonder if the Allspark swallowed up / locked away his memories AH and as soon as I started typing that some weird glowing stuff started happening lmao

Ah and there’s Starscream, the dork

Man had Saling not warned me about Peter Cullen not voicing Optimus I would’ve been totally caught off-guard by that. Man, I hope Mr. Cullen is doing ok

I DON”T KNOW WHY BUT MEGATRON SAYING “AHAHA OPTIMUS PRIME” MADE ME LAUGH SO HARD

STARSCREAM TOOK OFF HIS WINGS AND THREW THEM WTF

LMAO SHE JUST TRIPPED HIM OFF A LEDGE #Get rekt Starscream

SCARY LADY WHO THE HECK IS THAT

SOUNDWAVE

MY BOY!!! IT”S HIM THERE HE IS!!! I JUST GASPED

SOUNDWAVE I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!! YOU”RE DOING SO GOOD

OH MAN AND HE CAN TALK???? SOUNDWAVE BABY BOY!!!!!

OUCH poor Optimus

Optimus: Good thing I was a pitcher in my middle school’s football league *chucks Allspark through the space bridge*

EPISODE 4

That Allspark looks so much like a dice....I wonder what would happen if they rolled a nat 20 on it lmao

GRIMLOCK??????

WHEELJACK?????

lmao wheeljack looks like such a dork I love him

OH MY GOSH IS THAT CHROMIA??? SCREW THESE GUYS, THERE”S MY GIRL!!!!

Lmao I love that Windblade’s essentially “Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories”-ing Bee’s memories

Optimus: Meet back here in 20 astrocycles Grimlock: Sure thing! *whispers to bee* What the heck is an astrocycle Bee: *Shrugs*

Bee: I don’t know, but this place is the pits I LOVE HIM?????

It’s so weird hearing “intellectual” Grimlock lmaooo

Bee: *grumbles* Optimus would’ve thought that was a funny joke YOU ARE PRECIOUS

Optimus: Bee, watch your footing, the ground is starting to shake Bee: Thank you for that wonderful observation, Captain Obvious

Those bugs are making such cute sounds as they attack them that’s so cute

Aw Optimus, you’re such a good guy, what a sweetheart

Dang, they have a lot of autobots on that ship

UH THEY SHOULD LEAVE AT LEAST ONE PERSON AWAKE

EPISODE 5

Aw man the snow and mountain background in this episode look so pretty

WHY IS BEE HOLDING A GOAT SO CUTE

Bee: They were very kind. They took me in as one of their own WHY! ARE! YOU! SO! PRECIOUS!!!!!

Windblade: You want a what? What is a food processor? THEY”RE SO CUTE!!! GOSH I LOVE THEM 

oh man the backgrounds on this show are absolutely beautiful

Man, you know what it’s so frickin cool that Windblade’s essentially the main character of the show (plus Bee, but mostly her) :’)

“I thought they left all the useless bots on Cybertron” “Clearly not, if you’re here” OH SNAP

Bee’s just sitting on the ship watching bad human TV while Windblade’s off risking her life lmao, I love him

Slipstream is such a moron, why would you throw a flier off a CLIFF

SHE”S A FLIER

I love how Windblade says “Ugh, I was attacked” as if it’s just an inconvenience and not a huge deal

EPISODE 6

OHHH IS THIS GLADIATOR MEGATRON

YEAHHHH IT IS

AHHHHHH BEE HIGH-FIVED SHOCKWAVE, THAT”S SO CUTE I was wondering what the context was behind that

OH MAN THERE’S ARCEE AND RATCHET

AHHH AND THERE”S SOUNDWAVE They’re all standing beside him!

MEGATRON JUST SAID “TIL ALL ARE ONE” IM CRACKING UP

Optimus: I do not intend to start a fight Bee: What if he doesn’t listen? Optimus: He will listen to me 8′((((( and so it begins </3

Lmao also:  Optimus: I don’t intend to start a fight Optimus two seconds later: *chucks a bot*

OH MAN SHOCKWAVE LOOKS SO INTIMIDATING I LOVE THAT

“The file clerk is here to air his grievances” OHH it’s interesting to see what sort of backstory they’re giving Optimus in this universe

Megatron: You are wasting your time Optimus: It is never a waste of time to speak to an old friend I AM CLUTCHING MY CHEST,  YOU GUYS ARE KILLING ME RN

GOSH THIS IS THE MOST DRAMATIC BREAKUP EVER THIS IS KILLING ME IM SO SAD

That one lady Decepticon: *grabs onto Bee and flips him over her head* Me: *CONFLICTED HEART EYE EMOJI????*

SOUNDWAVE!!! IM LOVE YOU!!!! I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU!

GOSH I AM RENDERED INCAPABLE OF COHERENT THOUGHT OR SPEECH WHEN HE COMES ONSCREEN

Bee: Megatron may have torn out my voicebox, but he can’t keep me from talking. I love to talk! Talk talk talk talk.... Windblade: *laughs* Shut up! *weeps into my hands* This friendship is so wholesome

EPISODE 7

AW Decepticon ships have pong on their ships that’s adorable

What is the deal with this cube...is it a person....

AW IS THIS THEIR FIRST MEETING, THAT”S SO ADORABLE, gosh, what a dorky way for Windblade and Bee to meet

IT”S A SPORT OH MY GOSHHHH that’s amazing, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any sort of Cybertronian sports, that’s so cool! I always wondered what kind of sports / games they’d be into

lmao Starscream is so unimpressed with Windblade for liking the game

Ahh Windblade’s taller than him! That’s so cool!

LMAO Bee: You seem different. You’re not like other jets

GOSH THIS EPISODE IS LITERALLY MEAN GIRLS BUT WITH GIANT ROBOTS THIS IS HILARIOUS

Lmao yeah Starsream, because no one’s going to notice the cube is suddenly red instead of blue

AW NEITHER OF THEM REMEMBER HOW TO PLAY CUBE that’s adorable

EPISODE 8

Ugh, there really aren’t any good places to watch episode 8 so I’m watching it all broken up

YO VELOCITRON EXISTS IN THIS UNIVERSE NICEEEE It’s so cool seeing the colony planets!!

YO VELOCITRON LOOKS SO C

OH MY GOSH THERE’S HOT ROD!!!! I LOVE HIM OH MY GOSH BLURR IS HERE TOO!!!!

HOT ROD!!!! RODDY!!! YOU SOUND SO CUTE I LOVE YOU!!!!

Wait wtf is that evil wheeljack??? WHO IS THAT oh wait Plague of Rust??? that doesn’t sound great

“HOT DOG”

I really like Bee’s voice ahhhh he got such a great voice actor

Hot Rod and Blurr’s banter is so fun, that’s really great, and Bee’s like an excitable little kid!!! I love him!!!!

Blurr you stupid twunk, you gotta get out of there THAT RUST IS SPREADING SO FAST

OH NO HIS WHEEL GOT SOME RUST ON IT

OH SHOOT THEY’RE REALLY GONNA KILL BLURR HUH

DANG DUDE WELL OK THEN

EPISODE 9

Nicccce good friends sparring

WHO IS THIS CREEPY MULTIPLE EYED GIRL oh her name is Shadow Striker

*MEANINGFUL SILENCE AT THE WAY THEY STRUNG OPTIMUS UP*

“Ugh, I don’t even like being alone in the room with him” “I don’t like being left alone with you!” LMAO

Bee is so cute, he’s trying to psych himself up

LMAO THE GUARDS ARE TALKING ABOUT THEIR PREFERENCES AND THEIR BOSS that’s so cute what losers

AW MAN I thought Bumblebee was gonna hug Optimus that would’ve been cute

There’s so many seekers in this series!

Man I wasn’t sure what I’d think of Cyberverse but I’m really enjoying myself! It’s such a cute heartwarming show!

...I say, right as Shadow Striker attempts to do a murder / suicide thing with Bumblebee

“What’s your problem with me?!” I MEAN YOU DID BLOW HER UP BUMBLEBEE, CAN YOU BLAME HER FOR BEING MAD

EPISODE 10

Epic space battle! 

BEE YOU DON”T HAVE A SPACE-FARING ALT MODE WHAT ARE YOU DOING

MACCADAMS

THAT”S...DEFINITELY NOT HOW I THOUGHT THAT WAS PRONOUNCED

RIP buff Rung theory, you will be sorely missed

RATCHET!!! GOSH HE DOES SOUND LIKE A WEIRD NEW YORKER that’s an interesting take on his voice! I wonder how they decided on that

SOUNDWAVE!!! SOUNDWAVE I LOVE YOU SO MUCH I WOULD DIE FOR YOU!!! AND HE EVEN HAS BACKUP DANCERS!!! Of course the crowd is going wild for him

AW MEGATRON AND OPTIMUS *whispers* datenight

WHEELJACK AND SHOCKWAVE AW THAT”S SO CUTE They’re both dorky science nerds / proud papas to the shocklets and OH MY GOSH DID SHOCKWAVE JUST LAUGH THAT”S SO CUTE

Gosh I love seeing the bots talking about sports that’s adorable

MACCADAM IS TALKING ABOUT THE FUTURE goshhh. I still see buff Rung but actually getting to meet Maccadam is pretty neat

DEADLOCK AHHH aw he’s so timid!! I love him :’) 

CHROMIA!!! I LOVE HER!!! And aww she’s making the same argument she does in the comic

OH NO DEADLOCK POOR GUY what a sweetheart, he’s just out here doing his best 

YOOOO MACCADAM THAT”S SICK AS HELL, IM SCREAMING

THIS DUDE DEFINITELY TAKES AFTER HIS PAPA RUNG

I need to draw Mac and Rung together, I NEED to see them hanging out

“To friendship” AW THAT”S SO PRECIOUS GOSHHHH

I CAN”T WAIT TO SEE MORE OF THIS SHOW I LOVE IT

[vort3x]

Scattered Thoughts on Lost Light 12

Normally I don’t do this but since I already wrote out most all my thoughts about it when talking to a friend, I decided why not? What a way to end the mutineers trilogy. My thoughts will kinda sorta be in the order that they happened in the comic. The interlude will be it’s own post though. Spoilers under the cut.

First off, did anyone believe that Riptide was really dead? I mean we got this spoiled early since it was in the preview and I’m sure people have already talked about this, but come on. Maybe I’m just cynical when it comes to on panel deaths now, but idk. I’m glad Boaty McBoatface boat boi is okay though. He didn’t deserve a death like that. Unimportant side note: Maybe I’m just remember wrong but why is it that Riptide has the greyed Autobot symbol? He’s had it the entire arc, meaning he had it before he even knew what happened to the Rod Squad. I suppose it could be his way of showing that he feels bad for kicking them off the LL.

Getaway. Okay. So before I get into my whole breakdown about Getaway (which will be towards the end of this), I want to say that the panels where Getaway, Froid, and Atomizer are looking at the Rod Squad in the past kinda hurts. Getaway’s confidence that they’re all alive is just.... kinda sad, especially since he was looking at Skids specifically right before he said that. That mixed with everything he’s doing to everyone on the LL kinda makes you wonder if Skids would have been able to pull him back from the edge had he sided with Getaway. I can’t wait for the moment that Getaway learns that Skids died as a direct result of what he did.

I kinda wonder who said the whole thing about Rung being “one of life’s good guys”. I’m thinking it was Froid but I also don’t see why it couldn’t be Atomizer.

Speaking of Atomizer, we come to his decision of who to kill. I have a lot to say about Atomizer so I’ll save it till the end. His decision to kill Rook is kinda... funny to me as horrible as it is to say. Rook’s basically a mistake in and out of canon and I think it’s kinda funny that Jro fixed that by just killing the guy. No one even seems to be that sad about it. Atomizer seems the most distraught.

Rook aside, I don’t understand how Getaway knew about the Protectobots being a combiner?? Like... Maybe I’m just remembering but I’m pretty sure that there has been zero indication that they combine... and for that matter, how the hell do they know who is what component? As it’s shown later, it apparently doesn’t even matter since First Aid goes from being an arm to a leg anyways. (We’ll touch on the whole Ambulon thing in a sec)

Quick reminder that I’m skipping the interlude for now.

First Aid criticizing Getaway for throwing a boat into a reservoir just had me thinking of this.

Ah, First Aid. You’re a doll for trying to tell Riptide that he’s dumb as a sack of bricks in the politest way possible... too bad he’s... well... dumb as a sack of bricks and doesn’t get it.

Okay so now Ambulon. I... have to point out here that they didn’t actually need to use Ambulon? Mirage is technically a combiner now too after the events of Combiner Wars. It probably would have been much easier to just use him instead of going all the way to the morgue, but I guess Jro just wanted him to be separate?

It’s good to see that they actually retrieved Ambulon’s body and turned it back to normal.

It’s interesting to see the idea of combiners combining with dead members again... also First Aid and Streetwise swapping spots. Does that mean we may get some Scramble City action with the combiners in the future?

“A stand-in” Omg.

Okay so I know it’s not the Autobot way and all that but Thunderwing should have honestly just killed Getaway right then and there.

I was wondering when Star Saber was going to make his reappearance. Still as frightening and terrible as ever. It’s looking like all the lose ends are starting to come together what with this and the interlude.

...Mirage isn’t actually dead is he? That... that was so sudden and... others have come back from worse haven’t they? Kinda? Sorta? I... just find it kinda hard to believe. Mirage is such a big name... then again Trailbreaker...or I guess cutter was too. Huh... I’m cynical like I’ve said so... I guess I’ll have to wait... but it seems like he’s dead. That hurts and Atomizer’s reaction was mine.

The same goes for the Protectobots. They’re not actually dead are they? Jro wouldn’t just kill off a combiner like that would he (and it’s kinda a shame to have to look at them like that. It’d be nice to look at them as individuals but Hot Spot, Groove, Streetwise, and Blades haven’t really done all that much)? Sure combiners have come back from having dead members before, but that’s not going to happen when five sixths of the combiner are dead. Again that’s a bit hard for me to believe but given Getaway’s later comment about there having been a massacre in the shuttle bay makes me think they are (though I know that’s probably suppose to refer to Atomizer).

And now we finally get to Atomizer. I was saying it since last issue, but I was pretty sure Atomizer was going to turn against Getaway in this issue and I was right. He did and I absolutely love him for that (and other reasons). He rapidly sees just how far off the deep end Getaway has gone and now he finally steps up to the plate to help put an end to it. He’s really the redeemable antagonist that I wanted Getaway to be... BUT WHAT THE HELL?? WHY DIDN’T HE JUST GO WITH FIRST AID, RIPTIDE, AND THUNDERCLASH? THE SHIP WAS RIGHT THERE ATOMIZER! Okay. As you could probably guess I’m super angry about what happened to Atomizer.

It really looks/feels like he could have gotten away here and maybe he couldn’t have, but... I don’t know. It feels like such a let down to give Atomizer this moment of redemption but then instantly crush any hope of a redemption story/arc by killing him. I feel like that’s a lot of wasted potential right there....But at the same time I think I see why Jro did it this way. By having Getaway brutally rip apart Atomizer we see that Getaway really has gone off the deep end... or I would think that if it wasn’t for Getaway’s hesitancy to give Sunder more life cords. I suppose it’s just showing that Getaway really is emotionally driven... but the wasted potential because of that...Which brings us back to Getaway. Oh Getaway. So much to say. Back when the mutiny first happened and all that, I wasn’t as against Getaway as most of the fandom was because I could see where he was coming from.

It’s been pointed out before, but it’s really like Getaway says here. Megatron should have been punished but he wasn’t. He’s getting off clean. It’s actually pretty easy to see where Getaway is coming from. I was sympathetic to Getaway’s plight before the mutineer’s trilogy. After this though? Well. I honestly still see where he was coming from with the Megatron thing, but you really see how much his need to feel important and be a great leader is driving him...straight off the deep end. He’s gone way too far and if Jro somehow pulls a good and believable redemption arc out that mess I’d be incredibly impressed. But no. I don’t believe we’re going to be getting a redemption arc here and, well, alright then (ATOMIZER SHOULD HAVE HAD ONE AAAAAAHHH).

Getaway is left with no friends now. He only has those that he thinks will listen to him by his side now. He shoved away or killed (mostly killed) his actual ones and you know what? I think that is what is going to catch up to him. I can see Star Saber, Froid, and Sunder all either turning on him or just leaving him to his fate here in the future, and despite me kinda still liking him as a villain, when/if what I said does happen, I hope the realization of what he’s done destroys him.

[captainignatiuspigheart]

Another week, another near-sun tan. This week I’ve seen a friend in person (what the actual fuck?) and found a new direction for exercise. That sounds pretty good, right? It was extremely disconcerting to meet up with a person in real life – I’ve begun to feel a little like all my friends who have long assured me that they’ve met their best friends purely online – but three hours sitting in the local park in a government-approved triangle was lovely. I’ve been seeing others largely as things to be avoided as they blunder towards me, breathing heavily with no sense of physical distance. Apart from the postman and chin tilts to neighbours it’s the most human experience I’ve had of late. I also attended a properly fun Zoom birthday party too (thanks Mr Ben!), so clearly we’re getting used to these things.

Heading out in the direction of Dovecote Lane park eventually sent me that way on my bike too. I’ve found exercise really hard for the last couple of months. I’ve always relied on cycling to work (and the swim at the halfway point) for a few miles in each direction to keep me fit without feeling like I was doing exercise, and it’s been pretty good for keeping me fit and able to eat and drink what I like. Well fuck you very much lockdown, that’s been properly trashed. Cycling in an aimless circle round university park or Beeston has been quite cack, and while jogging on the spot clearly burns calories it’s too tedious. So I’ve started cycling out to Attenborough Nature Reserve. It’s not especially far, but I’ve rarely explored round there, so I’m enjoying heading off down a road with no clue where it goes. It’s not made me late for work… yet. Even when I didn’t sleep at all on Thursday night I got up and went for an explore before work. Must be good!

In between late night walks around Beeston, drinking too much and watching TV, we’ve continued our slow build of the LEGO Brick Bank. It’s quite lovely.

I’ve also finally returned to LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga on our Wii. I’m up to 30-something per cent and enjoying it enormously. I have discovered though that our TV really can’t handle proper dark contrast on a sunny day, so I’m dying a lot by falling off edges I can’t see. There have been a few levels where I’ve had to stand right in front of the TV (in sport mode), and just hoped I’d find the exit to a room. Still, I’ve got Indy and General Grievous to hop around and smash stuff, so I’m happy.

Oh yeah, and another bootleg Mando arrived this week – with shiny beskar armour! Baby Yoda will have his Mister Shiny Helmet. Nicely, he comes with a screwdriver accessory which I assume is supposed to be the tracking fob. There is something in me compelling me to acquire more of these guys… I’ve also just got the Armourer, but pics of her will have to wait till I’ve crafted a custom cloak. What is wrong with me…?

  Watching: Hollywood

OK, so this should have been in last week’s post, but I’d forgotten that we’d watched it. That’s no indication of how good it is, everything belongs to the neverwhen at the moment. Plus we caned through it in three nights. This is a very strange show, offering us an alternate Hollywood of the 1950s in which the reviled minorities of the day can actually get a foothold in the industry. The show nails the golden era vibe, from movie producer boardrooms to the grim/delightful gas station gigolos. Over the first couple of episodes the show draws together the flailing careers of half a dozen interesting and purposely diverse young Hollywood hopefuls and then sets them together in a movie, despite, or perhaps because of, their race, gender and sexuality – all things that would have killed their careers in real Hollywood. It’s a very pleasing show; the acting is great, from the keen Jack Castello moonlighting as an escort from the aforementioned gas station (it and its owner, Ernie West, are an absolute highlight), aspiring black actor Camille, Archie the black and gay screenwriter who finds himself in a relationship with Rock Hudson (also a delight, and terrible actor in a fantastic screentest montage), and the awesome double act of Hollywood execs Dick Samuels and Ellen Kincaid, plus the quite distressing sleazy and manipulative agent Henry, played with soiled glee by Jim Parsons. 

It’s really good fun, and a moving story – each success feels wonderful, and Hollywood getting behind this gang is immensely satisfying, as is the acceptance and coming out of various characters at all levels of the business. For me, it remained jarring however, for just how unreal the situation is compared to Hollywood of the ’50s – it never escaped its own unlikeliness. Most certainly worth a watch.

Doing: We Are What We Overcome – Live Specials

We’re continuing to livestream every other Monday on Facebook, this time on trying to be aware of our mental health states, as well as that of others. I feel like we’re getting better at this live babbling thing. It feels less awkward now. We’ll be streaming to Facebook next on Monday 1 June, and you can watch em all right here.

Reading: The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton

I’ve been through another couple of weeks of struggling to read properly, or at least as quickly as I enjoy. After discarding half a dozen books less than one chapter in, I finally prised open my book cupboard and pulled out the first pretty thing I could find. It was this! A pleasing and sharply written story of a boy traumatised into silence by an event in his childhood (which is only fully revealed toward the end, and works very nicely),  a lad who discovers he has two talents, drawing and lock picking…  We’re given two main story threads to skip between: his life as the lock artist led by a series of pagers offering jobs that he responds to, and how he got into all this trouble in the first place. They’re both peculiarly endearing, and that’s partly down to the charming internal monologue which carries through all of his interactions, since he does indeed remain mute throughout. He’s funny, and sweet, enough of an outsider through his selective mutism to have a cynical eye, and yet through his silence other people just trust him. Including proper big bad criminal types. It all ends rather badly, but we’re told that from the beginning. His lengthy infatuation and distance romance via comic book pages that he and his sort-of girlfriend exchange is genuinely delightful. This is fast-paced and fun, with a harsh shade of real darkness in both his past and future.

Reading: Transformers vol. 1: The World in Your Eyes

This was a hard read for me. I’m a huge fan of IDW’s previous Transformers continuity, which ran for an extraordinary thirteen years (a feat that I don’t think any other Western comic series, still less one based on a toy line, has achieved), taking us from the brutal finale of the Autobot-Decepticon war through to peace time, with wonderful characters, alternating humour with dark political wranglings. This new reboot has quite a lot to live up to… 

We’re taken millions of years back to Cybertron pre-war, introducing us to the sights through the eyes of newly forged Rubble, who’s being shown round by Bumblebee. Of course, it’s the worst possible time to show a new kid round, as the tensions between the establishment and Megatron’s “Ascenticons” are just now bleeding over into violence. It’s a lovely Cybertron, one we’ve only glimpsed before in flashbacks (or, memorably, time travel), and it’s a thriving world with vast architecture, travel and commerce. A successful world, which for what feels like the first time, has organic alien races living alongside the Transformers. It’s sad to think it’ll all be ripped apart soon…

It’s a very pretty comic, but is incredibly slow moving, even for the first chapter introducing a rebooted world. I suspect I’m finding it hard going from the well-established characters of the last continuity to seeing them all reshuffled and now filling different roles. It’s a cool era to set the story in though, and I think it’s got promise.

Building: LEGO Ninjago 70736 Attack of the Morro Dragon

I love Ninjago’s dragons and the insane aesthics the range has pursued down the years, giving us both traditionalish ninjas and dragons, but also Mad Max dieselpunk, enormous mechs, and more recently Tron-style arcade stuff. Bonkers. Oh, and also the stunning Ninjago City builds and the even wilder designs from The LEGO Ninjago Movie.

This set’s a little older, and like most of the Ninjago line I only pick them up when they’re quite severely discounted. Obviously it was the glow in the dark colours that appealed to me most of all, and those lovely wings. It’s a satisfying assembly, with a mini temple build, sky bikes (or something, I don’t really follow the stories), a couple of ninjas and three more of these evil ninjas with transparent legs and heads. Oh, and two ghosts. I’ve already put them somewhere but it’s the dragon I was interested in.

This is actually a smaller set than I thought it was, and comes together very quickly indeed. Despite being larger, and having more pieces than Master Wu’s dragon (a fantastic LEGO set), it’s a shorter build all round. The construction is like many of the others, a combination of big crunchy joints and the little Mixels ones for legs, wings and tail. I always enjoy the design of the dragon head itself, which gives the beastie a lot of character. The chin horn is oddly satisfying! All the glow in the dark pieces give the dragon its lovely roiling curves, but leave it sadly inflexible. It’s a dragon I’d love to coil around a building, but that’s gonna take a severe re-engineering of its body. It’s rather striking, and I imagine this one will remain constructed for quite a while, at least until I want to plunder its glowing parts.

And just because I liked it…

Watching: Never Have I Ever 

We watched this in a single night… I’m always thrilled to stumble across shows with under half-hour episode lengths at present. This is a pretty straightforward US highschool outsider tale, from the somewhat unusual perspective of an Indian-American family. That’s a pretty familiar trope in UK TV, and was very welcome in the even-more-familiar US high school setting. I’m not sure that there’s anything exceptional here, but it’s warmly told, with a number of fun and occasionally over the top performances, all solidly conforming to our expectations of a high school drama. I had some trouble figuring out how old the characters were supposed to be as it’s the usual casting combo of girls who must be in their twenties, but look about 14, and guys who are plainly in their mid-thirties. No wonder kids are so confused these days etc. As usual it’s the vibe between the BFFs that makes this fun to watch, particularly drama-queen Ramona Wong (wonderfully and worryingly odd in the lamentably cancelled Santa Clarita Diet). As filled with diversity and coming out stories as you could hope for, this is plenty of fun, if not especially memorable. Oh yeah, and it’s narrated by John McEnroe. Yes, the tennis player. 

Doing: MissImp’s Virtual Improv Drop-In – “Specific and True” with Terje Brevick

Continuing our mission to bring you improv from everywhere, this week’s episode features Norwegian improviser, Terje Brevick, with fun games and a good reminder of the value of details and honesty in improv.

Last Week – a really busy week! Featuring another mental health livestream, books: The Lock Artist & Transformers vol 1, TV: Hollywood & Never Have I Ever, LEGO: Morro dragon and MORE. Sleep now please. #books #tv #lego #stuff https://wp.me/pbprdx-8EZ Another week, another near-sun tan. This week I’ve seen a friend in person (what the actual fuck?) and found a new direction for exercise.

[skyfallofcybertron-blog]

Transformer Skyfall: Chapter 6. With or Without You.

We stood in what seem to be an eternity. The city moved around us. Cars drove. Planes flew. Metroplex breathed softly underneath us. Cybertron spun on axis around our star. Erion stood before me and I couldn’t tell who was more scared of the other. We both just kinda, stared at other.

I was trying to decide on what emotion to settle on. I was horrified at first. The terror quickly washed over and left a white hot fury. Yet, I knew that the disgust I was feeling wasn't going to help the bridge the void Erion created between us.

From the corner of my optic, a hulking Seeker was cautiously making his way over to join us. The khaki painted carrier was Erion’s second. Though, Herculex often acted more like the emotional center of the three; grounding the unusual trine. With the two of them here, Jetstream had to have been around. I was literally trapped between a rock and a hard place.

With a controlled breath, I raised my wings and looked up at the two mechs.

“Erion, Herculex. I'm glad to see you survived the War.”

I'm not sure if I was. Though, I don't think it was a lie either. I honestly didn't know what to think. Only time would tell.

Erion’s wings hung low to the floor. He’s posture was stiff and uncomfortable; like he was going to bolt at any moment. Herculex set a servo on his commander’s shoulder armor. Maybe it was actually Erion was the one that trapped. Herculex took point on this one; seeing as Erion was refusing to give me any kind of contact.

“We are too, Skyfall.” Herculex said softly, “We mean it.”

“What can I do for you?” I asked.

I decided to keep this professional. Didn’t want to get too personal and reopen wounds that were still trying to heal.

Herculex looked uncomfortable with my rather cool responses. You could almost hear his processor trying to calculate on how to proceed with all of this. They seemed to be desperate about something. The two of them. Yet, either of them seemed to want to be where they were standing at the moment. I flicked my wings as I waited for someone to give me anything to work with.

“Uh, well, we need help.” The large carrier started.

“It’s Jetstream.” Erion finally spoke, “She’s missing.”

After my spark nearly stopping; I invited both mechs back to my office, so they could better explain what the scrap was going on. There was so many other things that I wanted to happen today. This was honestly the last thing I ever wanted to deal with. Ghosts from my past coming back to haunt me. I had video records for that if I wanted to torture myself. Yet, I technically had to help them. I found out later they had booked an appointment with me.

“So, let me get this straight…” I started as I flipped through my files, “Jetstream has been missing since the begin of the War and you are just now filing for that?”

“We been looking for her throughout the War.” Herculex explained, “But we thought with everyone coming back that she would be in-”

“We thought that you would have seen her. Or at least had contact with her.”

My optics flickered up to Erion. To the long scar across his face. Supposedly a parting gift from his third. Jetstream was always a bot of high strung emotion. I sighed and looked back at my screens; going through mountains of information at a blistering pace.

“No. I haven’t see her...” I was surprised how sad I sounded. This did hurt a lot more than I was letting on. “But you’re in luck, boys. According to my database; she’s still registered as functional. She's also a registered Autobot.”

Beside me, a datapad started filling up with information as I quickly began typing out emails. I didn't know where my former carrier was, but my collages would. Unfortunately, a lot of the Autobot books were still closed to us Decepticons in case if there was any sympathizers working within the government. Made my job harder. Good think I know people in high places.

“I'm going to give you some contacts that might be better help then I am.” I said, rather matter-of-factually, “Decepticons can't access some of this stuff in the database.”

Both Seekers shifted uncomfortably in their chairs. Of course they would. A couple of NAILs like them would probably hear nothing, but the war crimes the ‘Cons committed during the War. If they hadn't seen it for themselves.

The air in the room suddenly felt stale. A good indication that I had outstretched a little too much. A little too far. I handed Erion the data.

“Jet seemed to be working with the Wreckers. Or at least, with one of their medics; Zephyr. Here's her contact information. I've already sent her a message about all of this. You guys well have to pick it up from there. Hopefully, Zephyr can help point you in the right direction. I'm sorry that I can't do more.”

I have expected for Erion’s optics to drop to the data pad, but they didn't. He just kept those sad eyes on me. I didn't know want more I could do. What else I could give him just to have this all blow over and go away. I just wanted him to stop.

Herculex nodded. He smiled weakly, “No. This is great, Skyfall. Better than we expected. Thank you.”

The big bot stood. Then patted his leader’s shoulder to do the same. With some hesitation; Erion rose from his chair. His servo trailed across the desk. He was trying to think of something to add to the conversation. You could see it in his optics. Yet, Erion didn’t speak apart from a mumbled ‘thank you’. I could only reply with ‘welcome’. I didn’t have any words to say.

Both mechs disappeared out of the room. I suddenly felt like the weight of Cybertron was now on me. Slowly crushing my chestplates. Not enough to kill me quickly, but just in a slowed dragged out affair. One that will eventually end me a million years from now.

With a long groan, my helm rested on my desk. The soft thunk bounced off the walls of the office. Rung was going to have a field day with this. Slowly, jitters rattled up my plating as the emotions of all of this finally made its way to the surface.

Stars above, Jetstream was missing. What was I going to do? What can I do? Why was I thinking that? She was alive. Alive and with the Wreckers. Oh sweet Solas Prime, she’s a Autobot. Jetstream would have killed me during the War. She could have kill me when-

She didn't own me anymore. Why was I so concerned with her safety? I hadn't even seen her since before the War. They sold me off for Primus sake!

I was crying into my arms when the piston on my office door hissed open.

“Skyfall,” Fireworks playfully mewed, “Did you see the two sets of wings that were in the lobby? They're not as lovely as Sweet Wings- Wheels on the ground, Skyfall what happened!?”

His servos gently settled on my shoulder plates. The racer lowered himself to my side. I sniffled. I wiped the tears from my cheeks.

“It's okay, Fireworks…”

The mech huffed, “It's not okay if you're crying over it.”

“It's…” I struggled to find words to describe how I felt, “I'm…”

“Sir…?” Pitch squeaked. The young assistant pointed out the door. “You're next appointment?”

Fireworks huffed once again. The mech plucked me from my workstation. He nonchalantly started for the door.

“Cancel the rest of my appointments; would you, Pitch?”

“S-Sir?”

Fireworks stopped abruptly. He presented me out to his assistant as if I was a lost lazerkitten. Both Pitch and I blinked at each other in confusion. Oh here we go. Fireworks was going to pull some amazing excuse out of his aft. I was kind of excited to hear what that diabolical mind of him came up. It would definitely would make me feel better just hearing it.

“Our gracious host to this planet is under emotional distress, Pitch. To keep Velocitcon happy is to keep Cybertron happy. Skyfall needs some good Velocitcon-style R&R and I will not rest until she is given it. So, by canceling the rest of the arrangements I have for today and letting me take Skyfall to the spa; you are insuring the future of our planet! Oh, and make sure that Skyfall’s bosses now that I’m taking her out for the afternoon as well, wouldn’t you Pitch? We don’t want her to get in trouble, do we?”

Poor little Pitch snapped at attention. He saluted the delegate and stammered, “Of course! Right away, sir!”

Pitch bolted down the hallway as Fireworks chuckle in amusement. He shifted me in his hold, so I was perched on his forearm. He strolled down the opposite hallway. A please smirk on his faceplates.

“Now, that we have some peace and quiet to ourselves,” Fireworks purred, “Would you like to talk about what happened? I might not be a shrink like Dr. Eyebrows, but I’m a good listener.”

I sniffled; giggling softly.

“Thank you, Fireworks. You didn’t need to-”

“Oh, sweetspark, I do.”

***

At home, I found myself watching old recordings. Back when the trine was still a trine and when I belonged to Jetstream. A lot of that old footage was corrupted now. Data I collected and stored over the War damaged most of my personal videos; from Autobot viruses, improper or rushed data rips or straight up tampering with cortical psychic patchwork. The poor scrub from Swindle didn’t help things much either.

Jetstream was a unique bot in every sense of the word. The femme’s haft Insceticon sparking always turned helms wherever she went. She was a literal Queen Bee and acted like one. She was protective of her hivemates (Erion and Herculex), high strung emotionally and never backed down from a fight.

I can see why she became a Wrecker. The Autobot special task unit lived and died by their motto; Wreck and Rule. Jetstream lived like that everyday of her function.

I hoped, deep down in my spark, that she was ok.

[warriordiscipline]

0 Me Grimlock make beans

How do they have a bean? (Include your headcanons!)HOW INDEED. I really don’t know tho, maybe Grimlock just considers Drift and all the other Autobots part of his pack too, and one day is all like okay blue one, your turn lmao but drift is into knights, even the big scary ones; he’d run with it xD

Would they have one bean or more than one bean? If more, how manyFuc k it, I’m feeling masochistic, it’s a litter. Four new dinobabies to add to the pile.

What’s the bean’s shape? Size?Dinosaur-shaped. Like literally they hatch just like that, looking like Grimlock, but the size of puppies. Drift is so confused.

Is their bean an exceptionally cuddly squishy blob or no?All four of them are very affectionate and with clamor over and cuddle with either of them if they’re on the ground. While Grimlock is sleeping they all cuddle up and curl against his chassis, and while Drift is meditating they’ll pile in his lap like a bunch of dogs. They like to be held, and nuzzled, and kissed, and will peep constantly until given the attention they want.

Does their bean have basic protoform appendages forming yet?Tails, horns, typical dinosaur kibble. They were hatched with it all. Four lil Grimlock Jrs.

How much is their bean dependent on them?Very. Their bites are strong, but not strong enough to rip apart metal on their own, they need bits to be torn and broken off in order for them to be eaten in one go.

Who does the bean take after more physically?They’re dinosaurs. They take more after Grimlock, obviously. Though, it’s arguable who their red optics came from, Grimlock or Drift.

Personality-wise, who is the bean more like?They’re dinosaurs. They act like it too. But again, it’s hard to say whether their aggression towards strangers came from Grimlock or Drift.

How does their bean interact with other grown mechs?They very much act like guard dogs of a sort. Even if they’re still too young to have much strength behind their roar or their bites, they will react aggressively towards any mech who they aren’t familiar with. If their creators seem okay with them though, they’ll leave them alone, but they still won’t want to be around them.

How does their bean interact with other protoforms?They love playing with the other hatchlings the dinobots have had, but, being that their other creator is a smol, they are considered small for dinobots too. They probably get picked on quite a bit, until they’ve gotten big enough to compete.

What sounds does their bean make? Are they quiet, make low booping, high beepings, or are they a wee lil screecher?They roar. As much as they are able to lol. It’s a lot of squeaking and squealing though when they’re otherwise running around and playing.

How does their bean move about?They run. Everywhere. If they were even a foot taller, they would have bowled Drift over many times by now, from all the occasions they’ve rushed him to greet their smol creator and pile on top of him.

Where and how often does their bean like to snooze?They like to sleep in the shade, either in Drift’s lap or tucked under Grimlock’s stomach. Sometimes they’ll sleep down in the tunnels with the others, but they prefer to be above ground and bother lay all over Drift.