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azyranx · 5 months ago

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I have an idea of how I want to share some of the details about this AU instead of a ridiculously long post, but getting it all written down exactly how I'm imagining it is taking some time . . . So! Here's an outline for a few of the main points I can share at the moment (and it can give some context for the snippets from earlier.)

The Calamity AU premise:

Quite a bit of time has passed since the Era of Gods and Primes, and it’s been long enough for a broken world to recover

said world had nearly been destroyed by a conflict between two gods of opposing forces (Primus, the god of creation, and Unicron, the god of destruction)

Though the planet is recovering it isn’t the same as before

remnants of Primus’s and Unicron’s powers/energies now exist throughout Cybertron (each affect the planet and Cybertronians in different ways . . .)

while those remnants of the two gods take different forms and may inhabit different places, there’s still a balance between the residual energies present on the planet (as they can keep the other in check)

For the longest time the balance between the opposing energy forces allowed different cities to rise up from the ashes of destruction, and mechs could strive to continue with their lives in the aftermath of a world-shattering conflict/calamity

these cities adapted to the different forces present in the world and to the specific characteristics of their surroundings

more specifically, different cities can have different ways to counteract and protect themselves from the negative effects of Unicron’s residual powers (generally referred to as “corruption”)

there are also different roles/positions a mech can take up to help defend against Unicron’s corruption (ex: hunters, healers, etc . . .)

However, that balance is beginning to shift (whether mechs choose to see it or not)

Unicron's corruption (which had been kept in check by Primus’s power) is somehow growing stronger

a lot of mechs seem to think it’s just “one of those cycles” where the residual energies of the gods start to clash again

Cue a few mechs (in particular: Jazz and Prowl) taking the situation as a legitimate danger because they find proof that things are not as straightforward as they seem

#outlines #tf calamity au #transformers #maccadams #worldbuilding #au ideas #fantasy #fantasy aspects #science fantasy #I'm still figuring out how exactly I want to do the timeframe of things

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azyranx · 6 months ago

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Finally finished this one, and right before the year draws to a close too. Looking forward to adding to this AU in the new year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Many mechs contented themselves with living in the cities. With the stability and safety they afforded, it wasn’t hard to see why. Who wanted to spend every moment of their functioning worrying about a living decay? Who wanted to risk their spark and frame when they could have an easier time within the confines of civilization? Most mechs certainly didn’t.

Jazz was not most mechs.

While a good amount of bots chose to avoid the corruption zones, Jazz chose to venture deeper into them. Others saw them as death traps, but his experiences taught him they held so much more than deactivation.

It wasn’t like he rushed headfirst into danger though. He’d heard plenty of stories about those areas to recognize when to tread lightly, and he knew enough to keep himself out of any real trouble. Pools of black sludge? Don’t fall in. Shadows without solid objects to cast them? Proceed with caution. Sketchy caverns making eerie noises? Approach only with adequate weaponry. Black or purple crystals sprouting from cracks? Avoid touching and definitely don’t eat. And if he encountered anything new? Well, he did what he did best: improvise.

The suns blazed from their celestial peaks, but for all their light the forest might as well have been in the middle of a dark cycle. Only the smallest of rays pierced the darkened crystal leaves like stars on a cloudy night. On its own the dimmed illumination posed a minor inconvenience; coupled with its current location the obscurity created a dangerous setting.

Jazz stalked the shadows of the crystal woods with his audials boosted to the highest sensitivity, ready to catch the faintest motions. Nothing moved nor made a sound, but he tread lightly nonetheless. It never hurt to remain silent in one of “Unicron’s domains.”

Careful pedesteps brought him to the outer edges and closer to the cliffside. Pinpricks of light grew into pools of gold as the dark opaque leaves branched out and thinned above him. He didn’t want to return with an empty subspace, but any hunter worth anything knew when to pull out. There was a reason mechs avoided these places like the Pit, and it sure wasn’t because they were just dark.

When he caught sight of the first inky crystal he’d checked his wards; they’d held strong and he continued onwards. When he saw the second he’d scanned the area and waited; no unsavory surprises made an appearance so he carried on with his little expedition. When he saw the third and fourth ones he knew something was wrong. Only expanding corruption zones had more than two, and this zone had never shown any signs of growing until now. Another large black crystal loomed ahead of him, unnervingly close to the zone’s boundaries. Jazz maintained a healthy distance as he crept around it. Why they decided to suddenly emerge, he didn’t know. He’d have to ask and report—

His optics zeroed in on the faint glow within the looming gemstone.

Scrap.

It was rare to find safety in the smallest of corruption zones, less so when they decided to sprout an army of deadly crystals. However, if anything could be said of those tainted lodestones it was that their appearance forewarned an eventual encroachment of corruption. “Eventual” as in “eventually there’d be a problem, but one that develops gradually, maybe even slowly.” Usually a mech had time to plan and prepare for the coming danger. Usually a mech had more warning before all-pit broke loose. Keyword on “usually.”

The dull flicker in the lodestone’s center exploded in a blaze of light, transforming it into a gleaming beacon. Shadows churned and seethed within the clouded surface. Then said surface started to crack. Shadowy wisps leaked through the fissures and spilled onto the ground like oil.

Some would have frozen in the face of such a predicament, fear locking their joints and fritzing their processors. Some would have scrambled to devise a plan, ploy, anything to help them against their impending doom. Others would have fled blindly. In short, a lot of mechs would have panicked.

Jazz did not panic; instead he leapt into action.

He snatched a metal disk from his subspace and flung it towards the shining gemstone. As it soared closer the simple disk assumed a soft glow of its own, intricate sigils manifesting on both faces with increasing intensity. Jazz wasted no time in transforming and raced away. A wave of pressure shoved him forward, the protective sigils creating a barrier against the swell of foul power. Not unexpected, but a bit too early for his liking. If Wheeljack’s device already struggled to keep the corruption at bay, then Jazz really—

The barrier shattered.

Smokey tendrils surged outwards, pouring through the cracks in seething torrents. Jazz drove faster, ignoring the radiant patterns emerging on his frame. So long as they remained bright, he was in the clear. If he wanted to keep it that way though, he’d have to get well out of range of the corruption zone.

The ground trembled and split into jagged, gaping maws. He raced against the spreading fissures even as they forced him closer to the ledge. Surprisingly, the waves of darkness did not follow in his wake. Unsurprisingly, the growing rifts seemed determined to send him tumbling into a chasm. He faced equally terrible fates to his left and right, but if his calculations were correct they’d both be moot.

He revved his engine and darted forward, hurling himself further ahead. He veered right, launched himself off the edge, and transformed midair. Jazz shot his grappling hook to the opposite cliffside, activating it as it caught a cleft in the rock. Wind whistled in his audials as the device pulled him away from the crumbling rocks. His pedes slammed into stone, and he looked over his shoulder in time to see the entire cliff face collapse into the ravine. The very world itself groaned in protest as the last remnants of the avalanche vanished into the depths. He raised his gaze to the treeline, watching with wide optics as the waves of shadow began to recede. In moments the corruption zone looked as it always did, excluding the wider canyon.

“Huh,” Jazz said to himself.

A ping from his internal comms tore his attention away from the destruction.

::Heya, Prowler. Did you need something?::

::Jazz, I see you’re out of the corruption zone and—::

The earth shook again, and another chunk of stone crashed down. There was no way Prowl could have heard it, but the way his comms went silent made Jazz consider once more how far Prowl could see.

::Jazz.::

::Yes?::

::Is this a bad time?::

::I wouldn’t say that, but I wouldn’t call it a good one either. Just some unexpected trouble with this zone. You’ll probably see it in my report if I can’t meet with you by the end of the cycle.::

::I see . . . and did the corruption seem to flare up right before that trouble?::

Jazz took Prowl’s apparent omniscience in stride. He started pulling himself up as he answered.

::There was something like that, and I can now confirm this zone is an expanding one.::

A pause.

::How long will it take you to get back to the city?::

::Two hours maybe but—::

An alert popped up on his HUD as he reached the cliff edge.

::—actually, make that an hour. Tops.::

::Orion sent you a message as well?::

::Yeah. I don’t suppose he told you what it’s all about?::

::He did not, but I can hazard a few guesses.::

::Try not to lose yourself in all the streams if you end up doing that..::

::Try not to bring any other mountains crashing down.::

::Hey, I’ve never done that. This was just a cliffside and it wasn’t even my fault.::

::Regardless, I’d rather not deal with any helmaches I can prevent.::

::You won’t have to worry about that on my account.::

::I’ll hold you to it.::

Another pause.

::You should avoid taking your regular route back, or at the very least, avoid the caverns.::

::Got it. I’ll see you soon then, Prowler.::

Jazz flicked his wrist and freed the grappling hook from the rock cleft, catching it midair as it arced towards him. He wound the cable into a tight loop and stowed it at his hip. Behind him the zone looked like it always did, any trace of the flagrant corruption hidden within the tainted forest. He didn’t wait to see if anything else happened though. Orion needed to see him and Prowl. Urgently.

If he wanted more answers there’d be no better place to find some than with Prowl himself. And besides, maybe Orion could shed some light on this mystery too.

#my writing #transformers #tf calamity au #maccadams #jazz #tf jazz #prowl #tf prowl

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azyranx · 6 months ago

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Life got busy but I finally had the time to expand a snippet into this. Still working on the longer post about this AU, but here's something featuring Prowl. Tumblr's formatting doesn't have exactly what I wanted, but hopefully it still makes some sense (under the cut).

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On any given day Prowl immersed himself within millions of possible outcomes for any number of things. From the planet’s shifting to the onset of massive storms he saw virtually anything and everything. He just needed to read the “flow of the planet,” and when he studied those streams everything became clearer. All he needed to do was hone in on those rivers of light, and the signs only he could see told him everything he needed to know.

Many mechs thought they understood clearsight—and basically any outlier ability in general—but most dismissed it as clairvoyance or premonitions. They couldn’t be more mistaken.

On its own, the ability simply allowed a mech to perceive the “life force of the planet itself.” Whether it established a connection to Primus had yet to be determined, but there was no denying the information it could reveal to a bot. A mech only needed to read the movement of those streams to uncover countless secrets. Such an action, however, was easier said than done and those secrets were not things a mech could just look at and understand. Only the unlucky few knew exactly how overwhelming clearsight could be, and most of those mechs tended to lose themselves in more ways than one.

Prowl, on the other hand, was part of the very small percentage of “those unlucky few” who weren’t really unlucky. Where most faced scrambled processors and overclocked logic units, he encountered rich veins of data and probabilities. Where most fried their processors, he pushed his own farther and faster to sift through the unending currents of information. Where most were swept away, he stood firm. The reason Prowl didn’t succumb to the same fate as those unfortunate sparks was straightforward enough. His clearsight gave him the information, but his tacnet made sense of it all.

With it he could actually look upon the constantly changing flows without crashing. A quick glance resolved colorful rivers of light into recognizable patterns and movements. A more comprehensive examination uncovered information others would be hard-pressed to find. Together, Prowl saw and studied how things existed in current, changing, and future conditions. From there it became a simple matter of prioritizing.

Sometimes he needed to focus on the cities of Cybertron and ensure imminent disasters caused as little damage as possible. Other times he needed to watch for signs of change and formulate plans to counter shifts in the corruption zones. Whatever the case, he directed his attention to the relevant streams and explored the multitude of potential outcomes until he found what he needed. He was nothing if not patient and thorough.

Yet this exact quality brought him to his current predicament. Not a single detail escaped Prowl’s scrutiny when he concentrated his clearsight and at this point there was very little he hadn’t seen, but for all that he found himself staring at something completely unknown.

He’d been deep within the 427th priority tree when his optics caught the first flashes of . . . something. One moment he studied the colorful energies within the Primal Basilica; in the next he found them tainted by tendrils of shadow. It took longer than he would have liked to discern the true nature of those anomalies, and that gave the first indication of danger. The sudden wave of corruption surging out from those ebony whorls—covering 78% of the affected stream in the initial outburst—gave him the second.

Before he could think to raise the alarm it vanished as quickly as it manifested, leaving Prowl alone in the grand hall with more questions than answers. He might have doubted the occurrence altogether if not for the half-formed and ongoing queries posed by his tacnet. Energy rippled and swirled as usual, but trained optics recognized changes no matter how small. He brought a hand to his head and activated his visor.

Currents of vibrant hues materialized without warning, rushing and swirling throughout the wide room. He wasted no time for his analyses and dove into the endless flow of possibilities.

The planet shifted— —following the same rotation (likely)— —incrementally moving off course (less likely)— —and collided into Luna 1 (very unlikely)— . . . Predictions on course.

Life thrived in Iacon— —energy pooled in the Primal Basilica (most likely)— —and welled within the hotspot (likely)— . . . Predictions on course.

Life thrived in Praxus— —the Crystal Gardens pulsed with energy (most likely)— —the Crystal Gardens grew dim (very unlikely)— . . . Predictions on course.

He sent the assessments about the next cities to the background of his logic center and moved on to a different group of streams.

The wards held— —back the ever-present darkness (most likely)— —and drew from the planet’s energy (likely)— —as Keepers tended them (likely)— . . . Predictions on course.

The sigils remained— —and isolated the fathomless void (most likely)— —drawing from the planet’s energy (likely)— —strong as Keepers maintained them (likely)— . . . Predictions on course.

The mountains stood— —tall and formidable (most likely)— —and suddenly crumbled (unlikely)— —but shifted to reach the sky (most unlikely)— . . . Predictions on course.

The winds howled— —and carried acid rain further inland (unlikely)— —ripping through the Sonic Canyons (unlikely)— . . . Predictions on course.

The cliffs crumbled— —widening the ravine to the abyss (most likely)— **Deviantion detected**Predictions off course.

What?

He let the analysis continue in the background but paid it little attention. Instead he focused on the cache holding his reports, skimming through it until he found the one he sought. Rereading it confirmed the conclusions he’d reached, but how had this come to pass? He directed the rest of his processing power to analyze the stream in question, but it revealed nothing new. It simply spit out the same information: the ravine would crumble in spite of a previous report mentioning nothing of the sort.

That settled it.

Prowl pulled himself out of the slew of data and diverted his tacnet to a more stable chain of possibilities—the planet shifted following the same rotation—ignoring the assessments it made. There could always be different variations to an object’s next course of action, yes, but they always fell within expected parameters. At least they always did until now. He didn’t know how or why that was the case, but he knew just the mech to help him find out.

#my writing #transformers #tf calamity au #maccadams #prowl #tf prowl

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