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You said that Omar’s family were hunted by the Iranian government for dissenting, right? Do they still target Omar? Also, why didn’t his father go into hiding after he joined the Revolution?

They did when Omar was younger! That's how Omar and Sedgewick (Sentinel Prime) first met---Sedgewick was the first responding officer at a home invasion reported by a young Omar--the culprits were affiliated with the Iranian government at that time. Around his teen years, there was a change in government and his (direct) family was no longer a priority.

No one was aware of Orion Pax's real identity for a long while (during early to mid-Clampdown, he wore a mask), so there wasn't a need to for that specific reason, and there was the sense that him going into hiding was going to raise suspicions, especially with heightened surveillance during this time---it was only near the end of the Clampdown that they knew 'Orion Pax's real identity. Prior to this reveal, Mirzan was also already under observation for reasons of his own making, namely disseminating banned literature in secret. When he DID try to run, he was bagged almost immediately since they were already keeping tabs on him independent of his son.

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Hello, I saw where you said that Prowl's favorite color was green and it got me curious. Do you think you could make a list of the autobots and decepticons favorite colors? Only if you want to.

Not all of them are speaking to me on this right now, but I can list those who have!

Optimus Prime: Ocean Blue (He spent a lot of time gazing out to sea pondering the state of the world when he was a dockworker. It's a peaceful, tranquil color for him and he still walks along the coastline near their base when he needs to clear his head)

HotRod: The specific gradients that make up fire (He has a close relationship to fire—a nun guarding the perpetual flame of St Brigid in Kildare offered him refuge as a runaway, and he worked in close proximity to them as a blacksmith’s apprentice at the only workplace he’d ever felt welcomed and accommodated at)

Sunstreaker: Gold (Manifesting the life and riches he, in his hotheaded youth, believed he deserves---he was also known as either Aurelion or Leone d' Oro on the pitfighting circuits)

Sideswipe: Red (🎶 ~ THE BLOOD OF ANGRY MEN ~ 🎶)

Grimlock: Black. (One of his nicknames during his pro-wrestling days on the circuit was 'Black Shuck', and he had it as his logo)

Jazz: Silver and white (because white was a color his working class wasn’t really allowed to wear as it was expensive and not made for ‘dirty’ manuals)

Hound: Green and brown (He deeply misses home and as it reminds him of his parents’ farm, it reminds him that there’s a life beyond war waiting for him on the other end)

Mirage: Royal blue (Initially he didn't have a say in the matter because he was an afterthought to his old family---all they really figured was that he had clothes so people didn't ask prying questions, and also some sort of blue because boy. He did grow to like it after he was struck with decision paralysis when his adoptive mum wanted to sew him a jacket for winter. Her idea of baby steps was letting him choose from different types of blues instead of a whole rainbow---he picked royal blue, which she said was a 'good, princely choice', and he fell in love with it when he wore it for the first time. It's a reminder of his mum's love sewn into the first gift that was ever made for him, and that she saw him worthy of being 'princely' despite being a bastard child)

Ratchet: Shamrock green (It's traditionally a healer's color, and he associates it with his parents who donned while it on duty when they were alive)

Arcee: Deep pink (It's fabulous to her, and easy to hide blood stains!)

Blurr: Ultramarine blue (LOVES how it pops against their skintone)

Drift: White (This is rather dark, but makes sense for him. It’s a color usually worn by Shinto priests during rituals, and is part of the shinishozoku ie. “grave clothes”. In the first aspect, by the time he joins the Autobots, Drift is a medium and much later becomes a psychopomp—he can communicate with spirits, including those he killed in his past, and helps them find peace and move on. In the second aspect, he himself had a near-death experience and subsequently has ‘one foot in the grave’ mentality. Combined with the fact that his everyday wear also includes prayer beads on his wrist, he sees it as being prepared for when Death wants to finally collect what’s owed to them)

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What's domestic life like on base for the Autobots?

On a low-conflict week? Pretty slow! The main 'upkeep' is actually done by Prowl (who sets schedules and divides tasks---he's got reams of spreadsheets planning out who's assigned to what for the week and who has what days off for the month because you MFs are NOT devolving into Lord of the Flies if he can bloody well help it) and Jazz (who heads the kitchen crew, ensures these tasks are adhered to and checks in with everyone). This is mainly since OP is still busy on those low-conflict weeks since he's still in meetings with different world delegates and trying to mediate disputes between different factions. So as much as OP IS Team Dad, Prowl and Jazz actually fill that role on a more day to day basis while OP touches base whenever he can. You'll usually find Hound in his vegetable plot or making market rounds with Kup and Arcee (He uses his good ol' farmboy charm to get the best deals/build rapport, and those immune to it get auntie-haggled into submission), while Mirage is either managing their finances (His remisier gets a call from him and immediately starts pouring Monster Energy into their coffee because this will be a LONG day) with Tracks' help, or holed up in his studio working on sewing projects as a little fun side income/requests from the crew who need detailing done on their outfits. Those days are also the days Bee and his friends use to catch up on their college courses/be young adults doing young adult things in town.

Meanwhile, Ratchet has no concept of 'domestic life' beyond "days I get to sleep for more than six hours", by which I mean he's dead to the world until about 2pm or HotRod goes into FAFO mode, whichever comes first.

Blaster's manning the sound systems and taking song requests from the crew via intercom up until dinnertime while he works on PR videos and campaigns for the Autobots, after which he's nose-deep in either writing news columns with Rewind or his personal musical projects with Jazz.

During conflict-heavy periods, some of them can go weeks without seeing each other (different field teams, and a specific crew guarding the base) so on slower 'domestic' days they usually strive to try and have dinner together, or at least within close vicinity of each other (you'll hear a lot of teasing "Holy shit you're still alive" being thrown around). That includes the Dinomachae, Protegonauts and Wreckers, who otherwise live nearby, but off-base. The base's dining hall can't accommodate all of them however, more so the Dinos, so after one time Sludge felt miserable about not being able to eat dinner inside with everyone else due to his size, they brought dinner out to him! Division heads will usually stay indoors to discuss team matters over dinner, while the others take the merriment to the nearby courtyard; Hot Rod's got a bonfire going, Swerve's pulled out the Good Stuff, the Lambo Twins are making sure everyone has a plate first before anyone gets seconds (important to them as Sideswipe's parents prioritised Sunstreaker over him as a child, including at mealtimes), Arcee is making sure they take seconds, Bee and friends are passing out cute desserts they picked up in town earlier, and Blaster's got a boombox going. They're splayed out on the grass, crouched on steps, perched on banisters and railings, any flat surface to catch up with each other over a plate and an unspoken "Tomorrow's uncertain, but I'm glad to be able to break bread with you tonight." These team dinners can go late into the night (Song or games are often involved---picture Hot Rod leading half the crew in a drinking song, while Blaster is giving a play by play on a Monopoly match between Mirage, Arcee, Tracks, Prowl, Drift, Sunstreaker, Carly and Windblade like he's color commentating at Wrestlemania) and cleanup after is a team effort, but those who worked on dinner are exempt from it---only fair!

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Did Optimus still have allies in the police force or in the Dead End after he was terminated and did they help out during the revolution?

He had a good handful of allies in the Dead End after he was terminated from his position for sure! The folks there didn't forget everything he did to help them, even when he was no longer in a position of authority to do those things anymore; he still put in safety nets and initiatives with help from Ratchet and local NGOs that went on long after he was demoted from his position. Post war, they STILL remember him and welcome their Librarian (affectionate, as opposed to the derogatory way it was used to refer to him by other cops who didn't agree with his tactics) back with open arms.

It's less so on the police force, because a fair number of his colleagues really did think he did not have what it took to be a cop, and didn't like that he wouldn't close ranks with them on virtue of the blue brotherhood. Sideswipe pointed out to Strongarm that good cops don't last long on the force, and in the pre-war system, that was absolutely true; Those who did side with OP often ended up leaving (like Nightbeat) or were forced to resign. HOWEVER Roller, who kept in contact with OP, did stay on the force and remained a steadfast ally in secret up until Megatron took over. He was OP's inside guy to Sentinel Prime's nonsense during the clampdown/revolution period.

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Raced to the finish line for this piece but I HAD to squeeze in a Pride piece before July 1, so Alisa Ivanova/Elita-1 and Fionne Stark/Firestar (Munirah Reza/Moonracer jumped in as an ally) took the baton from Mirage/Hound and Sunstreaker this year!

Happy Pride from Space Dommy Mommy and her Hype Goblins Right and Left Hand girlies!

(The Captain of Starship Carcer’s type is “Duel me and pledge allegiance to my band of space marine rebels”)

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Raced to the finish line for this piece but I HAD to squeeze in a Pride piece before July 1, so Alisa Ivanova/Elita-1 and Fionne Stark/Firestar (Munirah Reza/Moonracer jumped in as an ally) took the baton from Mirage/Hound and Sunstreaker this year!

Happy Pride from Space Dommy Mommy and her Hype Goblins Right and Left Hand girlies!

(The Captain of Starship Carcer’s type is “Duel me and pledge allegiance to my band of space marine rebels”)

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It’s the 30th so I can finally post my labour of love for this year’s edition of the Represent Zine hosted on @allsparkzines!

I really wanted to explore Drift in this version, so I decided on a piece that mirrors the man he is now versus the man he was because they are two parts of a whole—a dark past he has to learn to live with, and a present he can mold as a better man.

The Zine will be taking a hiatus after this, but it was such an honor to be given a chance to work with it and be a part of the mod teams!

My previous entries for the Zine:

Represent Zine Volume 1

The Caminus Valkyries (Windblade, Lightbright & Chromia)

Prowling the Warzone (Prowl, Jazz, OP, Ratchet and First Aid)

Represent Zine Volume 2

From: The River To: The Sea (OP)

Slaying the Dragon (Optimus Primal and Megatron)

You are my Sun (Prowl & Jazz)

Vanity Flair (Blurr)

Two sides of a coin (Prowl & Jazz charm)

Represent Zine Volume 3

Man in the Mirror (Drift & Deadlock)

The Touch/Weaponizing Logic (OP & Prowl stickers)

Simpatico Science (Perceptor & Brainstorm)

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It’s the 30th so I can finally post my labour of love for this year’s edition of the Represent Zine hosted on @allsparkzines!

I really wanted to explore Drift in this version, so I decided on a piece that mirrors the man he is now versus the man he was because they are two parts of a whole—a dark past he has to learn to love with, and a present he can mold as a better man.

The Zine will be taking a hiatus after this, but it was such an honor to be given a chance to work with it and be a part of the mod teams!

My previous entries for the Zine:

Represent Zine Volume 1

The Caminus Valkyries (Windblade, Lightbright & Chromia)

Prowling the Warzone (Prowl, Jazz, OP, Ratchet and First Aid)

Represent Zine Volume 2

From: The River To: The Sea (OP)

Slaying the Dragon (Optimus Primal and Megatron)

You are my Sun (Prowl & Jazz)

Vanity Flair (Blurr)

Two sides of a coin (Prowl & Jazz charm)

Represent Zine Volume 3

Man in the Mirror (Drift & Deadlock)

The Touch/Weaponizing Logic (OP & Prowl stickers)

Simpatico Science (Perceptor & Brainstorm)

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Finally finished this Lightbright magazine cover after the brain goblin went “we are not sleeping until this is 95% done” last night shhdjdjff

Nona (term for ‘Lady’) is a very popular women’s magazine in Malaysia! Lightbright/Laila here is part of the Minang people in Malaysia.

The text above her name at the bottom (‘Tunku�� denotes someone of standing. Think of it like a duchess or a marquess) translates to “The beauty with the soul of an explorer of the cosmos”.

This is part of a series!

First Edition: Optimus Prime & Megatron (TIME Magazine)

Second Edition: Mirage (GQ)

Third Edition: Jazz (Rolling Stone)

Fourth Edition: Blurr (Vanity Fair)

Fifth Edition: Perceptor & Brainstorm (Popular Science)

Sixth Edition: Lightbright (Nona)

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Finally finished this Lightbright magazine cover after the brain goblin went “we are not sleeping until this is 95% done” last night shhdjdjff

Nona (term for ‘Lady’) is a very popular women’s magazine in Malaysia! Lightbright/Laila here is part of the Minang people in Malaysia.

The text above her name at the bottom (‘Tunku’ denotes someone of standing. Think of it like a duchess or a marquess) translates to “The beauty with the soul of an explorer of the cosmos”.

This is part of a series!

First Edition: Optimus Prime & Megatron (TIME Magazine)

Second Edition: Mirage (GQ)

Third Edition: Jazz (Rolling Stone)

Fourth Edition: Blurr (Vanity Fair)

Fifth Edition: Perceptor & Brainstorm (Popular Science)

Sixth Edition: Lightbright (Nona)

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In which Spartacus ‘Spike’ Witwicki and Charles ‘Chip’ Chase have been best friends since they were old enough to argue with their parents what the definition of ‘brother’ is, until fate in the form of metastasizing energon radiation rears its ugly head from dormancy.

Follow up from here.

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In which Spartacus ‘Spike’ Witwicki and Charles ‘Chip’ Chase have been best friends since they were old enough to argue with their parents what the definition of ‘brother’ is, until fate in the form of metastasizing energon radiation rears its ugly head from dormancy.

Follow up from here.

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First of all I definitely have to thank @elfdragon12 for selling me on the G1 humans and the potential they have for good storytelling!

So here are Spartacus 'Spike' Witwicki, Carlita 'Carly' Castellano and Charles 'Chip' Chase as they appear in TTB! Spike mainly works off-base with his father Stanislaw 'Sparkplug' Witwicki as mechanics on Autobot missions, while Carly and Chip are mainly on-base working in R&D and tech respectively. Witwicky is a name that exists IRL, and it's specifically an Americanised version of Witwicki, which is Polish, so Spike is a second-generation immigrant to the US with Polish---specifically as a member of the Lipka Tatar minority---ties through Stanislaw, and Turkish ties through his mother. Lipka Tatars are predominantly also Muslims who usually keep to a Polish naming convention/don't usually sport Arabic names, so Spike here also joins the the rising ranks of Muslims on the Autobot side!

Mexican-Italian Carly is a bottle blond who goes back to her original brown tresses near the end of the war. She runs on coffee and Monster Energy, and is what one might call a Type A personality. And for good reason—she’s a scholarship kid from an impoverished barrio, the first to ever get into MIT, and she’s determined to make a name for herself to bring back support and funding for her community so other kids like her have that opportunity too. She was a student in Dr. Harding’s lecture classes, and interned under Harding before graduation—the two still keep in contact with each other across the Atlantic. And Chip. We gotta talk about Chip (and the other two) under the cut.

Chip got the bad end of the deal here and his background is as messed up as his general health is on any given day. Energon hotspots exist in TTB and they’re still being studied and often irradiate local wildlife and extremely unlucky scientists conducting field research; one of them was Chip’s mother, while she was very early into her pregnancy (she believed she was properly kitted out, but this hotspot was more potent than the others).

He grew up sickly, but still relatively active and as Spike’s childhood friend, would still be able to play football with Spike. Spike and Chip’s relationship was extremely tight when they were children (Spike protected Chip from bullies and played with him since other boys avoided involving him in their games as he had problems keeping up due to his health issues, while Chip would help Spike with schoolwork and stood up for him if someone decided it’s pick-on-the-immigrant-kid day). It was to the point that, when Sparkplug was imprisoned for a short stint after being charged with inciting a riot (he was spearheading a workers' protest), Chip's residence was a second home to Spike, while his mother picked up extra shifts to make ends meet. However, when Chip was around 10, the radiation flared up/became aggressive in both him and his mother, and while his mother's condition deteriorated faster than his, it still wreaked havoc on his body and caused paraplegia through spinal metastasis. When his mother died, he had no blood family willing to take him in (as a child born out of wedlock who was piling up medical bills and was not expected to see his 18th birthday). The Witwickis, who saw him as family now, wanted to adopt him but could not pay for the care he needed as lower class blue collar immigrants.... at which point Zeta Prime stepped in as a benefactor who wanted to sponsor the child prodigy. This however, meant Chip had to be moved to New York, ostensibly for better treatment, and he and Spike last saw each other as children when they were 12.

They’d promise to write to each other, but Spike never received anything from Chip no matter how many letters he sent (Zeta had been intercepting them since he wanted Chip to be fully dependent on him/cut all ties to his past, and to focus on his tutelage under Dr Alcazar) The two reunited as adults when Spike and Sparkplug were enlisted as part of the team working on a top secret government project (Metroplex) on which Chip was the lead programmer and Carly was head of the R&D division. Chip however, started having doubts about Zeta Prime's motives for Metroplex's creation, and feeling both helpless and terrified for what he'd gotten himself into, confided his concerns to Spike that what they were building was not a space research titan, but a weapon and the US' largest mobile base capable of levelling small countries--which is exactly what Zeta plans to do with it. Carly eavesdrops, and is drawn into the situation.

All three of them struggled with breaking off their relationship with Zeta Prime, whose project brought the, together:

Chip knows that going against Zeta means he likely loses all access to the medical aid and experimental treatments keeping him alive. (He is lucky that he kept notes and an extensive medical record of himself, and that them fleeing across the Atlantic brought them right to Ratchet and Co.),

Spike knows going against Zeta means burning the olive branch of government acceptance Zeta held out to his father and their diaspora after their lifelong struggle to get the same compensation for their work as native-born workers, and better/safer projects.,

Carly knows going against Zeta means a stain on her record as a ‘model minority’ , and it will destroy Zeta’s promise of a scholarship fund for her community as well as government goodwill for them.

All three decide that they have to take a stand against him regardless, and they managed to sabotage Zeta’s control over Metroplex and allowed Metro to escape into the Pacific. Fleeing Zeta’s wrath across the Atlantic put them on the collision course with the Autobots via an SOS signal from Prowl which Chip decoded and answered, and this set have been stalwart allies since Chip still has a close relationship with Prowl here over many similar aspects of their life, quiet companionship and a love for strategy games. He is also rebuilding the relationship he had with Spike and Sparkplug, and Spike and Chip see each other more as brothers than friends these days.

[tiesthatbind-tf]

First of all I definitely have to thank @elfdragon12 for selling me on the G1 humans and the potential they have for good storytelling!

So here are Spartacus 'Spike' Witwicki, Carlita 'Carly' Castellano and Charles 'Chip' Chase as they appear in TTB! Spike mainly works off-base with his father Stanislaw 'Sparkplug' Witwicki as mechanics on Autobot missions, while Carly and Chip are mainly on-base working in R&D and tech respectively. Witwicky is a name that exists IRL, and it's specifically an Americanised version of Witwicki, which is Polish, so Spike is a second-generation immigrant to the US with Polish---specifically as a member of the Lipka Tatar minority---ties through Stanislaw, and Turkish ties through his mother. Lipka Tatars are predominantly also Muslims who usually keep to a Polish naming convention/don't usually sport Arabic names, so Spike here also joins the the rising ranks of Muslims on the Autobot side!

Mexican-Italian Carly is a bottle blond who goes back to her original brown tresses near the end of the war. She runs on coffee and Monster Energy, and is what one might call a Type A personality. And for good reason—she’s a scholarship kid from an impoverished barrio, the first to ever get into MIT, and she’s determined to make a name for herself to bring back support and funding for her community so other kids like her have that opportunity too. She was a student in Dr. Harding’s lecture classes, and interned under Harding before graduation—the two still keep in contact with each other across the Atlantic. And Chip. We gotta talk about Chip (and the other two) under the cut.

Chip got the bad end of the deal here and his background is as messed up as his general health is on any given day. Energon hotspots exist in TTB and they’re still being studied and often irradiate local wildlife and extremely unlucky scientists conducting field research; one of them was Chip’s mother, while she was very early into her pregnancy (she believed she was properly kitted out, but this hotspot was more potent than the others).

He grew up sickly, but still relatively active and as Spike’s childhood friend, would still be able to play football with Spike. Spike and Chip’s relationship was extremely tight when they were children (Spike protected Chip from bullies and played with him since other boys avoided involving him in their games as he had problems keeping up due to his health issues, while Chip would help Spike with schoolwork and stood up for him if someone decided it’s pick-on-the-immigrant-kid day). It was to the point that, when Sparkplug was imprisoned for a short stint after being charged with inciting a riot (he was spearheading a workers' protest), Chip's residence was a second home to Spike, while his mother picked up extra shifts to make ends meet. However, when Chip was around 10, the radiation flared up/became aggressive in both him and his mother, and while his mother's condition deteriorated faster than his, it still wreaked havoc on his body and caused paraplegia through spinal metastasis. When his mother died, he had no blood family willing to take him in (as a child born out of wedlock who was piling up medical bills and was not expected to see his 18th birthday). The Witwickis, who saw him as family now, wanted to adopt him but could not pay for the care he needed as lower class blue collar immigrants.... at which point Zeta Prime stepped in as a benefactor who wanted to sponsor the child prodigy. This however, meant Chip had to be moved to New York, ostensibly for better treatment, and he and Spike last saw each other as children when they were 12.

They’d promise to write to each other, but Spike never received anything from Chip no matter how many letters he sent (Zeta had been intercepting them since he wanted Chip to be fully dependent on him/cut all ties to his past, and to focus on his tutelage under Dr Alcazar) The two reunited as adults when Spike and Sparkplug were enlisted as part of the team working on a top secret government project (Metroplex) on which Chip was the lead programmer and Carly was head of the R&D division. Chip however, started having doubts about Zeta Prime's motives for Metroplex's creation, and feeling both helpless and terrified for what he'd gotten himself into, confided his concerns to Spike that what they were building was not a space research titan, but a weapon and the US' largest mobile base capable of levelling small countries--which is exactly what Zeta plans to do with it. Carly eavesdrops, and is drawn into the situation.

All three of them struggled with breaking off their relationship with Zeta Prime, whose project brought the, together:

Chip knows that going against Zeta means he likely loses all access to the medical aid and experimental treatments keeping him alive. (He is lucky that he kept notes and an extensive medical record of himself, and that them fleeing across the Atlantic brought them right to Ratchet and Co.),

Spike knows going against Zeta means burning the olive branch of government acceptance Zeta held out to his father and their diaspora after their lifelong struggle to get the same compensation for their work as native-born workers, and better/safer projects.,

Carly knows going against Zeta means a stain on her record as a ‘model minority’ , and it will destroy Zeta’s promise of a scholarship fund for her community as well as government goodwill for them.

All three decide that they have to take a stand against him regardless, and they managed to sabotage Zeta’s control over Metroplex and allowed Metro to escape into the Pacific. Fleeing Zeta’s wrath across the Atlantic put them on the collision course with the Autobots via an SOS signal from Prowl which Chip decoded and answered, and this set have been stalwart allies since Chip still has a close relationship with Prowl here over many similar aspects of their life, quiet companionship and a love for strategy games. He is also rebuilding the relationship he had with Spike and Sparkplug, and Spike and Chip see each other more as brothers than friends these days.

[tiesthatbind-tf]

Prowl had quite the update in backstory and personality a while ago, mind sharing his evolution proccess?

Honestly the biggest thing was that he never had a solid personality in my early draft of him! He started out as a mirror of IDW Prowl but in all frankness, while I find 2005 IDW Prowl EXTREMELY intriguing, I don't care for him as a person, and I especially do not like how the later writers treated him as the communal hate sink, and how this has ALSO caused some fans to justify the awful things done to him by others in narrative (this part of the reason TTB is a also No-Chromedome territory--people get fucking weird about him versus Prowl).

The thing is however that I LOVE Prowl's IDW background, coming from a place like Petrex where rules were so draconian that questioning your lot in life was grounds to throw you in prison (outside of IDW, I love that the terrible things done there in name of assimilation and order was also delved into in the War for Cybertron series, where unlike IDW Prowl, this Prowl was remorseful and genuinely disturbed by it). Prowl is also ofc a Cold Construct, and how that impacts humans as opposed to Cybertronians is something that is heavily explored in Ties That Bind. To note here, Megatron, Blaster and Starscream are Cold Constructs who were either loved and managed to retain a sense of personhood (Megs), had their true background hidden from them until adulthood (Blaster) or were successful in fighting for some semblance of rights over their own destiny (Starscream). In Prowl, given his history in Petrex, I wanted to explore the logical extreme of a Cold Construct who NEVER had that chance, who had everything taken from him and had almost all semblance of rebellion he can't even remember wrung out of him. Almost everything that makes him a person is functionally destroyed by his government in service of turning him into an asset (Not even the DNA that makes him who he is is sacred, as it was used by Mesothulas to create Springer--he doesn't even have rights to what makes him him), almost everything (he would have been killed for his last act of rebellion if Jazz hadn't saved him in time), but an inch, as mentioned in V for Vendetta: "Every inch of me shall perish. Every inch, but one. An inch. It is small and it is fragile and it is the only thing in the world worth having." And I wanted, despite everything done to him, to make him care. Really care. Even if it's clumsy and stilted, and he himself doesn't understand it but goddamn if he ain't trying. To hold on to that inch. Because is his compassion worth any less than his companions if he has to learn it? Is his concern for his companions any less earnest if he ties it to the good of the unit (because that's what he understands best) before the individual? Is his desire for justice less powerful than his friends' if he ties it to how it's 'wrong' in the order of things as he understands it as opposed to 'I empathise with this person being wronged' (because he doesn't KNOW HOW TO DO THAT)? Is who he is, broken and shattered on the inside in places where he isn't outright empty, worth saving? Jazz certainly thought he was! And I suppose that's also tied to parts of my simultaneous dislike and intrigue of his IDW version: What is someone got him? (because he HAS A POINT. A LOT OF THE TIME. 'Good' IDW Autobots mostly run on 'Maverick' mode even if it's stupid or makes no sense) What if someone tried to understand where he was coming from (he is STILL trying to do good albeit in terrible ways because that's what he's taught) instead of seeing him as an aberration (MORE SO than the Cons sometimes which is insane) for something he cannot help as a living state asset, and a constant lost cause for a personality and an outlook molded by one of the worst regimes on Cybertron (because Functionism was awful as it was, but it seemed PARTICULARLY awful in Petrex)? Because I see him as deserving of a satisfying narrative of figuring out who he is away from everything he was molded to become, and a redemption arc way more than say, WarCrimes McGee Megatron, and I happen to LIKE IDW Megatron. So in TTB he gets that! All the AWFUL things that comes with being a flesh tool with barcode imprinted on him, and the messy things that comes with breaking away from that and trying to figure out how to fucking person, and all the love that comes from a community that see the work he's putting in, and see that inch he's holding on to, and are helping him hold on to it when his grip on it loosens.

I just think it's the kind of evolution and story that he deserves!

[tiesthatbind-tf]

Hello! I really, really enjoy your TTB! I have a question, how long did it take for everyone who was involved in the war to settle back into a "normal life"? It can be pretty devastating and life-altering to go through what they did.

Oh a long while. I don't know that it was 'normal' even after everything ended, like having 9-5 jobs and daily commutes. Within a direct 5 years post-war, there was still a lot to do with rebuilding/dismantling parts of the old system. The good thing for the Autobots at least is that they had a wide safety net woven for themselves by themselves (Rung and Hound in particular have experience treating veterans/being part of military, and knows the issues soldiers often have trying to reassimilate into society), and everyone was determined to make sure the other could thrive in the world they had fought to fix. Rung. OP and Hound actually made them all promise to work on this together, because the work doesn't end when the weapons are put down. Ratchet made it very clear that all you idiots have a part of each other coursing through your veins (at some point within that decade they were working together, they have all received blood, skin grafts or plasma transfusions from each other at least once), you are intrinsically linked. You don't stop being comrades just because we aren't wearing badges anymore. Anything from helping out with job-hunting to character reference letters (from former division leaders) for work or college, being a couch to crash on while some of them are saving up for their own place, pitching in financially, shooting regular phone calls or visits, to celebrating the little milestones everyone makes so said steps feel like they matter in the big picture when you're no fighting for a larger cause (because you and your life matter too). Some of them ended up still staying at Alpha Trion's estate after he rebuilt the damaged parts of it for a while longer, especially those with moderate to severe PTSD issues, until they finally felt ready to live on their own again. Mainly because it was 'home' for ten years and Rung is there on a 24/7 hour basis to help them if needed. What also helped in some aspects is that they weren't being run strictly like a military, so reassimilating into society wasn't as much of a daunting ordeal. The ones who had the hardest time were Hound, most of the frontliners, the Wreckers and OP. The Decepticons were much less lucky in this aspect because they were functioning like a strict military, and whatever their safety nets they had fell apart when Shockwave (for whom this was of little importance) came into power. Some of them like Soundwave and Co., Starscream and Barricade who reached out to the Autobots and worked with them against Unicron near the end of the war were offered the same help Autobots received---they had the best chances. Others who went their own way struggled to varying degrees--some did actually manage to make a new life for themselves, some remained outlaws who kept sparking and profiting off spates of conflict or worked underground like Deadlock once did, unable and unwilling to accept the way the world has changed over a decade.

[tiesthatbind-tf]

First, love the little puns in the magazine cover. Very punny. Second, what happened to Brainstorm's face there? Looks like he took drastic measures to eat the world's largest gobstopper.

The puns are half the reason this format has me kicking my feet and giggling everytime I need to work with the text :’3

Also Brainstorm ran his mouth at some Decepticon guards while he was incarcerated prior to the Autobots rescuing him, and said guards wanted to teach him a lesson about loose lips (and jaws).

Did not work well admittedly, he’s verbally spicy as ever! Though it does take a while before he’s comfortable speaking to people without the mask.