#i feel like that sort of 'not even other autobots like him' treatment is something | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

quetzalpapalotl · 2 years

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So I did another dialogue reading because is so much fun, this time one of the conversations between Optronix and SG Megatron from chapter 11, it's kinda long. Again, full text under the cut.

"So," Megatron said as soon as Optronix leaned back and crossed his arms. "You almost died while I was away."

"I almost killed myself," Optronix corrected. "Let's not downplay what happened."

Megatron became acutely aware of the faint scent of disinfectant hanging in the air around them. "Yes." He stopped for a long time, not sure how to proceed-- or even if this conversation had a productive way to proceed. Finally he settled with a single question: "Why?"

Optronix's optics flashed. "Why?" He repeated, coldness breaking away to red-hot anger. "You condemned me to a lifetime in a cell after everything I've done, and you want to know why I tried to kill myself to get out of it?"

"You don't have a moral compass," Megatron answered. "Surely you didn't want to be executed out of sudden remorse or a sense of fairness for what you've done."

"That's not what this is about, and you know it!" The angry revv of Optronix's engine vibrated enough for Megatron to feel it through his pedes on the floor. Optronix pinched the bridge of his nose above his mask. "Well, there's one thing I'm still right about. The people of Cybertron still know anger and vengeance, and this entire affair is proof of that." He onlined his optics and started resetting the board pieces.

"Oh?" Megatron waited for Optronix to take the chance to keep ranting.

"It's simple. You get to keep your facade of mercy and fairness by sentencing me to a 'mere' life in prison rather than executing me outright. And in exchange, you and your Senate get to keep me in a cage, free to display as a sign of your dominance, keeping me alive to suffer through this farce all the while." Optronix stood from his chair forcefully, but all he did was reach over to Megatron's side of the board to reset his pieces for him before sitting back down.

Megatron picked his words carefully. "That's the way you choose to see it. In reality, the same door of rehabilitation is open to you as it is for every other Autobot. Your imprisonment is not a farce; you are merely refusing to take part in it."

"Please. No one, absolutely no one, actually believes that I can be rehabilitated. Not even that annoying therapist of mine, and especially not you. So if we're all in silent agreement that this entire affair is pointless, what, then, is the purpose of keeping me here? It's because I hate it here, and you lot know that I hate it, which is why you're all too happy to keep me here to rot away." Optronix snapped his first piece into its new position, a sharp sound cutting into silence.

Megatron had nothing to say. Everything Optronix had said was pure realism; vengeance was the primary motivation of those who had voted to keep him alive, and if there were any principles involved, they were merely obligation and equal treatment.

"You know it's true, don't you?" Optronix asked. "Finally, something honest out of you, and it's when you can't even say anything to rebut me."

"You are right," Megatron said. "But so am I. There's nothing stopping you from actually trying to participate in rehabilitation except your own pride. The possibility exists, Optronix. That's the entire point of this."

"There's 'nothing' stopping me..." Optronix rolled his optics and pinched the bridge of his nose again. "Just play the game so that I don't have to keep listening to you talk."

Megatron moved his own piece. It was always going to be this difficult. Asking Optronix of all people to change is like [...]. But I always knew that. That means that this is simply proceeding as I expected it to. In a way, it was a wonder; a thousand years ago, the thought of engaging in any sort of civil conversation with Optimus Prime was a pipe dream, completely impossible. So in that sense, the mere existence of this present moment was a miracle...

"Focus on the game, Megatron," Optronix said in annoyance, his voice cutting through Megatron's thoughts. Megatron surveyed the board and found that Optronix's strategy was far more keen this time; the pretense of averageness was gone, and in its place was a replica of everything Megatron had faced in war, condensed to fit within a single board game. If he kept playing the way he had for the last few moves, he was going to lose, and quickly.

The game continued at a ruthless pace. Optronix was the hardest opponent Megatron had ever matched, using aggressive moves and unpredictable strategies that sprang new traps just when Megatron thought he had outmaneuvered him. He nearly lost several times before finding a last-minute counterplay to preserve himself at the last moment. Optronix’s excitement grew beyond the glow of his optics, pushing against Megatron in the form of his energy field. At last, the game ended… with Optronix’s narrow victory, both of them reduced to their final few pieces.

Optronix leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms behind his helm. "So," he said. "If you are truly genuine in your belief that I can be rehabilitated, answer something for me. In an ideal future where I comply with rehabilitation and do everything required of my sentence... What kind of person do you see me becoming? What place do you see me having in society? Surely you aren't committing to something as arduous as rehabilitating me without some sort of goal.”

Megatron studied a piece between his fingers, imagining that it was one from Orion's board at home. He could nearly feel the texture of the carvings on the pads of his fingers. "Well, Optronix, you were never a good person even before the Matrix got its claws into you, so I'm not expecting you to suddenly become remorseful and charitable." He stayed quiet for a while longer, thinking. "I suppose your career options are rather limited when you're spending life in prison, but if you were to truly change your ways, we could easily give you access to all of Cybertron's archives. You could become a researcher again, and study whatever subjects catch your fantasy. Surely a mind like yours would find something of academic merit, solve it, and share it for the benefit of Cybertron."

"A mind like mine," Optronix repeated. "Why, Megatron, I never knew you could be so flattering."

Megatron gestured at the Turmae board. "Is it flattery, or just a statement of fact? You were renowned for your academic prowess long before you ever became a warmonger, and then I had a million years to find out how inventive you could be."

"Hmm." Optronix lowered his arms and leaned forward on the table instead, optics discomfitingly amused. "So the future you imagine for me is for me to become a simple librarian again, studying from my cell as if nothing was amiss, contributing to Cybertron's peaceful society, just like the one that I destroyed in my rise to power. Poetic."

"Not really." Megatron put his piece down and folded his arms, staring down at the board. "I can't tell you that I have any specific ideas for who or what you could become through rehabilitation. All I've ever really envisioned..." He looked up at Optronix, meeting that ruby gaze. "...was that maybe, one day, you would start caring more about improving life than about hurting other people."

The smile in Optronix's optics made Megatron feel sick. He dropped his own gaze and started resetting the pieces on the board again.

"Let's talk about hypotheticals, then. Say...that you never rebuilt the trans-universal portal, and you never brought me and my Autobots back home. What future would you envision for yourself and your Orion in that alternate outcome?"

Megatron stiffened-- and then relaxed, so quickly that the motion could have been taken for some sort of rapid glitch. "I'm not going to talk about him with you," he answered, but his throat felt tight, and he could hear the tension in his own voice. Of course Optronix had gone for that weakness. Of course Megatron couldn't suppress it.

"I think I can guess." Optronix's voice felt like poison leaking its way into Megatron's processor. "He was an idealistic one, wasn't he? He cared so much about doing the right thing that he was willing to sacrifice anything, including his own happiness-- and everyone else's-- to achieve it. Isn't that right, Megatron?"

"Stop talking and just play the game, Optronix. Or else I'm going to leave."

"’Every person who dies to escape slavery or to save others from enslavement. Autobot, Decepticon. They are all casualties of evil. I mourn for them,’" he quoted. "Oh Megatron, you weren't just deflecting when you told me that your Orion was an amazing public speaker. I almost felt something for a few moments, watching the recordings of him talk."

Where did he-- the news archives. Of course he would have spent time researching just to know how to hurt me. Megatron felt protective, possessive; for all that there were hundreds of public sites documenting Orion's speeches, when Optronix spoke of them, it felt like something private and sacred was being violated by his gaze touching it.

"I'm not kidding, Optronix. Keep trying to provoke me, and I will leave."

Optronix didn't even hesitate, didn't stop staring into Megatron's optics. He just kept talking faster. "What future would someone like you have had with someone like him? Nothing, that's what. If he had stayed here, he would have been turning a blind eye to injustice, ignoring every principle he stands for, all for your sake."

Megatron stood up and turned. His wing nearly clipped Optronix over the head, but he dodged it and then stood as well.

"He would have come to hate you for what you had done. No matter what choice you made-- bringing us back, keeping us away-- the outcome would have been the same. Orion leaves you, or Orion hates you."

You think I don't know that? You think that isn't why I let him go? But Orion wouldn't... Megatron remembered a dirt-streaked Orion shouting, "You should care about what happens to them!" If Megatron hadn't listened to him, then maybe Orion would...

Megatron violently terminated that line of thought. It didn't matter. He had made the decision; he had done the right thing and sent Orion back, not because of some vile mech like Optronix baiting him, but because he had loved Orion. Because he had realized that he was right.

"Goodbye, Optronix," Megatron said spitefully, passing through the forcefield. He withdrew the security chip from subspace, turning his back on Optronix and walking to the door. I can't get rid of this fast enough.

"Retreating again, Megatron? That's what you've always been best at: running away from your mistakes, hoping you could forget about them. Like you tried with me."

A shudder wracked Megatron's whole body. His fist tightened around the security chip, cracking it.

"You'd better not run away from me again, Megatron," Optronix whispered. "Prove that you've changed. Prove that you have a scrap of courage in your whole body and face me."

Megatron drew in a hissing breath and turned, feeling like his plating was peeling away. "I have changed," he gritted out. "But of course you haven't. I was wondering when you would finally make your move."

"It's easy to bury your sins when none remain who care to remember them." If Optronix's mask wasn't up, he would have been smiling cheek to cheek. "Luckily for you, I have a very good memory, and a mind that knows how to discern the truth from a situation."

"Cut the theatrics and spit it out!" Megatron stomped to face Optronix, face-to-face on opposite sides of the forcefield. "What 'truth' do you have to tell me? Please grace me with your understanding."

"Well. The benefit of switching universes was that I got access to all of those Autobots' records, and on top of everything I know about this universe... I must say that I am truly the most enlightened one out of all of us involved. I think I know more about 'Orion' than you do!"

"No, you don't," Megatron spat.

"And I know more about you than he did."

"No, you don’t. Orion did know me.”

"He knew parts of you. The pleasant ones. The ones that he-- and you-- didn't feel uncomfortable thinking for too long about. I know better, though."

"You know me from a time of war. You know the worst parts of me, and you think that they are the truest parts of me, simply because your twisted mind assigns the greatest value to atrocity and hatred, and you believe that the existence of evil nullifies the existence of good."

"Please," Optronix drawled. "The existence of good doesn't nullify the existence of evil, either. But both of you really did a good job ignoring the worst parts of each other, didn't you?"

"No," Megatron said, thinking of being awoken night after night by Orion screaming or sobbing in his sleep.

"Orion Pax was an officer of the law for an authoritarian regime. He was--"

"You think he didn't tell me that already?"

"-- in other words, he was one of the reasons that his universe's Decepticons even had something to fight against. Arresting lower class citizens, serving a Prime-- ha, imagine that, a Prime besides me-- who brainwashed his own citizens... He was to them what I was to you."

"Was." Megatron crossed his arms. "Is this the best you can come up with, Optronix?"

"I read his journal, you know. If he hadn’t been so set in his ways, or if he had tried to talk to his Megatron sooner, he could have prevented the war from ever escalating to the point of destroying Cybertron. He admitted it himself." Optronix raised his hands in a shrug. "How convenient, then, that you pulled him away from that universe that he shared the blame for ruining, and brought him here, where he got a clean slate and no one except his own loyal followers who remembered what he did."

Megatron remembered that, in the early days, when the war wounds had been more fresh, he had heard the murmurs of resentment Orion’s Autobots had said about their Decepticons… and he had thought of it as poetically perfect, that his invention had brought their two factions of nobility together and left the destructive ones to their own devices. Paying evil unto evil. “Yet Orion chose to go back specifically to set those wrongs right. And I still love him, even though he chose the path that walked away from mine.”

"Love such as yours was only able to exist because you stole it from another universe and built it with someone who you didn't know all of, and who didn't know all of you. The two of you made the perfect pair of fools. I hope you enjoyed your time together, because I certainly enjoyed my time with the other you!"

Megatron narrowed his optics, face twitching. He remembered the names Optronix had shouted after the trial. He remembered the casual way Optronix had spoken of violating his other self's mind. The other Decepticons were about to lose their war, just like we were...

"And speaking of that," Optronix continued. "What was even your plan with a trans-universal portal in the first place? Surely you knew that I would continue my crusade in whatever other universe you threw me into. Why are you so bothered by the thought of what I do to mechs from another universe that you'll never meet?"

"It wasn't a decision I made lightly. We were... we were in danger of losing to you, before we built the portal. I wasn't going to risk all of my Decepticons being enslaved by you."

"Yes, well, what happened was that I just ended up enslaving a different universe's Decepticons instead. But at least they weren't yours, right? Were their lives an acceptable trade-off for your life of domestic bliss?"

"This would be a compelling argument if it was coming from someone that actually cared about ethics outside of the desire to play mind games with other people." Megatron's fists were clenched, and he felt hot all over.

"Fifty percent. Over half of the Decepticons in that other universe were killed in our war. Oh... and half of my Autobots, too! Think about it, Megatron! Think of all those lives that never got their chance at redemption. All of those lives that were enslaved to me, who died fighting their own comrades. The former Decepticons of yours who were taken away to another universe who died alone, never to see their friends or their home ever again."

"That's why we decided to build the second trans-universal portal! To set things right again!" Megatron slammed his hands against the forcefield, staring into Optronix's optics as he shouted. "Does change mean nothing to you? Is this why you refuse to even try to make yourself a better person? Because you think that all we can be are our worst mistakes?"

"This isn't about me, Megatron. This is about you." Optronix leaned in until his forehead touched the forcefield, staring at Megatron in a parody of intimacy. His voice began in a whisper, and rose louder and louder with every sentence. "I alone on Cybertron know the extent of what you did. And let me tell you this, because I know no one else ever will: Every action we take has a consequence. The peace and love you bought for yourself were earned from cowardice, built on the deaths of mechs who were never involved in our war. You tried to win the best of both universes for yourself, but the universe detests cowardice. That's why no matter what you did, you were only ever going to lose all of it."

Optronix put his hands over where Megatron's rested and snapped back his mask, baring his face and the ghoulish grin beneath. It could barely be called a grin, for wide strips of his face had been removed, covered only by thin surgical mesh that couldn't conceal the facial mechanisms beneath. His face was made more out of holes than there was any actual face left. Only the teeth were still perfectly visible, and so much of Optronix's face had been cut out that far too much of them showed. The remainder of his face seemed like it would completely split open from the ferocity of his sadistic smile.

"Everything you strived for ended in loss. The universe gives people like you what they deserve, which is why your precious Orion left you, and all you have is me instead!"

#pay unto evil

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bngbby-aa · 2 years

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Hello! I was wondering about Knock Out's relationship with Starscream in Predacon Rising. What do you think would be the main reason why Knock Out betrayed Starscream without hesitation? Do you think was it because of he didn't care about Starscream or he did it out of survival? I really love your analyzation for Knock Out and I really love to know your interpretation. I hope this question is alright!

I gotchu. This is, however, probably going to get a little heavy...It also got a lot longer than I realized.

Disclaimers :: I am once again not kind to Starscream, mentions of racism, homophobia, the don’t ask don’t tell policy

There are a lot of reasons for this scene, but I feel one of the most powerful driving forces for KnockOut to do this is pure, bitter rage.

With the Autobots winning the war, KnockOut declares he is switching sides. Starscream and Shockwave have abandoned him on the Nemesis. He is unprotected, alone, and vulnerable. Worse than that he is on the losing side. KnockOut is convinced his life is in danger. What has he always done before that? Used his charm, and talked his way out of that shit.

Of course we see him get knocked out and locked up with the vehicons.Then suddenly, ta-da, Starscream is there to save the day! Kind of. We watch KnockOut reunite with his companion, and the mech who he’d once agreed to lead the Decepticons with. Until this one moment, KnockOut says something and Starscream tells him to shut up. If you watch KnockOut he looks down, and his optics slowly go back and forth. He’s got this kind of dumbfounded look on his face. Clearly, KnockOut is thinking.

So what is he thinking about? That Starscream hasn’t changed, that he’s not going to change.

Now my KnockOut does not care one way or the other if the war were to continue. After all, he thrives in it. He’s been left sitting alone in a room with the vehicons. Mechs he sees as less than him, who he has torn apart or allowed to die on his surgical table. That he’s broken down and pieced back together again.

Worse? He can’t move. KnockOut is Velocitronian, they are a culture that believes heavily in living in the moment. You don’t look behind you, you stay focused on the here and now. What is right in front of you. The law of the wheel and the road. They’re always moving forward. But he can’t. Everything has halted to a stop. He can’t move forward, and everything is catching up with him.

KnockOut sacrifices the known. He gives up how he has lived for centuries and centuries. All he’s known since his planet was destroyed by the very war he joined. If the war continues, he can keep that. He can start moving forward again, escape all those regrets and trauma.

Instead, in a moment of anger, KnockOut chooses peace. The war will end if he takes out Starscream, if he stays true to his word to switch sides. KnockOut will later realize this, but in the moment? All he was thinking about was finally biting back.

Throughout the show we see Starscream treat Knockout Terribly. Upon arrival, Starscream immediately refers to him as “one of those.” In no context is that fucking proper or right. It is cruel and bigotted. KnockOut even stops, and stares at him. “Come again?” He asks, utterly bewildered.

KnockOut, as a Velocitronian, has his own prejudice against flight-frames. His planet never evolved them, and the first time he saw a Seeker was certain to be horrifying. Flying? Why would any mech ever want to do that? Still he joins the Decepticons, and it’s certain he’s worked alongside flight-frames for his whole life from that point.

I’m sure it’s not the first time he’s been treated as such. In fact it’s likely, as an officer, KnockOut has received a good share of treatment like this.

I’m getting just a little off-topic here but I feel it’s important still. During a panel, the writers (I believe) were asked about KnockOut and Breakdown’s relationship. It was responded with something along the lines of “The Decepticons have a sort of don’t ask, don’t tell policy.”

Now I would like to preface this with the fact that I, while not being a member of the military myself, have grown up in a military family. One of my parents was a marine, my grandparents on both sides also served in one branch or another. Before it was repealed, and even now that is has, as a military child living in a military area I have plenty of experience with the harm and bigotry the don’t ask, don’t tell policy has and can do.

Do I think the Decepticons really would have this policy? Yes, but not in the way we did here. In the IDW comics we see a lot of relationships we would see as being homosexual, in fact KnockOut and Breakdown are canonly conjuxed (married) in the comics. I don’t think Cybertron would share the same issues we have faced as humans. However the Decepticons would have a bias against any form of relationship. Bonding would likely be highly looked down upon, but there’s not much they can do other than discourage it. Discourage it with violence, blood, and death I’m sure. But still… it’s only discouragement, they can’t stop them. So. Don’t ask, don’t tell.

This is all just something I’d like to be kept in mind while I continue talking about KnockOut and Starscream’s toxic friendship.

Starscream has shown clear prejudice against Ground-frames, in a vocal and hurtful manner.

The Decepticon policies on bonding likely color his perception of KnockOut, and paints him as being weaker due to his love for Breakdown.

Throughout the show Starscream routinely treats KnockOut like dirt. Even despite the fact he’s allied himself with him in hopes of taking over the Decepticons.

While in charge not only does Starscream treat KnockOut badly, and becomes overly controlling. He threatens his life in the first episode KnockOut’s in. Pointing the energon collector at him and Breakdown. Now while I do think he wasn’t intending on using it on them… would you point a loaded gun at somebody you care about?

There is of course also the scene where Starscream chooses to physically punish KnockOut…

Starscream demands KnockOut ask permission before going out for a drive/racing. We don’t see Megatron ever giving a fucking shit, probably because despite all his flaws… KnockOut does his job. What he does in his free time is his own business, and that seems the case for most of the show. Except when it comes to Starscream.

We also see in thirst more than enough examples of Starscream abusing KnockOut. Starscream aggressively crosses boundaries, interrupting whatever twisted healing process KnockOut is going through. Then gas lights him throughout the episode, throws him a single scrap of affection, only to throw him under the bus to Megatron. Yes Starscream suffers for this in the end, but his abuse does not excuse the abuse he does onto others.

This could go on much longer but I think I should wrap my thoughts up here.

So despite all of the treatment done to him, KnockOut is often Playful with Starscream. Shows both friendship and concern for Starscream throughout the show. Starscream doesn’t return these things. He hurts KnockOut verbally, physically, and emotionally. He is controlling and abusive. Unnecessarily cruel to KnockOut.

This scene for me is KnockOut finally biting back. For real.

#* // ♦︎ FILE — ANSWERED . ❛ bonjour bitch ❜#* // ♦︎ FILE — ANALYZATIONS . ❛ with scalpel in hand let the dissection begin ❜

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anon-e-miss · 3 years

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I feel like whether Iazz and Prowl got together with Jazz already having the twins or having them together, either way, even grown, the twins would still be two of Prowls staunchest defenders if anyone said anything about him being a drone spark or something

"What ever it is, I can explain," Cheetor said as he entered Jazz's office.

"I hope ya can, actually," Jazz replied with a forced chuckle. "Come on, sit. Ya ain't in trouble. 'M hopin' ya can give me a bit o' intel?"

"On what?" Cheetor asked.

"Tarantulas."

"What?" Cheetor asked and he fidgeted. "Web-brain?"

"You had a run in wit 'm before ya got outta Tarn," Jazz said. "Ya went AWOL straight outta basic, lookin' to settle a score."

"I..." Cheetor shrank in his chair.

"Whatever ya can tell me, Cheetor," Jazz said, soft and patient. His subordinate was spooked, so spooked his bravado could not rise up enough to hide it. "It's important. I need to track 'm down. A mechlin's life might be at stake."

"The bitlet," Cheetor flinched like he had been struck. "Prowl..."

"Ya know 'bout Prowl's bitlet?" Jazz asked, surprised by the revelation.

"I... I was a youngling," Cheetor said. "Web-brain caught me in his web. He was going to drain me of my mechfluid. Prowl, I didn't know his designation at the time appeared. He was... he was naked except for these these rings around his wrists. I recognized them. They would put them on debt slaves in the brothels to keep them from being able to transform and escape. His forge was swollen, he looked so... frail with that big belly, he looked so tired when he slipped me the scalpel. He bent over the counter and told Tarantulas the his perfect creation need more contributions. Tarantulas... giggled and scurried over. He didn’t... he just fragged, tricks on the street had better style. I got myself out of the web... We made optic contact, me and Prowl. He jerked his helm towards this tunnel. He told me to go, with his optics. I went.”

“Scrap,” Jazz cursed.

“As soon as I was done basic I went back there,” Cheetor explained. “I’d learned how to fight, I thought I could get him and his bitty out but the lab was empty. It had been empty for a long time.”

“Ya ever speak to Prowl?” Jazz asked.

“No,” Cheetor shook his helm. “I didn’t think... I thought he wouldn’t want the reminder. I hurt Bots talking, you know how he was found, how he was enlisted and I thought, maybe that monster ate his bitlet... I didn’t want to remind him.”

“Ya did the right thing gettin’ out,” Jazz said. “Ya did what he wanted ‘n I bet he’d be glad to see what a brave, young mech ya turned into.”

“I heard what Vortex did to him,” Cheetor said. “Or what they’re saying. Some of them are saying he asked for it.”

“Prowl put ‘mself in harms way to protect my twins,” Jazz replied. “He didn’t ask for scrap. He told me about his bitlet. Told me he don’t feel ‘m no more but don’t feel a broken bond either. ‘M lookin’ to sniff Tarantulas out. I don’t suppose ya can tell me more ‘bout his ole lair?”

“I’ll tell you everything I know!” Cheetor said. “I... I can help. I’m sure I can help. I’m fast! I bet I could distract him so you can get after the bitty.”

“Let’s just start wit ya tellin’ me what ya know.”

They had never been lovers. True, there was a chance that they had been and Prowl saw the errors of his ways, but Jazz did not think so. Prowl would not have let that he had experienced a change of spark. This was Prowl, he would have either shot Tarantulas in the back of the helm or he would have just slipped off when Tarantulas had been distracted. He had been a prisoner, under Praxus as the Decepticons had been looting the city, before the explosion and he had been a prisoner when he had been ensparked. Had Tarantulas guessed Prowl’s part in Cheetor’s escape? What sort of punishment might Prowl have suffered for rescuing the youngling?

He could not ask, not yet. The Twins walked alongside him with the crystals they had chosen for Prowl. Jazz had given in to their pleading and let them each choose their own arrangement for Prowl. They deployed Grade A guilt trips and Jazz had walked away from the florist with an arrangement of crystals to give himself. He thought the datapads he had boxed would probably be a more Prowl gift, but there was no telling no to the Twins when they got like this. Maybe Jazz was too permissive a procreator, but he could not find a reason to say no when they only wanted him to be nice to their favourite mech.

How in Primus’ designation had Jazz missed how much they adored Prowl for three vorns? They were not just comfortable with him, they actually loved him and Jazz had just figured they had been sneaking into his office to get a rise out of the most stalwart Autobot on the planet. His preconceptions, misconceptions of Prowl had put blinders on Jazz. He should have listened less to Chromedome, because Jazz knew what kind of boss Prowl was, he was coming to question if everything Chromedome had said all these vorns could have been lies.

“Prowl!” Sideswipe held the arrangement he had chosen out as they stormed into the Praxian’s treatment room. He set the datapad he had been holding down. Prowl smiled. It was the tiniest squirk of his mouth and a crinkling at the end of his optics. Holy Primus. Might Prowl love them back? “We brought ya crystals! Aren’t they pretty?”

“They are,” Prowl said.

“Granny says crystals help mecha heal,” Sideswipe explained as he placed the crystals on the table next to Prowl’s berth. “Because they’re bright ‘n happy.”

“Yer granny’s fond o’ crystals,” Jazz said.

Sunstreaker held the crystals he had chosen up to Prowl, then set them down on the table next to Sideswipe’s selection. He confidence bred from familiarity, he climbed onto the medberth and sat sat down next to him. Jazz was speechless. He knew Sunny was a cuddler but Sunny was picky. He loved to cuddle him, his twin, Punch, no one else. Sideswipe was not nearly so coordinated as Sunstreaker and he clamoured, or tried to clamour onto the berth. Jazz quickly set the box and crystals he was carrying down and scooped Sideswipe up and then set him down with Sunstreaker.

“He didn’t jerk ya, I hope?” Jazz asked. Prowl shook his helm.

“Even if he did, I would not feel it,” he replied. “Ratchet has not reactivated my relays.”

“Don’t forget to give Prowl your crystals,” Sideswipe chastened his progenitor and Jazz smiled at him.

“Did you harass your progenitor to give me crystals?” Prowl asked and Jazz felt bad that he had come to that conclusion. He made to attempt to save face.

“They did,” Jazz said. “Got an audial full ‘bout turnin’ up empty servoed. My Ori’s right though. Crystals help ya heal.”

Prowl’s optics were the same colour of the celestite in the arrangement Jazz had chosen and he had not noticed it. He set the arrangement on the other table. Between the artwork covering the walls and the crystals covering the tables, Prowl’s treatment room looked bright and full of love. When Prowl looked down at the Twins, his optics sparkled like the crystal. They went opaque when they fell on Jazz. The expression, the optics were the window to the spark, had never held truer for any mech.

“Ya still torturin’ yerself wit Optimus’ sap?” Jazz asked.

“This one is the worst yet,” Prowl said. “Not only is the plot full of holes, the dialogue is awful and it is riddled with grammatical errors.”

“Ya been correctin’ it in yer helm, ain’t ya?” Jazz asked.

“Perhaps,” Prowl replied and when he looked at Jazz there was a spark, a sparkle and Jazz laughed.

“Well, I brought ya somethin’ better,” he said. “A bunch of mysteries ‘n historical fiction. I thought that’d be more yer thing.”

“Yes, absolutely,” Prowl replied and somehow he looked brighter, lighter. Jazz set the box down next to the crystals. “Thank you.”

“Y’re welcome,” Jazz said. “Why don’t ya show Prowl that picture ya been working on Sunny?”

“Oh, ya!” Sunstreaker exclaimed. He was excite as he pulled out his sketchpad and turned it on. “I drew crystals.”

“That is beautiful,” Prowl replied. Jazz sat down in the chair next to the berth as rested his ped on the edge. Sunstreaker showed Prowl all the little details he had been working on. Sideswipe told Prowl about the raise he had won. Prowl nodded along and smiled the barely perceptible smile. Jazz was getting an idea what sort of originator Prowl had been to his bitlet, a soft, patient and loving one. He hoped to Primus that Ostaros was somewhere for him to find. This originator ought to have his bitlet in his arms again. It was long overdue.

#valveplug #maccadams #vortex au #tf prowl #tf jazz #tf sunstreaker #tf sideswipe #tf cheetor #cannibalism #anon fic ask #anon asks ficlet

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sentinelpri · 3 years

Note

While Sentinel Prime might not be everyone's favorite Autobot on TFA, what would you say his best qualities are? What things would you say to some to convince them that despite his personality flaws what makes him a good character? Or what gives him the most potential to better himself?

Hello! So, obviously... I'm a bit of a slut for Sentinel Prime, and everyone who reads my content knows this. I write him a lot and like his character despite him being rather controversial. Note that this post doesn't take into account the script for Season 4 since it was never actually animated and hasn't been seen/heard by many in the fandom (and also because I think it was an unfair butchering of Sentinel's character, which was set up to have development in S4. DM me or go listen to the script on YT if you're interested in that).

Anywho, onto the point of the post.

The qualities I'm about to describe may not make him redeemable per say, but they're essential parts of his character that I enjoy and think are important to understand.

A lot of what I write him as is, admittedly, theoretical in a sense. The series was cut short and at the end of season three, I felt like he had a lot of potential for development. He kind of sorta apologized/accepted what happened to Blackarachnia and was shown that he's not the best in the episodes with the headmaster taking his head and the Decepticons overthrowing him on his own ship.

Going on what's actually in canon, he's bold. Maybe not brave, but definitely never afraid to speak his mind and very expressive and sure of himself.

Next, he's confident- or at least acts like it. This depends on your interpretation. Either he's confident and sure of himself, which is an admirable quality, or he's using a mask to hide some insecurities, which is a character flaw that's very intriguing and deserving of exploration.

I think he's pretty humorous. As mean as they are, or as unintentional as they are, sometimes his jabs, insults, and jokes are actually funny, along with the shit he does. Great comedy potential.

Sentinel is charming and convincing. He may not use it in the right way, but he managed to dump all of the blame on Optimus for Elita One's accident and end up in a great career, as well as talk himself out of a lot of trouble consistently.

Finally on what I've actually seen in canon, and this is a hot take, Sentinel is trusting. He may not be super kind or trustworthy, and while the treatment of those he trusts isn't the best, he's clearly willing to trust others when it matters as seen with his relationships with Jazz/Ultra Magnus, his previous relationship with Optimus before what happened to Elita-One/Blackarachnia, and even his rekindled relationship with Optimus when he has Optimus retrieve his head. I think this is also one of his essential flaws, though, because it makes him take the burn really hard when he feels like someone has betrayed his trust.

My own theories are tied into all of that, but something I personally think is that he uses this front of bravado or another of anger to hide vulnerability. He doesn't like it, doesn't like being weak or anything of the sort and considers himself self-sufficient. This also leads to him never admitting when he's wrong because he's a perfectionist who thinks he can do everything perfectly by himself.

That's about it for this post lol, sorry if that's a bit scatter-brained and lengthy! Just my two-cents.

#tfa #transformers #transformers animated #sentinel prime #tfa sentinel prime #ask #asks #my asks #character analysis

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tfw-no-tennis · 3 years

Text

mtmte liveblog issues 4&5

its delphi time babey

I'm sorry but drift & co look like such fuckin nerds on their scooter things on the cover lmaooo

oh god. seeing the first page just reminded me of how horribly confused i was for this whole little arc the first time i read it. i was like ok, who are all these new characters, and also why does everyone look so similar

anyways now i now what's going on. i love first aid

love the running continuity of rung being the literal only psychologist on cybertron (except for fr*id but that's later). no wonder everyone's fucked up they all have to share a single therapist

ok i find it extremely funny that first aid was demoted from doctor to nurse, as if that's a thing that happens EVER - I mean it'd be one thing if first aid was a nurse practitioner (which i doubt is a position that exists here), at least that demotion would make sense, but like...the doctors i work with don't know how to do most nurse stuff (like BP, cathing, vaccinations, hell even using some of the thermometers - that's all stuff nurses/etc do), so demoting one to a nurse would be a disaster (just like promoting a really good nurse to a doctor would be a bad idea). anyways i know I'm being pedantic but it Be like that when you work in the medical field and read something that has medicine-related stuff in it

i love swerve giving ratchet the tiniest free drink ever lmaooo

is that skids being a rowdy drunk in the bg lmaoooo

unironically i love medical statistics. keep it comin

i love magnus’s giant sternal chestpiece thing. its like a bird’s sternum but without the massive pec muscles attached

i love magnus and rodimus’s dynamic so much

oh pipes....im so sorry but this fun space adventure is going to be not so much fun for you

ratchets ideologies are certainly interesting, and i liked seeing how they changed over the course of the story

drift: why would i be SCARED of the DJD, I've got a SWORD, two swords even,

hvbhajkhfbsdjkf pipes really said ‘oi, you two - what's this, then?’ that's the most british fucking thing, that's literally something i say when I'm doing an overexaggerated british accent, oh my god,

PIPES IS SUCH A TINY DUMBASS. ILY SIR BUT WHAT ARE YOU DOING

aaaand now you're covered in dead bodies, pipes. look at your life, look at your choices

drift epic sword moments

drift confirmed for the kinda weird guy who has katanas that he uses to like, cut up fruit and water bottles in his backyard while rodimus films him

‘i thought i heard...bickering’ lmaooooo

ah, so its covid

this arc is how i feel working in healthcare lmaooo especially now that i probably have covid

so rewind condensed the entire war into an 11 second long cringe compilation. nice

seeing the mechanical stuff past tailgate’s visor is so cool

poor tailgate, this guy is getting slammed with history from multiple sides. and like, bias is inevitable in ANY sort of recounting of events, especially controversial historical events, so poor tg just kinda has to take it all in and decide who to listen to

that’s...not really how immunity works, guys. also, you shouldn't be exposed to so much disease with proper ppe usage

is there even such thing as ppe in the transformers universe?? there are fluid- and contact-transmitted illnesses, so there SHOULD be

is there even OSHA in this universe??????? unbelievable

first aid, holding a giant fucking claw clamp: we haven't tried EVERYTHING............

first aid read a human wikihow article on how to jumpstart a car and took notes

i love tailgate’s ‘mom says its my turn on the xbox’ pose

tailgate has a point - he’s from pre-war times, where things weren't as grey so of course he would try to divide the two sides into ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’

CYCLONUS BE NICE DONT HIT UR FUTURE HUSBAND

go get some character development and then maybe you'll feel better

seeing the word quarantine is making me twitchy w/my possible month-long complete isolation quarantine on the horizon

drift pulling his swords on pipes and ratchet pushing down drift’s arms...lmao

poor pipes...even tho this is completely his fault, its still rough

also jesus, pharma and ratchet look so goddamn similar, reading this was so confusing the first time around

drifts idea of subduing pipes involves turning into a cool car and also posing with his sword

also. never gonna be over drift’s massive thighs. jesus man

ooof now drift has the rona. ouch

poor drift, his covid realization is getting overshadowed by pharma being flung around

first aid bustin thru w/the epic medical nipple clamps and some Big Boi Backup

ok that's an epic pre-beatdown speech from fort max right there, daym

im just gonna continue on w/issue 5 now for continuity’s sake. yay!

the cover of tailgate in magnus’s autobot school is so cute

and we open with an incredible shot of fort max str8 up ripping a guy in half. i mean, to be fair, he DID just give an epic speech about how much he was gonna do that, and he certainly followed thru

yeahhhhh, fort max is not doing so well atm

when he puts that dudes head in his chest vent thing and then snaps it shut....man

also i fucking LOVE when their faces are shaded all in black w/only the eyes/mouth fully drawn...fantastic stuff

ratchet: phew i am not equipped to deal w/this level of Fucked Up Mental Trauma. u good m8?

ratchet is already writing up a referral to rung for fort max as this is happening

drift is just laying on the ground dying like, oh hey yeahh I'm still here too

i fucking love when punctuation is drawn in story - like here where first aid has a little ? over his head....fav

ratchet holding drifts hand ;_;

ok tbh ambulon having switched sides 10 yrs ago is wild bc like, 10 years is barely any time for these guys, especially in a war that lasted 4 million years. that would be like a human switching sides in a war like, 3 months before it ends. probably. i sense some math bs, I'm just extrapolating here

all that mexican standoff shit is going down and first aid is just like But That's None Of My Business

ah so ambulon is an asymptomatic carrier

and there's first aid with the save! iconic

pharma calling ratchet ‘buddy’ hbvakjdsbfhkasdf

ooooh i love that they figured it out - and i love that twist, that transforming is what triggers the start of symptoms. remember when drift turned into a cool car? yep

s/o to Ambulon Transformers for helping me in my medical terminology courses, bc now ill always remember: Leg(tm)

also this explanation makes a ton more sense (in universe, at least) than the whole ‘i guess we as medical staff have been exposed to enough Germz that we’re more immune to this or something’ theory

ah, i love the meaningless (to me) alien robot medical jargon

drift and ratchet hhhhhhhhh

‘I'm too wide’ fort max L O R G E

also once again drift is forgotten in favor of a bunch of other dramatic stuff happening vbhjksdfbjhskdf

godddd i love tailgates little flashbacks where we see how Important and Special he is, complete with his ‘bomb disposal’ arm label...augh its so good!

and tailgate’s autopedia page even reflects his lies! like, did tailgate go edit that first thing upon waking up??? seriously, I'm fascinated by tailgate’s meticulous dedication to his fake life

also the fact that ultra magnus believes everything he read on autopedia is amazing lmao

ultra magnus: you think somebody would just go on the internet and tell lies?

fuckgin love magnus’s long ass name/title placard

tailgate hvbahjkdfbjhaskf i mean, he’s gotten the abridged version of everything else, of course he would assume that’d be the case here too...but not on magnus’s watch

magnus cant even say ‘fun’ hvukdasdbjfkjsadf i love my uptight law dad

love rung implying that upon questioning, he would easily divulge a patient’s name and maybe even information about said patient’s treatment while under him....love the disregard for patient confidentiality and hipaa in general

not that hipaa seems to exist here, at least not in a fully realized form

also i mean the above genuinely, i think rung’s tendency towards at least slight malpractice is very interesting

poor red alert....super bad luck that HE was the guy to get roped up in that overlord business

I'm glad that, at the very least, red alert was able to prove that he was Actually hearing something to rung, rather than get brushed off completely

god magnus and tailgate’s interactions are golden

also tg is much more sarcastic/quippy than anyone gives him credit for tbh

‘thought warfare,’ ultra magnus says with complete seriousness. god i fucking love this comic

now i can tell pharma apart from ratchet bc pharma has let his true Petty Bitch nature emerge and you can see it in his expressions

the whole ‘tarn is addicted to transforming’ thing didn't really go anywhere, right? i feel like i noticed that on my second readthru as well

also pharma is such an interesting character given the context of him like, trying to strike a bargain w/the djd to keep them from destroying delphi, but that arrangement inevitably kinda making him lose it as the situation escalates. he’s also just really entertaining bc i feel like he kins the joker or st and probably gets into really heated arguments w/people on twitter about just abt anything

‘sound bomb’ i love this comic

another important facet of pharma’s character becomes clear around this time as well - how he’s really into ratchet. i also choose to read them as awful exes tbh, it makes their dynamic even more entertaining

‘killmaster, with the wand’ is one of my favorite running remarks lmao

also, was killmaster even a character before mtmte? or, if he was, was he an important one? it would crack me up the most if he literally didn't exist at all, but any way you spin it is still funny

ratchet’s tiny humansona facing off against pharma is wild

‘I'm miles from anyone i truly care about’ brutal, ratchet, drift is dying like 2 floors away (im p sure)

SUDDENLY DRIFT IS HERE, ACTUALLY

oh don't worry first aid, that sure isn't the last we’ll be seeing of pharma

so like, did first aid save everyone by posting that data log to his wreckers fan blog or something? lmao love it

i love the pretty fucked up reveal of ratchet having stolen pharma’s hands. like, damn dude.

and that wraps up the delphi arc! our first true ‘arc’ of mtmte, and a fantastic one at that. short and snappy and fresh, with some very clever writing and cool new characters, and a lot of great plot threads to be picked up later. plus, we got to see the beginnings of drift and ratchet’s whole thing (and ratchet and pharmas whole thing). and the lost light gets some much needed extra medical staff, so everyone wins!

well, we’ll see how fort max feels about this all pretty soon.....

#lj rereads mtmte #love me some delphi

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thanksjro · 4 years

Text

Eugenesis, Part Six Scene Six: Jolup Sinks Rewind’s Ship

You sure as shit have, sugarplum.

It’s time to get the down-low on everyone’s favorite severely-depressed detective.

So, hey, remember waaaaay back in Part One, when Nightbeat used his deadname to sign a report accidentally? It’s okay if you don’t, because I sure did.

God, that was ages ago, wasn’t it? Anyway, that string of numbers is his biocode, which I guess sort of functions as his social security number. So, if any of y’all wanna go ahead and steal his identity, I’m not gonna say anything.

Now, that’s a mighty low number for a Transformer. Strikingly low, even. Turns out that Nightbeat wasn’t biomorphically created, but rather cold constructed. Cold construction as a term didn’t exist within the canon when this was written- trust me, I checked. Sure, robots were built, as opposed to bursting from another’s torso like an over-microwaved hotdog, but they usually turned out like the Dinobots… that is to say, not exactly smart.

Cold construction was an experiment, trying to build Transformers outside of the messy lines of “genetics" and “family lineage”, and as it turns out, the first batch didn’t come out as expected. Or, at least, Nightbeat didn’t.

Hey there, friends. Just a head’s up, before I try to tackle this: I am, as far as I’m aware, neurotypical. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what may be an honest attempt at inclusion for a neurodivergent take on a character in a story published in 2001.

Now, some of these snippets look kind of harsh at face value, but let’s take a closer look. Everything harsh isn’t really Nightbeat putting himself down, but rather him quoting what others have said. Notice the use of quotation marks. Think back to Part One, how he was treated by his peers- they treat him like everyone else, they respect him, they trust his input. Hell, Rodimus himself wanted Nightbeat on the mission to go get Optimus from the past. Nobody who’s been in the story has tried to belittle Nightbeat for being wired differently. That’s fucking phenomenal treatment of a character like him in the early 2000’s.

I’m probably out of my depth here, but it seemed worthwhile to mention.

Anyway, back to the plot.

Right, that.

Nightbeat gets pulled out of his inner monologue when Red Alert asks if he’s okay, since he’s been staring off into space for the last little while. They’re still waiting for Optimus to show up, and everyone’s starting to get antsy. It’s hot as hell over by this collapsing wormhole, which isn’t helping them settle either.

Something finally comes up over the horizon, but you and I both know that it wouldn’t be Eugenesis if things just got on smoothly, now would it? Quantax starts firing on the team of Transformers, while he gets nervous about the wormhole still being there. He decides that if it is, he’ll jump back to this exact point in time to show himself that it is. This is a stupid plan, for a lot of reasons.

Good idea, Quantax.

While he’s trying to come up with something better, someone lands a lucky shot and takes his ship down. Trailbreaker goes to see who it is, I guess because he isn’t aware of what happened the last time a Transformer went to go see Quantax.

Oh no, he’s been turned into The Transformers The Movie Prowl!

Before anyone can try and save Trailbreaker’s stupid ass, the Quintessential Flying Fucks show up. Nightbeat’s not having it- he orders his team to take them down.

The Quintessential Flying Fucks are here for the wormhole as well, but they’ll be taking out the Autobots beforehand. While everyone else handles the Fucks, Nightbeat chases after Quantax, who just bolted for the temple.

Nightbeat catches up and tackles him to the ground, only to get himself pummeled for his efforts. As the blows rain down, Nightbeat tries to reason with Quantax that the wormhole is dangerous and shouldn’t be tampered with. Not sure why he thinks this would ever work, but alright.

Quantax, pal, do I have some friggin’ news for you.

Quantax pulls out of Nightbeat’s hold to hide in the shadows, only to jump out and slash him once he gets close enough.

I hope nothing bad happens to Muzzle here. I feel like Nightbeat really would snap if that orb got broken.

Trying to buy some time, Nightbeat tells Quantax about the futility of trying to change the past, the future, simply because it’s all already laid out, and has been from the beginning. Quantax doesn’t take the jab well, jumping out at Nightbeat again and stabbing him in the stomach, spilling his guts. Nightbeat uses the slump of his body to topple the both of them into the hole in the floor.

Outside the temple, Centurion’s wondering just how the fuck he’s still alive. Jolup’s got him by the throat, his legs have gone AWOL, and he honestly just wants to go home at this point. Jolup’s about to drop the poor guy in a conveniently-placed pool of lava, when Optimus finally shows up.

He, Thundercracker, and Astrotrain- who I’d legitimately forgotten was in this novel- are all pointing their weapons at Jolup, and demand he put the cinnamon roll down and back away slowly. It’s a sweet gesture. Too bad Centurion’s already dead, though.

With a grand, villainous flourish, he drops Centurion into the lava, where he promptly explodes, then flies off for the temple. Astrotrain pursues, as Optimus orders Thundercracker to find Nightbeat and get back to the eighties.

Sevax is in the middle of a scrape with Hound, about to be shot to death. Looks like it’s all over for this son of a gun.

Or not. Man, there goes Rewind’s weird coworker ship. Too bad, he’d already written a huge chunk of his slowburn Ultra Magnus/Hound coffeeshop AU slashfic.

Jolup tells Sevax to slap a bandaid on it and get ready to go while he goes and grabs Ryknia.

Back inside the temple, Nightbeat is clinging to Quantax like his life depends on it- because it does. They’re both hanging off the edge of a hole that’s filled with molten lava. Quantax pulls himself up with his very strong arms, just in time to stand up and immediately be shot back into the pit. Nightbeat dares to dream a dream almost too beautiful- that Optimus is here to save him, like the romance novel protagonist he is!

No such luck. It’s just the Quintessential Flying Fucks. But how did they shoot Quantax? Didn’t he make that impossible? Good thing they dragged Trailbreaker along for the ride, and also good thing he’d managed to keep hold of his gun. Loopholes are fun.

The Fucks run for the wormhole, and all Nightbeat can think to do at this point is stand in front of it and hope for the best. Or maybe the least worst, in this case.

But… but the lore!

Nightbeat gets them with the device as they go through the portal, thus wiping everything from their brains and assumedly dooming them to a short, brutal loop for the rest of time. Thus the plight of the Quintessential Flying Fucks draws to a flaccid and confusing close. I had a feeling this might happen. I was hoping it wouldn’t, though.

Thundercracker soars through the wormhole next, and Nightbeat manages to hit him with the mindpurge just as he crosses the barrier. He’s not even sure if it’s working anymore at this point.

Then Optimus gets there, and it’s time to take him back. They hold hands, click their heels three times, say “there’s no place like home”, and step into 1984. Optimus stares at the collection of almost-dead robots on the Ark, not really feeling the scene, as Nightbeat blathers on. He offers to let Optimus keep his memories of 2013, so he can try and prevent his own death. Optimus… well…

And then he gives Nightbeat a gun and tells him to shoot him until he’s basically dead. Which he does, once the guy’s had the entirety of the last few days scrubbed out of his head. There’s an actual reason for this, though I won’t lie, I kinda freaked out a little when I first got to this part. In order for Aunty to reformat Optimus into his fresh new Earth bod, he needs to be injured enough for the scans to pick up. While this is happening, we also get an explanation for why the 1984 Decepticons got reformatted too- the mindpurge dropped and rolled under the counter while Nightbeat was busy murdering his celebrity crush, and wiped the entire history of the war out of the ship’s database. Now it didn’t see Autobots and Decepticons, but rather just a whole slew of injured robots. So if we want to end prejudice, what we need to do is mindwipe our cars and then shoot our dads in the chest. Gotcha.

And then Mount St. Hilary erupts. Time to go.

Back in 2013, Astrotrain’s been reduced to being transportation, as he always is, and the team’s watching the wormhole cook the atmosphere around it from a good fifty miles away. Fun fact, the curvature of the earth makes it so that we can’t see more than eight miles in any given direction from sea-level. Even though they’re holed up in a building right now and arguably above sea-level, I can’t help but wonder just how friggin’ big Cybertron must be for them to be able to see this right now.

Genocide’s over! Time to break out the booze.

Nightbeat’s taking his sweet time, but it isn’t for a lack of trying. He’s been dodging the repair beams, trying not to kick dead people in the head as he scrambles for the portal. He gets there eventually, the wormhole now running so hot he literally bursts into flames and his eyes melt out of his head as he passes through.

There’s my macabre little man! Back to normal at last. All’s well that ends well!

The wormhole explodes as it shuts down behind him.

Hours after, things finally cool down enough for a rescue team to go try and find survivors.

Motherfuckin’-

NO.

NO, NIGHTBEAT, YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED.

That’s the end of Part Six.

#transformers #jro #eugenesis #part six #maccadam #Hannzreads #text post #long post #prose writing

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obaewankenope · 5 years

Text

@cryptid76 - asked for:

21. “I can’t stop thinking about you.” Decay/Ratchet

@markwatnae

____________

Decay slips through the doors to the medbay as silently as he possibly can—his wings shifting and shortening to avoid the top of the door-frame—while simultaneously silencing the medbay system, preventing it from alerting anyone inside to his entry. His remote hacking skills come in handy far more often in pursuit of pranks than in reconnaissance nowadays, something he’s quietly happy with; spying meant dangerous trips away from his family into enemy territory with only the vague knowledge that he might not make it back to them if things went wrong. Weeks of hardly any energon for the three of them, making certain most of the share went to his sister, constantly working to keep them all functional and capable of fighting or fleeing depending on the circumstances... Sneaking into enemy strongholds had almost been the only way they could refuel most times. Living on the Ark with his family and the Autobots... It’s a whole other kind of existence that Decay appreciates more and more each day.

Not that he’ll every admit that, of course. Not even Casper begs him to with her best sparkling face.

The lighting in the medbay was dim, an indicator of the late hour, but Decay’s sound processors picks up the noise of someone moving around near the main treatment area. Ten energon cubes it's Ratchet.

He approaches carefully, making sure his pedes are cushioned by his own adaptive armour. There's a large dividing wall that runs half the length of the main treatment area, designed to separate the rest of the medbay from the space, and Decay peers around the edge of the wall, his optics dulled so the red-blue light won't draw attention.

His lips lift a little on his face. It's Ratchet.

The orange and white mech is sorting various medical implements that, Decay knows, wouldn't look out of place in a human's garage but are greatly relevant to the treatment of 'Tronians. Decay is a bit of an odd one out compared to most, his protoform was experimental—the second time he had a protoform at least—so most of those implements don't work on his form. However, Ratchet is a great medic—Decay would go so far as to say the best he's ever met—and is skilled at adapting to his patients needs.

When his family had first come on the Ark, they'd all needed medical checks and it'd taken a full week of sleep cycles before Decay had admitted himself to the medic's care. Retro hadn't said a word about it but Specter had been confused at his reluctance to get 'fixed up'. She didn't think Ratchet—as an Autobot—would have harmed him but Decay had plenty of experience with medics and scientists of both factions; even the most principled of 'Tronians would do terrible things in the pursuit of knowledge and power.

Something must have bled through that first time, when Decay had refused to be offlined for the medic to check his system for glitches, because Ratchet hadn't raised his voice or been aggressive toward him. The medic had nodded, looking a little sad at Decay's refusal to trust him, and continued patching up minor damage to his armour that his nannites couldn't handle due to lack of energy.

It had been at that point that Decay had considered the medic as less of an enemy in his system and had downgraded him to potential threat to him and his family. The way Specter had come back from her monthly check up after Decay's first check up, almost bouncing on her pedes with the kind of mobility she'd steadily lost over the years of being on the run, had made Decay's spark tighten with emotion at the sight. Even Retro's improved rest cycle had been, in-part, the result of Ratchet's diligent work treating him and removing some of the worst glitches Decay simply hadn't had the supplies to remove himself when they were alone.

All of that, and the way the medic was firm and commanding with his other patients, dedicated to their care above and beyond anything else, had driven Decay to reassign the medic as an ally in his system; a position that Ratchet was the first to attain among the Autobots for almost a year.

Now, after two years of being with the Autobot faction, of being treated like he was one of the team, Decay can't help but thank Primus for that mishap outside the Space Gate. If it hadn't been for that… his family would still be scavenging for food and fighting to survive in the depths of space.

The medic has no idea he's behind him until Decay finally allows his system to turn off silent-running mode. Ratchet jumps, servos dropping the medical implements on to the desk in front of him as he turns on his pedes.

"What the—Decay! What is it? Is something wrong? " Ratchet's voice runs the gauntlet from surprised to annoyed to concerned in a second. It's something that Decay finds incredibly endearing about the medic, his capacity to display emotion so openly.

The last time Decay had showed emotion, Specter had asked him if he was feeling well.

"Yes," Decay says, nodding at the medic who has to crane his helm to stare up at Decay's own. "I have a problem."

Ratchet's expression becomes full-blown concern and he brings his servos up to touch Decay's arm and chest. "Is your injury causing you problems?" He asks, referring to the blaster damage Decay had received in the last battle with Megatron's soldiers. He'd gladly taken the hit meant for Prime since it kept his sister from trying to single-handedly murder every Con on the field, and Decay's own repair systems were superior to the Prime's. It had been a tactical decision.

Specter hadn't talked to him for three days because of it though.

Decay shakes his head. "No," he says quietly, touching Ratchet's side with a clawed hand, talons gently pressing against metal armour that wouldn't hold up against Decay's sharp fingers if he had any intention to cause harm to the medic. "Not that."

"Then what?"

Ratchet's confusion brings a smile to Decay's face—more of a smirk than a true smile but that's Decay's way of smiling. He leans his helm down, close to Ratchet's.

"I can't seem to stop thinking about you," he whispers, sliding his fingers along Ratchet's side in a sensual circular pattern. The medic shivers at the action. "I was hoping my medic could help me with that."

The worried tension in Ratchet's frame bleeds out the longer Decay talks, replaced by a something altogether more carnal in its place. Decay's smirk widens.

"I think I can help you with your problem," Ratchet rumbles out, voice deeper than usual, his vocal processor responding to system alerts and changes. "Though," he pauses, hands sliding around Decay's frame to press his servos against the point on Decay's back where his wings protrude. "I may need to perform a physical examination to solve the issue."

Decay shudders at the sensation, his wings twitching as Ratchet kneads the area lightly with his fingers. His optics close, and he lets out a heavy puff of air. "Best get started then, doctor," he groans, leaning into Ratchet, pressing their chestplates together.

#Transformers #Ratchet #Decay #Transformers fic #My writing #This WAS an ask until tumblr glitched the fuck up lol

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saintgale · 6 years

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Forgive me. I’m having feelings and I think have talked about this a lot on a side blog before, but wanted to try to condense some of my thoughts on this here because I’m still bitter and upset after all this time, whoops.

This is about Starscream’s treatment in TFP.

There’s a lot of text below the cut and also tw for abuse mention. Also spoilers for TFP, some Aligned stuff, and TAAO.

Also warning that I’m going to get sort of heated here and I’m not making the best case for him (bc I’m emotional right now), and these points are not, as they are now, grounds for a really sound argument because there are holes and patches and references missing. Also let me say up front I don’t condone Starscream’s behavior, I am not trying to make excuses for anything that he’s done--but that’s not what this is about. This is more about his treatment in the series by other characters, through the fourth wall in the writing, etc. This is more about how victimized he is and how he’s painted so often as the end-all-be-all villain of the century when there’s so much more to it than that. I feel like so many times his suffering was meant for comic relief or to make a moment for another character. Also how everyone was bent on him being Evil when he was trying to be something else.

This isn’t about painting Starscream as a “good guy” or trying to make him look good. This isn’t about trying to pardon him from all the wrong he’s done. It is about what I see as pretty gross injustice and how damn relate-able he was as an abuse survivor.

-- Recall, he wanted to swap sides. We don’t know for certain how this would turn out bc the Autobots wouldn’t give him the chance but you know what, they have the same target, being Megatron. Starscream could have been invaluable: he could have helped them tremendously even if it was in the end just for his own gain. But damn would I like to think what could have happened if for once in the goddamn show someone treated him with an ounce of kindness.

You know what he does when confronted with Cluffjumper’s murder--he admits his mistake. He admits he made many. He repeatedly voices that he wants to CHANGE and he DOESN’T WANT TO FIGHT HER. (Fair, we don’t know if this was genuine or just excuses made to try to cover his ass, but seeing as he explicitly asked to join the Autobots at the beginning of the episode and made no attempts to resist, gave them the info they wanted, and didn’t once threaten them even when they treated him poorly--ex: battering and dragging him around, I’d say he was well on the path to trying to be honest with them).

It’s only when it’s clear that Arcee is going to murder him (ie: force him into combat when he’s being held prisoner and is very much going to fight to the death) that he turns on her. And then gets really nasty, because tbfh if she’s going to just treat him like a criminal and force him into a battle while he’s the Autobots’ prisoner, and no one’s going to give him a chance, etc., why should he hold back?

-- Here’s the thing about Starscream: he literally cannot afford to trust anyone and it’s painful to watch. He has been conditioned to look out only for himself, because he’s HAD TO to survive. Megatron has quite literally beaten it into him that he can’t rely on anyone else, he’s alone, no one wants him, and that if he doesn’t continuously prove his worth, he could be killed at any minute. Pair this with constantly being ostracized, threatened, yelled at, punched, blamed, etc., and here you have Starscream’s already existing paranoia all bundled up in the most on-edge ball of nerves you ever did see.

-- He has to trade information for medical care. (Ie: He can’t “prove his worth?” Then he’s labeled as useless and left to die or punished for it--but Star’s damn used to that by this point, right?) Given I understand the Autobots had limited resources themselves and then again this is Starscream but he was defenseless and asking them for help in a time of need. As if saving Arcee’s life from Arachnid or helping them locate the Harbinger and begging to join their side beforehand wasn’t enough proof that the potential for him to change was there--he wanted to change--but no one would give him a chance.

-- He was gravely injured and literally begging for his life on his the goddamn floor and Ratchet and Bulkhead were content to let him die. Alone, vulnerable, out in the middle of nowhere with no affiliation, when no one else knew where the hell he was, when he had renounced his allegiance to the Decepticons. He was a neutral at that point. He was literally disabled (ie: forcibly had one of his internal organs removed from his body so he couldn’t transform into his alt mode or even transform his arm into his gun to defend himself) and starving and left to fend for himself with whatever little resources his brilliant mind could scrounge up from the NOTHING he had to work with.

Sure, Star is notorious for being a trickster/backstabber, but for fuck’s sake at points he was lying there BLEEDING OUT on the ground, and he had already shown before that a) he was MORE THAN WILLING to join the Autobots and help them out instead and BEGGED THEM TO LET HIM JOIN and that b) he had ABSOLUTELY NO INTENTION to do any harm to them. As if he were even in the state to hurt them if he wanted to. Damn.

Again. It would be well within the Autobots’ rights to be cautious/take precautions around him. But the level of disregard for even his life was concerning. Yeah, there was a war going on, yeah he was their enemy, but he had no affiliation at that point--he was literally all alone and begging for medical attention, would it be that much to show some empathy?

Like I keep thinking of that line Optimus has at one point (I think there are several iterations of it throughout the series) something like “every sentient being deserves the chance for redemption,” how 1) not only was Optimus content to let Megatron into the Autobot base when they were fighting Unicron, but 2) lets him fuck off into space in Predacons Rising because apparently Megatron now understands “the true meaning of oppression.”

No shit, man? Isn’t that what sparked the Decepticon uprising in the first place? I’m pretty sure Megatron put Starscream through a hell of a lot more than what Unicron did to him in that brief period of time, but Starscream just doesn’t seem to be able to catch a break. When he does show some signs of potential change, it gets brushed off or denied.

-- I’m pretty sure the Autobots KNOW how awfully Starscream is treated by Megatron (and this is a joke, it’s supposed to be something funny and it’s sickening--G1 even had a Heroes laugh about Starscream’s mistreatment as they ride off into the sunset moment, if I recall). Starscream has literally been beaten within inches of death, to the point of hospitalization, and for SHOW in front of the Decepticon troops, and left with his entire body, head to fucking toe, littered with scars, scrapes, dents, etc. We’ve seen him scream and beg and get down on his hands and knees and pray to Megatron not to hurt him. And yet he seizes up and is completely powerless to stop it--watching it physically hurts me. He’s so fucking terrified of Megatron that he flinches and shrinks back and winces wen approached by him, when Megatron raises his voice, or fuck forbid his fist.

-- I love Bulkhead and all for but his gentle-giant act his literal response to Starscream not wanting to tell him where the exit of the Nemesis ship was was to beat the life out of him. (Turns out this was a clone, but Bulkhead killed it. He would have killed Starscream over Star not wanting to give him information because low and behold! Bulkhead didn’t have anything to offer him back. Which is really fucking funny considering when it was the other way around, with Starscream being desperate for help, Bulkhead and Ratchet wouldn’t even consider giving him the medical attention he needed unless Star coughed up intel they could use.) He’s not only Megatron’s punching bag, it’s like he’s everyone’s punching bag. Just because he’s fucking there. And hearing him scream and cry is funny apparently.

-- Get this, Starscream was SO DESPERATE that he went BACK HIS ABUSER instead of trying again to ask the Autobots to join them. He pulled off the impossible because he’s fucking brilliant--something that Megatron was never able to do: infiltrate the Autobot base (let us also recall that Starscream had been collecting intel since early season 1 on the base’s location, but he literally sets up a trap to get in through their ground bridge despite the world spitting into his face) and steal the Omega Keys. Which he uses, of all things, as bargaining chips to try to negotiate his way back into the Decepticon ranks--he even is willing to forsake his position as Second In Command, he just wants some goddamn patch of dirt to stand on at this point.

-- I stand by my statement that Starscream absolutely proved more than once through the series that he not only had the potential to change, but he really wanted to change. But no one else seemed to want to accept that change, and no one was willing to give him the room to grow on it or prove that he really was trying to better himself. He spends every second of his life in Megatron’s presence cowering in absolute fear (bar when Megatron was in a goddamn coma on life support and thus could not hurt him), and trying to find ways to make sure that no one can hurt him. I’m convinced that his actions and his goddamn levels of treachery/me-against-everyone-else is because it’s been proven to him over and over and over again that no one will help him, no one cares about him, and no one is willing to give him a chance to be anything but evil scheming Starscream. So at the end of it all what goddamn choice does he even have?

-- He doesn’t even know how to accept compliments. I don’t mean flattery/you scratch my back I scratch yours types of things, I mean like. Out of the blue really sincere stuff. Like when they think they’re gonna die and Knockout says something nice to him, and he just like. Shuts the fuck up and looks away and gets all flustered? I seriously have a hard time recalling any points where another character is legitimately nice to Starscream (let’s be fair, is he particularly nice to anyone else?, it doesn’t seem so, but then again who the hell has given him a reason to be anything else but hyper-aware and suspicious?) and that kind of just hurts.

-- THANK FUCK in TAAO he got the redemption arc he so rightfully deserved and it was handled pretty well imo, and at the end of it all, he was described, by the author, as exactly what he is: an abuse-victim. I’m still salty as fuck that Megatron got ANOTHER get out of jail free card in MTMTE/LL and gets to fuck off and around the galaxy on a space journey (again) while Starscream winds up punished via life in prison but that’s out of my hands.

I don’t know if it’s a coincidence that Ms. Scott worked as an assistant writer on TFP (and was probably well-aware of what TFP Star went through and the details of his character) and that TAAO Star gets such a goddamn well-written redemption arc and blatant address to the horrors that he’s had to suffer through in his life, particularly the physical and emotional abuse he had to endure at Megatron’s hands, but there’s some similarities here.

-- I’m not saying what Starscream (in any verse) does was right or anything like that, but what I am saying is that particularly in the case of TFP (and TAAO) his actions are understandable. We know why he’s doing what he’s doing and we know the extreme level of trauma that he still suffers and the lengths he will go to to ensure that it never happens again.

Also shoutout to the Aligned novels where we see him before the abuse really starts (though Megatron and Shockwave basically traumatize and power play him on purpose) where he is an absolute fucking badass and takes Megatron on head-on at a disadvantage and puts up a DAMN good fight. And looks him straight in the eye when threatened, like he does not give a Fuck.

We see how goddamn obvious the before and after is. We see how utterly afraid and miserable Star is and how he will do anything to kill Megatron, will do anything to try to make himself feel safe. (Or safer.) We see not only the sheer difference in size between Starscream and Megatron, but the difference in the power versus the powerlessness. Here’s the thing about Starscream, his whole personality and physical appearance in TFP is crafted around him not being very strong (physically)--it’s all about his mind being his sharpest weapon. (I have to note that this doesn’t mean he’s not a good fighter--he most certainly is, he’s proved that, and that for a bot his size he’s actually pretty strong. Also we gonna talk about the melee capability he has and how agile he is because this guy’s got spikey-pointy bits all over his body including what look like pile-bunkers on his elbows and claws like knives). Starscream can kill Megatron, and he’s come really close to it more than once. But he often feels like he doesn’t have the power to do it. He doesn’t fight back when Megatron beats the hell of out him, he either tries to get away and/or begs him to stop. It’s so damn relate-able and it makes me hurt inside.

Also for the record I don’t see the problem here as Starscream very clearly being a queer-coded character. (Though we can talk about in general queer-coding villains in media.) I DO see a problem with Starscream being a queer-coded character who used as a punching bad and constantly beat up by a hyper-masculine character (Megatron), and Starscream as being constantly kicked around, made fun of, and having to suffer because of his femininity, lack of strength, lack of control, etc.

For the trash-mess that was the RID sequel (there are still loveable bits though) one thing they DID get right was the expression of absolute hatred, fear, and bitterness that Starscream feels regarding his suffering at Megatron’s hands, and his entire reason for reappearing is to kill Megatron. Good on Starscream for calling out all the awful and horrible shit that Megatron did to him. AND calling out Bumblebee for the exact same ridiculing/belittling bullshit he tried to pull on him (which, as we saw, completely worked as a distraction because of how much it upset Star).

(Also can we talk about how the Dark Star Sabre “rejected” him and how Bee’s making fun of him because hahaa!! Look at you Starscream!! You’re such a failure that an EVIL SWORD rejected you!! But in actuality let’s think about the implications of this and wouldn’t this be a neat piece to reference for an Aligned redemption arc?? But I know that’s never gonna happen.)

And don’t get me started on the whole design change (the RID design itself was badass as fuck, the 180 from the TFP design and the reason for it was absolute utter fucking rotten dogshit) because I’m still pissed as fuck about that too.

-- You know. I think there’s a lot of differences between Starscream and Megatron but I think the one that sticks out to me the most is that Starscream never became his abuser the way Megatron did. Sure, we don’t know for sure, and maybe never will, but let’s also take note that for the short time that he was in charge of the Deceptions when Megatron fucked off to go get the Dark Energon and then was on life support or whatever, Starscream was aiming for big things (yes, devilishly evil in many cases but for fuck’s sake he’s at least competent, and he knows what he’s doing). Also yeah, we’ve seen him lash out at/smack people, but this really isn’t anywhere near on the same dimension plane as what Megatron does to him on a regular basis.

-- To me, Starscream’s the goddamn strongest character in the whole show (I don’t mean in brute strength, I mean strength of will and perseverance). He’s a survivor and he’s trying his damn hardest to keep surviving. We know damn well no one else is going to lift a finger to help or look out for him so he’s done that for himself. He’s absolutely ruthless and a menace but he’s been through some Shit and I just hope to hell and back he gets a happy ending somehow.

#dratz vents #dratz rants #shut up dratz #abuse and abuse mention tw #text post //#long post //#filler tag one //#filler tag two //#i think that's good //#starscream #tfp

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verdigrisprowl · 7 years

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Meme, James Roberts Edition: 1, 13

1. What made you decide to roleplay this muse?

Several things:

One, I started reading RID on issue... 13? 14? The issue where Prowl "betrayed" everyone, and it blew my mind because I didn't know they were allowed to get away with having an important & popular G1 Autobot switch sides, and then they went "lol no he was mind controlled" and I went "oh :/" and then they STUCK HIM IN DEVASTATOR and it blew my mind again because I didn't know they were allowed to get away with having an important & popular G1 Autobot be part of a Decepticon combiner. And I kept waiting for them to take it back and they DIDN'T. They took "Prowl with the Constructicons" and RAN with it. And I was thrilled. And that is the first time in my life I gave a single fuck about Prowl.

Two, I was watching RID2015 and went "lol Strongarm is cute. She's like, the love child of Ultra Magnus and Prowl. ... And so is Chase." And then I started THINKING about Prowl and I haven't stopped thinking about Prowl since. And at that point I was doomed to either make a TFP Prowl or an IDW Prowl.

Three, I was feeling ostracized within the group I'm in even though I was one of the first members, and I thought maybe it was because I was playing a character who'd immigrated to that universe instead of a character who'd come from that universe, so I thought maybe I'd feel less like a fringe member if I actually had a character from that universe. Fun fact, it didn't help because the problem was something completely different and nobody told me until like a year later! Yaaay. Anyway that's why I decided to go with IDW.

Four, when I read Combiner Wars I was filled with righteous fury and outrage and wanted to slap the faces of everyone other member of Optimus Maximus. Listen. I ain't defending Prowl's actions there, because he was a grade-A asshole from beginning to end of CW; but he went "I'm inviting you inside my head to show you how I see the world, this is who I am as a person," and everyone else went "we reject who you are as a person, you're morally repugnant because you dare to use math and logic instead of berserker animal emotion." And I wanted to kick things. Being pissed off over Prowl's treatment in Combiner Wars has been the driving force behind 90% of my characterization of him. I've spent a year and a half writing Prowl as my way of saying "seeing the world in terms of numbers and math doesn't make Prowl a bad person. Bombing civilians makes Prowl a bad person. But not math, not logic, not pragmatism."

13. Three of your favorite threads.

HMM. Hard one. These are just like, the first three off the top of my head that I remember and go "oh yeah those were good," not necessarily my Three Absolute Faves.

One, the space bridge training thread with Soundwave. That was a whole lot of fun to write—the descriptions, the cool puzzles Soundwave gave and I got to solve, the ability to show off Prowl's calculations... and the post where I left out the word "transformed" and so Prowl landed on top of Soundwave in car mode. :,) And although character interaction wasn't the point of the thread so much as the action, there were still some good moments of that too.

Two, the first thread with Tarantulas. Great tense character interactions, solid dialogue, solid basis for their future interactions (with everything from Tarantulas's obsessiveness/manipulativeness to Prowl's distrust/guilt to getting distracted in the middle of everything to talk about science), and I think a good sort of AU "how differently could SOTW have gone if Tarantulas had approached Prowl as a visitor instead of a kidnapper?"

Three, Pipes introducing Prowl to the wonders of free samples on Hedonia. All Prowl's threads with Pipes are fun kinda quirky things, which I like as a demonstration of what Prowl's capable of when he's off duty—and I think Prowl going "free food???? holy shit" was one of the first examples on this blog of that side of him. Plus, they play off each other so well.

#anonymous #meme

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lord-squiggletits · 1 year

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Do you like continuity cross MegOP? Like TFA Optimus x TFP Megatron and the sorts? (That's the most popular pair, it seems. Unlikely but I can see their point)

Not at all unless it's for a joke pairing, like IDW OP/IDW2 Megatron for both being jocks that like jumping off things or something.

I'm someone who very much feels that characters are a product of the world/story they're written within, so blending continuities or just ripping a character and putting them in another continuity makes it feel very disjointed imo.

Plus, one of my biggest MegOP pet peeves is the fact that the AO3 tag is proliferated with fics that are basically IDW Megatron/G1 or TFP or some vague continuity soup Optimus, because I hate IDW Optimus erasure.

Tangential hot take below the cut about a particular crossover MegOP pet peeve of mine, IDW Optimus, and the MOP fandom's treatment of him in general. If you don't like bitching, this is your disclaimer to not read.

Also. I really really hate how people will erase IDW Optimus and ship IDW Megatron with literally any other Optimus besides him, because for me it's incredibly boring and cowardly lmao.

Like, people can handle the fact that Megatron is a bad person (I mean honestly some people write him as if he has no flaws and doesn't need to apologize for anything, so maybe they can't handle Megatron being a bad person considering they refuse to acknowledge that he is/was idk) but they can't handle the idea of Optimus being morally gray? Megatron is allowed to be a complex pacifist-turned revolutionary-turned warlord-turned regretful Autobot, but Optimus has to be frozen in some G1/TFP mishmash where he's just an innocent librarian/dockworker whose main personality trait is being a nice dad completely erased of anything that makes him "problematic"?

You can't even argue "oh IDW OP sucks because he's a cop and cops are bad in real life" because 1. the story agrees with that and Optimus constantly faces the consequences of his pre-war alignment 2. people have no problem with the fact that Megatron was an imperialist technoist, and imperialism and racism are both bad in real life. And 3. if people had an issue with him being a cop, they could just write IDW OP's personality but give him a different job, except no one writes IDW OP's personality at all. For some reason people will excuse all of IDW Megatron's shitty behavior/beliefs away (or just pretend they're not canon) but viciously attack IDW Optimus's personality and the occupation he only had for like a fifth of his total life? It's really disappointing to see such favoritism and bad takes from MEGOP SHIPPERS who are the people you would expect to like BOTH Megatron and Optimus, but this fandom has an overwhelming amount of Megatron favoritism where people write him as having all the initiative and Optimus is just some oaf that doesn't understand why the war happened.

If people want an Optimus who's conscious of his role in perpetuating social inequality and contributing to the civil war, while still having relatable depression and having some moments of humor, IDW Optimus is literally right freaking here waiting for people to read his huge and interesting story.

Plus, half the people who bitch about IDW OP and say they hate him either haven't read the comics or completely misread/misrepresent what IDW OP actually does in the comics. If you want IDW OP to be "called out" or criticized then he gets called out and criticized all the fucking time. People just want OP to be a happy dad or a sadboi or an uwu twink and refuse to accept that since IDW is a darker story, Optimus needs to be dark and problematic along with it or else he doesn't fit within the context of his story.

This fandom's tendency to whitewash IDW Megatron while villainizing IDW Optimus is one of its most annoying qualities, and frankly I find it boring and childish lmao. Accept the fact that IDW Optimus is written like an actual person with flaws that can become ugly when he's put under the immense pressure of everything he's dealing with. Real people don't go through all the trauma and guilt IDW OP went through and remain perfect saints who are always nice and never snap out of anger/frustration. IDW Optimus is too interesting and cool for the people who just want unproblematic happy dad Optimus lmao.

And MegOP shippers shitting on IDW OP for things he didn't do or things that were understandable in context, while acting like Megatron did no wrong and should have everyone else apologize to him, is literally the reason why I don't read any MOP fics outside of my circle of friends/mutuals any more. It's just not worth reading fanfic when my favorite character is constantly erased and excluded from having stories written about him.

#there's some bitching in this one lmao this is your warning #if you have a problem with my tone or opinions you should probably not read the readmore or just unfollow #ppl say 'don't like don't read' so i took their advice and dont read fics/headcanons that i think are boring and annoying #doesn't mean that i can't complain about it in the space of my own blog #squiggle answers

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renaroo · 7 years

Text

Prime Wreck

Disclaimer: Transformers, Transformers Prime, and related properties belong to Hasbro Warnings: Canon-typical language and violence Rating: T Prompt: ( @the-heroic-changeling ) In a great battle Optimus has been horrible injured, his head torn clean off. To save his spark Ratchet/Fixit come up with a plan to link Optimus to a human, to strengthen his spark and systems, and to try to replicate the hybrid of Cylas. Unfortunately, the only human who could survive the treatment is the now-Wrecker barely-an-adult Miko Nakadai, due to her long term exposure to Energon. And so Optimus becomes a Powermaster/Headmaster with Miko “Apex” Nakadai as his partner. Shenanigans ensue.…Look I’ve read through some of the original Headmasters, a lot of them were terrible matches. Mindwipe for instance. And I mean the Leader Class Optimus comes with a partner named “"Apex,” it works. And this would be really hilarious. :)

A/N: This was actually a lot of fun to play with and I really like the idea! I hope you don’t mind me using RiD timeline for this, it just seemed to fit more naturally with it.

One time they had looked at Ratchet and told him his hands were capable of miracles.

He didn’t care much for that, what he did took ingenuity and work and an ability to react with the sort of quick wit that could only come from years of warborn instincts. It undermined the profession, and nothing could put his circuits in a twist quite like undermining the work of a doctor.

Still, in his aging state, Ratchet found himself thinking a lot about the time they almost lost little Raf. How useless he had been with a creature so precious and feeble.

He would almost thank the AllSpark for June Darby.

Humans in many ways were so much more delicate than Cybertronians. Ratchet had performed “miracles”, but that seemed so much less impressive when he had reconstructed Ultra Magnus’ hand with spare parts, when he had saved Bumblebee from having his voicebox ripped from his throat.

There was so much they could endure as Cybertronians.

He knew that. But he also knew that living on Earth for all those years had taught him that in some ways, they could only live in these days in thanks to humankind...

Miko had missed home.

She wasn’t sure when Japan stopped being home, but she knew well enough that it had everything to do with the feeling of belonging that came with friendships that lasted a lifetime, helping to save the world, and the complete awesomeness that was being a Wrecker and fighting alongside kick butt transforming robot aliens.

The very thought of it made her ache all over. Especially for Bulkhead. Especially Bulkhead.

When she wasn’t selfish, she understood why she had not seen from the gang in years. When she wasn’t selfish she knew that Bulkhead especially had a huge role on the new Cybertron -- being in charge of the very reconstruction of their world and culture.

In those rare, unselfish moments, she could not be prouder of her partner. Of her fellow Wrecker.

But those times seemed few and far between.

After returning to Japan, she finished secondary school, and then university. She was a perfect student again, cut the died tips from her hair, played the violin. Was the pride and joy of the Nakadai household.

And she was empty.

Until she was sent a link in an email from Raf and saw a news report.

It was from a tabloid, laughable at best, but it mentioned real Monster Cars destroying a Monster Truck arena in some midwestern American city called Crown City.

They feverishly messaged back and forth about the possibilities of it, what it could mean, did it mean anything at all, how much Miko missed American concerts and frivolous destructiveness like Monster Truck rallies.

She tried very hard to ignore that cc on each message was Jack, who hadn’t responded a single time.

It was all jokes and hypotheticals when, seemingly from nowhere, Miko sent her last response by phone as she prepared to board the next flight from Tokyo International Airport on her way to Crown City.

I’m drawn to it, was the only explanation she gave Raf before boarding.

Optimus watched the team from a distance. Being within sight, but away from the team was the closest to personal time that he got those days.

Since his return, it had seemed as though he could not escape Bumblebee or Windblade trailing him. There seemed to be either overt concern for him or an overt need to seek approval.

The latter had been afforded to him far less since Bumblebee came to seemingly resent Optimus’ ability to take charge of his team.

Logically, Optimus knew he was right. But, Optimus still found that to be a hard pill to swallow.

“You’re doing it again. You really should let me tune up your processor,” Ratchet offered, walking up from the Alchemor’s main deck. He had extended his visit upon realizing that Optimus was with Bumblebee’s team.

The Prime could not help but sense that at least in part his stay had to do with the disruptiveness of Bumblebee and Optimus’ relationship that had been on display as of late.

“What is it that I am doing so egregiously, old friend?” Optimus asked Ratchet tiredly.

“Looking at the others like you’re a peg that doesn’t fit,” Ratchet explained, crossing his arms across his chest. “You always act like that, but it never bothered you so much before.”

Humming, Optimus allowed his gaze to drift back from Ratchet to Bumblebee’s team. “I suppose there is truth... Since I took up the responsibility of the Primes and the Matrix of Leadership, I have accepted that socially I have few peers. That as a leader, I must be apart from the followers at times. But I always knew, even without belonging, where my place ultimately lied.”

Ratchet frowned before letting out a long vent. “Well, the AllSpark knows I’m not exactly a bot to answer on social matters, but I like to think of myself as a decent friend to at least one other bot.”

Optimus looked to him and allowed a soft smile. “And you are.”

“Our team still exists on Cybertron,” Ratchet continued. “Team Prime. Our family. Bee’s here, sure. And he’s got a duty here. But the rest of us still have places. Still have a place for our Prime.” He looked worriedly toward Optimus. “If you could just tell me why you can’t go back to Cybertron...”

“I cannot explain it, Ratchet,” Optimus sighed. “I simply know it is not the time. There is something else on Earth I must do before I can--”

No sooner had the words left his vocalizer than the junkyard’s alarm system went off loudly around them and the intercom from he Alchemor turned on to Fixit’s distinctively shrill voice.

“Team Bee! There’s an emergency in the pretty! -- bitty! --” A loud clank echoed followed by a familiar FZZZT. “CITY! Multiple Decepticons are moving in what looks like an uncoordinated effort! You’ll need to get moving immediately!”

“Alright, everyone!” Bumblebee called. “Rev up and roll out!”

There was no hesitation from Bumblebee’s team as they did just that. Even the might Grimlock loading himself onto a trailer obediently after hitching it to Strongarm.

“Maybe you and I should continue this conversation,” Ratchet said over Optimus’ shoulder. “Give Bee some space, this sounds like the sort of threat his team’s been handling without us for a while anyway.”

Optimus looked back to Ratchet before transforming. “While I know my time on Earth has its reason, I do not know the time nor the place. I must be prepared to be anywhere, and at any time, Ratchet. It’s my duty as--”

“Yeah, yeah, I hear ya,” Ratchet sighed and transformed himself. Let me run the sirens so none of us have to deal with po--”

Strongarm’s own sirens lit up as she led the team behind Bumblebee.

“Ugh. Sparklings, so enthusiastic,” Ratchet grumbled as he and Optimus rolled out together.

Miko was many things, but patient was not one of them.

Upon entering Crown City, she anticipated immediately being faced with giant robots, a thunderous clamor of battle -- and maybe, just maybe, some familiar faces among them all.

What she got was a lot of traffic and a lot of people moving in lines far more disorganized than those in Tokyo.

“Agh, this is ridic!” the Wrecker groaned before pulling out her phone to look for any messages.

It wasn’t her new phone, the one she had been gifted with in her second year of university. It wasn’t the one she used day to day -- it was the old, pink flip phone, ornaments and all, from her time living in Jasper, Nevada.

She wasn’t sure why she was so intent on bringing the old thing -- it hadn’t had service paid for it in at least four years. But there was a part of her -- the part remembering how useful it had been so many times to her friends -- her fellow Autobots -- that somehow just knew that it could have some use to her yet.

Perhaps some signal from it was still on their range. Maybe it was something Bulkhead, if he were on Earth, would try to reach her through.

Possibly. Maybe. She hoped.

But as she got it out, swarmed by the human traffic of Crown City, Miko found that it was getting her nothing.

“Guh,” she huffed before holding the phone open. “If only I were techy. Like Raf. Maybe I can call Raf and he can tell me something techy! Or tell me if he’s heard from Jack and Fowler. They’d have to know what was going on if the Autobots were here.”

She stopped talking to herself as she heard a low rumble and felt the Earth shake. She had felt earthquakes enough times before that she instantly could distinguish the difference in the feeling.

Despite being surrounded by clueless people, Miko dropped down to her haunches and felt over the sidewalk with her hand and hummed to herself. “My alien-looking instincts think something big is going on!” she said excitedly before popping back up to her feet and looking back and forth. Her eyes locked on a subway station entrance and she smirked. “Bingo!”

Without any hesitation, the young woman took off for the entrance, ignoring all the people she pushed past and the attendant who yelled at her when she leaped over the toll station.

In her hand, her pink cell clattered with each movement of its charms, and Miko couldn’t help but look at it as she leaped past the subway lines and toward the stairs into the tunnels.

To her disappointment, it still didn’t light up or ring or give any indication that her friends were trying to contact her.

“It’s okay. They’re busy,” Miko assured herself before pocketing the cell phone and looking ahead. There were more, stronger rumbles up ahead. “Very busy. Need a Wrecker busy!”

Without slowing down, Miko reached around her shoulder and pulled her bookbag over to her front and immediately began rummaging through it, grabbing the artifact she needed. But when she looked up, her eyes widened and she nearly skidded to a halt as she saw two people -- one man with an outrageously furry beard and a little boy -- both in bright vests and hardhats.

“Whoa whoa there, missy! Sorry, but there’s some construction going on in this tunnel!” the man exclaimed.

The boy squinted and tilted his head. “Wait. You don’t look like a subway worker. Why’re you down in here--”

“Looks can be deceiving,” she warned, trying to rush past them only to be blocked again. “There’s more to me than meets the eye!”

Surprised, both of the people in vests looked at each other and then back to Miko.

Another rumble shook them and concern came over the people’s faces.

Miko saw her chance and dove between them before continuing her run.

“Hey!” the older man called out.

“It’s okay! I’m good for construction! I’m a Wrecker!” she called over her shoulder. “Also, I love your beard!”

Bumblebee knew that he had a long, long way to go to become half the leader that his mentor was. He knew that he had underutilized his past experience to focus on forging ahead with his current team, his current family.

And he knew that the second guessing and the asserting of himself in nearly every situation was Optimus’ way of showing he wanted the best for Bee and his team.

But it didn’t make things easier. Really, it all but did the opposite.

And as they took on no less than four escaped Decepticons in the crowded subway tunnels of Crown City, the lack of cohesion between them had never been more apparent.

“Optimus, take Drift, Windblade, and Ratchet and fall back while we flank them!” Bumblebee ordered.

“We should stand the wall,” Optimus argued. “The tunneling into the cement and the attacks are weakening the infrastructure of the streets above us. Allowing them to further separate will only intensify the problem and cause untold destruction to the humans living above.”

“Not if we act quickly!” Bee all but begged. “Optimus, my team’s fast -- everyone on this team other than you, Ratchet, and Grimlock have speed on their side. If you and Ratchet fall back, Grimlock keeps on the offensive to distract them, and the rest of us flank, we’ll be able to stop them before there’s any further damage--”

“Hey, if you two don’t stop arguing there won’t be time enough to stop damage and this tunnel will come down on all of our heads!” Ratchet snapped, always willing to speak up against either leader whereas the rest of the team wouldn’t dare.

“Optimus, just listen to me!” Bmblebee begged.

His optics were trained on Bumblebee, but with his faceplate up, there was no way for Bumblebee to really tell whether or not the Prime also had his audials trained on him.

The frustration was about to reach its peak when there was a whistle from behind them that couldn’t help but catch their attention.

Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Optimus all turned to look at the woman standing on the tracks behind them, her hands on her hips and a confident smirk on her face. “Looks like you all could use someone to break your tie! Someone who knows how to Wreck ‘n Roll!” Her brows waggled. “Good thing I took the initiative to come check things out on my own even though you were meanies and didn’t call me up.”

Utterly shocked, Bumblebee straightened up and looked at the girl. “Miko!?” he asked.

"By the AllSpark!” Ratchet gasped alongside them. “Miko! Get out of here? Can’t you see there’s danger?”

“I see there’s a need to get a Wrecker in here, and since I also don’t see Bulkhead and Wheeljack around, there’s really only one answer for that!” she called out before pulling out a familiar artifact.

Bumblebee’s optics widened. “You still have the Apex Armor?” he asked just before there was a final tremor of the tunnel that drew all their attention to the Decepticons.

“Sir!” Strongarm yelled. “Our window is closed! The tunnels are unstable--”

But if things couldn’t have been worse in Bumblebee’s mind, he saw a flash and the biggest of the Cons came lunging for his head.

Someone else took the hit, though.

Miko had been ready, she had been waiting for years, to put the Apex Armor back on and fight alongside her Cybertronian friends. She had studied engineering, dreamed up every possible battle to the tune of every Slash Monkey playlist in her repertoire.

She had been waiting so long for the day that she was alongside her friends once more. And within minutes it was destroyed right in front of her.

The Decepticon who had been responsible for the tremors and concern from the Autobots had attempted to go for Bumblebee’s head. But before it had the chance to, the badger-like creature was caught by Optimus Prime’s own lunge.

They tumbled to the tunnel floor together, crashing and rolling when the tremors began to start up again.

Without further hesitation, Miko turned on the Apex Armor and rushed alongside Ratchet and Bumblebee to come to Optimus’ aide when Miko realized something horrible.

The pulsing and vibrating that was causing the tremors and destruction of the tunnels was caused by sonics on the Decepticon’s claw like forearms. And while those were enough to disrupt the earth itself, those claws were also going to work on Optimus’ head simultaneously with the disruptive noise.

“Optimus!” Miko screamed before running faster. She passed Ratchet and then threw herself between the Decepticon and Optimus by sliding onto the large bot’s chest.

Confused, the Decepticon let out a curious noise before roaring and attempting to dig through Miko and the Apex Armor in the same way it had been attacking Optimus.

Of course, the artifact’s main purpose was to be invulnerable to any kind of attack.

“You mess with the Big Guy,” Miko warned before uppercutting him. “You’re gonna be wrecked!”

While Miko was far smaller than the average Cybertronian even in the Apex Armor, Wheeljack had been sure to teach her moves that used that height and relative speed to her advantage.

When the attacks rolled off of her, she let out a yell and threw herself into a forceful punch that united with the jaw of the Decepticon and sent it unsteadily back to its feet. It swung again wildly with its arm, sonics still going, but rather than absorb the shock as she had last time, Miko ducked under the swipe and slammed her shoulder into the exposed undercarriage of the combatant.

After a howl, the creature went tumbling toward the Autobots that had been with Bumblebee, Optimus, and Ratchet.

“Yes,” she said excitedly, watching as the Autobots wasted no time in apprehending the Decepticon. But the joy was only temporary.

Gasping, Miko turned back and saw that Bumblebee, Ratchet, and a jet-like Cybertronian that Miko hadn’t met before were surrounding Optimus.

He still wasn’t up.

“Optimus!” she cried out, hitting the Apex Armor’s button on her chest and barely waiting for the retraction of the suit before she was racing to their sides. “Optimus! H-how bad is he!?”

“We have to get him to the junkyard. I’ll need all the medical supplies Fixit has ready for me by the time we get there. It’s going to be emergency surgery without even a CR chamber to aid us,” Ratchet announced with a firm shake of his head.

“We’ll use Grimlock’s trailer and tarp,” Bumblebee said. “I’ll hitch it, I’m faster than Strongarm.

“I’ll fly ahead and let Fixit know the situation,” the jet-bot said before getting to her feet and taking only a few steps before transforming and blasting off through the tunnels.

“Why aren’t you using a ground bridge!? Get him home immediately!” Miko cried out, confused and upset. This was not how her reunion was supposed to be going.

"The one Bee has is too unreliable, this is the safest--” Ratchet began before smacking his faceplate and then looking back to Miko. “What are you doing here, Miko!?”

“It’s my planet, Ratchet! What are you doing here without telling me first?” she cried out.

“We don’t have time for this!” Ratchet snapped as a giant dinosaur robot, of all things, brought over a trailer and hitched it up to Bumblebee’s carmode. “Get Optimus on the trailer and secure him! We’re going to be going fast!” Ratchet ordered to the other remaining Autobots.

“Sir, yessir!” a blue and white one said with a salute.

“Miko!” Ratchet grouched as he transformed into the ambulance Miko knew and loved. His passenger door flung open. “Get in!”

“I’m old enough to drive now, you know,” she said, racing over to his open door.

“Miko!” Ratchet warned.

“Just letting you know, it’s been a while since we saw each, at least for me it has been,” she said as she slid into the seat. She didn’t have an option about the seatbelt -- it was across her before she could even blink, and they were off, sirens blaring. “Ratchet... Is... is everything going to be okay? When did Optimus come back from being dead? When did you all get here?” Her eyes welled up with tears. “Did I track you all down just to lose you again?”

“Miko,” Ratchet said more quietly, tiredly, through the radio. “I don’t have all the answers for you. But I have missed you three. And Ms. Darby.”

Miko gave a broken smile. “And Agent Fowler?”

“Let’s not get carried away,” Ratchet replied.

That was enough to get a sad laugh out of Miko. She was happy for it, even if deep down it didn’t sit quite right in her chest. Ratchet wasn’t the joking type, and she couldn’t help but wonder if it was meant more to hide something from her... something even a human would know, like fear.

Ratchet kept himself in the field medic mindset as much as he possibly could.

It brought back memories of war, of failures, of limitations, but it didn’t matter. Because he had treated these situations like it was Optimus on the surgeon’s slab before in situations like the Cybonic Plague before and it led to him nearly betraying ever medical sense he had.

And Ratchet was afraid, especially after having just gotten Optimus back in his life, that he was about to lose his dearest friend again. That he wouldn’t be able to do his very job with that fear shaking him from helm to servo.

The moment they reached the junkyard, Ratchet transformed, mindful of Miko and making sure to hold her in his hands as he did so.

Still, the girl swayed and grabbed onto his thumb to keep from falling completly over. “Yup, been a while since that,” she mumbled to herself before stepping down from Ratchet’s hands onto the ground.

“Stay here, Miko,” Ratchet said despite knowing the girl better.

He walked toward the wreckage of the Alchemor as Fixit came rushing out.

“Woah!” Miko called out, sure enough following Ratchet despite orders. “That’s a mini-mini-Cybertronian.”

“Just one mini,” Ratchet corrected her, more out of habit than fully being “there” for the conversation. He looked seriously toward Fixit. “Do you have everything prepared? Bumblebee will arrive with Optimus in just a minute.”

“Everything’s Freddy -- Steady -- FFZZT -- Ready! Sir,” Fixit said, his own servos turning into surgical tools.

Windblade leaped down from the bow of the Alchemor -- the zealous protector of Primus was looking nearly sick, her arms hugging herself as she walked toward Ratchet. “I should have stopped him -- I was so dizzy from the sonics blasting I didn’t even think of using my wind turbines--”

“Which would’ve been a disaster with all of us in close quarters,” Ratchet snapped. When he saw the way Windblade dropped her head he sighed and reached over to grab her shoulder. “Windblade, I have known Optimus since before he was a Prime, and let me assure you that there is close to nothing that can stop him from doing something he’s set his mind to once he’s set his mind to it. I’ve been the one that’s tried before, it never works out well.”

She looked up at him gratefully.

The moment did not last long, however, as Bumblebee soared into the junkyard, nearly spinning in a complete circle to line up the trailer with the available surgeon’s slab that Fixit had prepared.

Without wasting another moment, Bumblebee transformed and reached Ratchet’s side. “We need to get started! Tell me what to do!”

"Get that trailer back to your team so that they can get Grimlock here safely,” Ratchet said as he and Windblade moved to pick up Optimus and shift him from the trailer to the slab.

“No way!” Bee spat back. “Optimus is only like this because he was trying to save me! I refuse to leave him now--”

“And do what, Bumblebee? You are not a medical doctor or an engineer,” Ratchet pointed out. “You are a leader and right now your team needs you to put them first.”

“Optimus is first!” Bee snapped.

“If he was able to right now, he’d smack you upside the helm for that,” Ratchet snapped.

“He wouldn’t,” Bee argued.

“You’re right, but I would and I’m fine,” Ratchet argued, smacking Bumblebee over the back of his head. “Get yourself together -- be the leader that your team needs, that Optimus knows you are. And leave me to do my best work. You know I won’t fail Optimus of all bots.”

Bee was still torn but he transformed and took off immediately.

Taking a breath, Ratchet turned back to the surgeon’s slab, to the horrific damage that had been done to Prime’s head.

“Scrap,” Ratchet said, transforming his servos into tools. “Let’s get to work.”

Miko had climbed onto one of the scaffolding in the maze of a junkyard in order to sit atop it and watch from a viewable distance as Ratchet and the orange minibot worked at a rampant pace to try and save Optimus.

It also kept her far enough away that no one could see the tears welling up in her eyes due to the multitude of emotions she was feeling throughout all of the mess.

Bee hovered nearby Optimus and the operation, but the other Autobots that Miko couldn’t place and, more importantly, simply didn’t now, remained a far distance from Miko. Each looked to her cautiously and worriedly, as if they didn’t know what to make of the Wrecker.

Like she had never been brought up before.

Despite all logic, she was honestly taken by surprise when the human boy from the subway tunnels climbed his way up the scaffolding and made his way to her.

“Hi,” he said, raising a cautious brow at her.

Sniffing, Miko rubbed roughly at her wet cheek. “Hello.”

“My name’s Russell, Russell Clay,” he explained awkwardly, rubbing at the back of his neck. “This is my dad’s junkyard and... um. I guess it’s nice to know we’re not the only humans who know about the Autobots anymore?”

“That’s ‘cuz you never were the only ones,” Miko said, hugging her knees tighter as she looked out toward Optimus. “They were here before. They were... friends with us before. And now they just...”

When she looked back, she could see the little boy was a bit intimidated by her sourness, and had shifted uncomfortably away. Which was far from fair to him.

Sucking it up a bit, Miko rubbed her face and smacked her cheeks a few times to wake up in a way. Then she turned more toward Russell and offered her hand. “Hello, Russell, my name is Miko Nakadai. I used to be friends with Optimus, Ratchet, Bumblebee and... I don’t see them here -- but Arcee, Bulkhead, Wheeljack, and Smokescreen, too. Especially Bulkhead and Wheeljack. I’m one of the Wreckers.”

She took so much pride in the statement, in the facts, that she had hardly taken stock of Russell’s reaction until a cool moment of silence had lapsed between them.

It was then that Miko looked and saw that Russell’s expression was blank and meaningless. And when he saw her aghast, he offered a little smile and a thumbs up.

“Yeah! Sounds... great!” he offered.

Narrowing her eyes, Miko hugged her knees again. “You haven’t heard anything about us, have you?” she asked in a near pout.

“Um, no,” Russell admitted, rubbing at his neck. “But I really did mean it! It sounds very cool--”

“Ugh! Save it!” she snapped, throwing up her arms. “Obviously no one cared enough to let their new friends in on it... no one cared enough to even get in contact with us.” Miko chewed on her lip, eyes blurring. “Raf hadn’t talked to me in forever before hearing things in the news. I still haven’t heard from Jack. Why would the Autobots still be my friends when I can’t even keep the ones I have in the same species.”

The little boy’s mouth opened, obviously searching for some sort of answer he could offer, but when it didn’t come he shut his mouth and rubbed awkwardly at his shoulder instead.

“Miko.”

Both Miko and Russell looked to see Bumblebee standing just below the scaffolding. Miko had been so wrapped up in the conversation, she hadn’t even noticed Bumblebee leaving his trail of pacing.

“What?” she asked back, rubbing roughly at her teary eyes. By the time she sniffed and looked, she saw Bee had a hand held out toward her to help her down.

“Things are scary right now,” he said softly. “I could use an old friend.”

"Let me know when you find one,” Miko sniffed, still rubbing at her eyes as she got to her feet and reached out. Bumblebee’s smile was soft and it forced Miko to give one watery version of her own as she held onto his thumb and stepped into his hands.

Bumblebee carried Miko to somewhere far enough away from the others that they could sit and talk, but still just elevated enough that they could keep their lookout over the operation, and on Optimus.

For a moment, a comfortable silence fell between them, sitting there side by side.

It was far from like old times but it was familiar.

“Raf would probably give anything to switch places with me right now,” Miko finally broke the silence. “He misses you a lot.”

“He was my first friend on Earth,” Bumblebee said lowly. “He understood me... I don’t know how. But we were basically meant to run into each other. Meant to help each other.” He tilted his head. “I keep trying to imagine how much he’s grown, how big he is now -- I mean, look at you, Miko! You’re a woman now.”

“People keep reminding me,” she replied. “And you’d probably get to see how big Raf is now if you ever got in contact with him -- with any of us! How long have you all been here? Why... why wouldn’t you tell us you’re back? And don’t say it was for safety. Look how much butt I kicked down in the subway.”

“I can’t risk getting as involved as we did last time,” Bee explained. “When we were on Earth, when we were in Jasper, we built a relationship with the military because we believed that Cybertron was dead and that our residence on Earth was near permanent. That working together was the only hope we had both of surviving and of protecting humankind from the Decepticons.” He looked toward the group of Autobots that Miko had never met before. “That’s all different now. My team... Our team here is a small, volunteer group trying to capture escaped Decepticon fugitives. And we’re trying to do so without interfering with the politics of the world again. No favors owed to Agent Fowler or any other handler that’d be sent our way. Even if it’s an old, familiar face.”

Miko looked up to Bumblebee warily. “Even if that old face was Raf’s?”

To her surprise, the Autobot physically flinched at the pointed question. His head ducked slightly and he let out a sigh before looking back at Miko sorrowfully. “Look, we were friends with Agent Fowler, of course, but not everyone in the government trusted us, remember? Do you really think there’s any way that I could have contacted you guys -- any of you -- without it being traced? That you guys aren’t watched?”

Surprised, especially since it was a conspiracy that she’d never thought of herself before, Miko shifted. “Oh.”

“Not to mention, Jack is a career military person now, Raf works in intelligence -- and you’re not exactly short of celebrity in the robotics world in Japan these days,” Bumblebee continued. “You guys attract a lot of attention with all your acclaim.”

Doing a double take, Miko stared at Bumblebee in surprise before covering her mouth. “You... You keep track of us?”

“Of course I do,” Bee said. “I watch out for all of my friends. I’m proud of them. And it hurts me to not be able to reach out to them anymore.”

“Aw, Bee,” Miko said, watery eyes again acting up. She ignored them in favor of throwing herself against his waist and hugging him the best she could. “You’ve grown up a lot, too, Bumblebee.”

She felt him gently stroke her back with one of his fingers, but it stopped as the heavy steps of another bot came their way.

Miko looked over her shoulder from her hug with Bumblebee to see Ratchet standing before them. His expression was grave but calculated. “Oh, no,” she muttered. “Ratchet... Please don’t say anything’s wrong! Please don’t have bad news--”

“Optimus!?” Bumblebee asked in alarm, taking his hand away from Miko.

Ratchet’s face was a calculated neutral. “The damage is bad, and our access to Cybertronian resources is, as you know, severely limited at the moment. But... Denny Clay and Fixit think they have an idea that could make all the difference.”

"Then let’s do it!” Miko said, jumping to her feet. “What’re you waiting for? What can I do to help -- I work with robotics in Japan. My brain’s ripe for picking, Ratchet!”

“Good,” Ratchet said firmly. “Because it’s not just your brain we need, Miko. It’s the Apex armor.”

Catching herself surprised yet again, Miko glanced first to a stunned Bumblebee then back to Ratchet. Taking a deep breath, she nodded firmly. “Okay,” she said. “Tell me what you want me to do.”

When he awoke, Optimus was half expecting a new lesson from Micronus Prime.

What he was not expecting was to hear a voice he had not heard in years.

“Please tell me you’re going to be okay, Optimus. We did a lot of things to make sure you would be okay. Lot of work. Lots of work that was no fun because of Ratchet.”

“Miko,” he said, faintly unsure of what time he had woken up in, or where her voice was coming from. But it seemed to be within him.

“Yeah, you shouldn’t say my name too much while we’re out kicking butt and taking names. I need, like, a codename! Something great and cool and--”

Optimus cycled on his optics at last and saw Ratchet and Bumblebee staring down at him in concern. “My friends,” he greeted them.

“Optimus!” Bumblebee cried out in relief, grabbing his hand. “I can’t believe it worked. It’s absolutely crazy but you got it to work, Ratchet you’re a genius!”

“I had help,” Ratchet said reluctantly, grabbing Optimus’ other hand and gently helping him to sit up. “How does it feel, Optimus?”

Optimus glanced around. He could see Bee’s team, Ratchet, the Clay family who had opened their home to them, and he could see Windblade. All excited and relieved.

“I do not see Miko,” he replied.

“I’m here with you, big guy,” she said, once more hearing him inside himself. “W needed the Apex Armor to save your processor. It was damaged, a lot of physical actions weren’t connecting. So you need a conduit. And the conduit? Is me.”

“This is a strange turn of events,” Optimus announced. “But I can see my purpose -- laying the groundwork for a true unification between Earth and Cybertronian. My purpose.”

“If you think so, Optimus,” Ratchet replied.

“So about codenames,” Miko continued. “I’m thinking... Headmaster.”

#writing #tf fic #Optimus Prime #Miko Nakadai #Ratchet #Russell Clay #Denny Clay #Bumblebee #Windblade #Strongarm #Fixit

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