#really nobody but Jazz got Prowl

[kairukitsuneo]

My Big heart embrace your hurt

[tripleglitchwriting]

Kinesthesis (Part 1)

Set in the same universe as Ignition and Combustion!

Part 2

I am working if requests I promise I just wanted to write something else along with them.

Synopsis: As the Arc crashes down to Earth, Jazz and Prowl are left without escape pods. Stranded on an unknown planet and gravely injured, the two seem lost… if it weren’t for a curious mechanic going to see what all the smoke coming from the sky was.

Warnings: Robogore I guess? Not too descriptive yet.

When the ship was hit, Jazz and Prowl were already on deck and preparing a counterattack. They’d tried everything to cloak the ship from the Decepticons, but unfortunately they failed. One good shot to the Arcs main thrusters and it was starting to look like game over. Luckily that desperate shot gave Prowl a great opportunity to strike back. He landed a near perfect hit on the Nemesis before Optimus ordered a retreat.

Most of the crew were heading toward the escape pods per protocol, which was just fine by Prowl, but the damage to the Arc was severe. Severe enough that without somebody staying behind to keep it flying for a little longer, nobody would make it out with their sparks intact. Now, Prowl was never one to go against orders, especially not from Optimus, but there were little other options he had. As third in command it was his obligation to do everything in his power to save the lives of his crew.

Jazz knew that too. He just wasn’t a hardass.

“Heya Prowler, got cherself in a tangle here, eh?”

“This is not the time for jokes!” He snapped.

“Hey, hey, no joking here. I know what you’re tryin’ to do. And I’m gonna help ya.”

“No, I can keep the Arc up for long enough-”

“Cool it hothead, I’m second in command, remember? You take orders for me. And I say I’m helpin’”

“What about Optim-“

“He’s helpin’ the rest escape. I’m sure he plans to do this himself if we don’t take the wheel.” The ship trembled around them. “I’ll take the thrusters, you protect the pods.”

Prowl mumbled something under his breath.

“What was that?”

“Please stop cutting me off.” With that the Arc began its final decent. From the windows Prowl watched as escape pods flew out of the ship one by one. He did everything he could to prevent his friends from being turned into scrap midair. In seconds the number of pods still in danger trickled out. Warning signs flashed on every screen in the room, but neither paid much mind. As long as their cause continued, dying here wasn’t so bad, right?

Fate had other plans, though.

As the thrusters finally lost power and the ship began to rapidly descend to the planet below, Prowl and Jazz watched as each system went down one by one. Life support: offline, shields: offline, warp core: offline, escape pods… offline. They could only hope the rest made it out okay.

The fact a stray shot from what they assumed to be the Nemesis was hurtling towards them wasn’t really ideal. Neither bot had the time to react before the entire room was engulfed in flame. The windows shattered from the force, sending everything inside out into the atmosphere, including Prowl and Jazz.

——————————

The Arc was gone. Gone as in nobody knew where it was at least, which might as well be nowhere at all considering this planet was entirely alien. Actually, where was this planet? Where were they? Wait… who’s they? What’s a planet…? Wait, no, wait- what?

Jazz was running dangerously low on energon. And his left arm, apparently. That was definitely gone. His optics were offline for the time being, as were most of his senses. Luckily that included pain! Unluckily, he could be literally anywhere right now. And so could the rest of the crew…. and Prowl.

Prowl landed hard upon a canopy of trees that immediately gave under his weight. He couldn’t hear much outside of the ringing in his audials. Maybe that was lucky, maybe he wasn’t actually falling through trees on a faraway planet. Maybe he was getting chewed out by Jazz for being stupid, or tuning out Swerve for being Swerve.

…Deep down he knew that was wrong. He should be dead. Maybe he was. Maybe death was better than whatever going on now.

No. No, that was the cowards way out. Get up, Prowl, open your optics. One step at a time. You’re a soldier, you’re a commander. This is no time to be sitting around and- HACK — his body lurched as he spit up energon.

Alright, ok, slower then.

He could feel his entire frame creak. Slowly his optics sparked to life. The world was dim and glitchy. Objects around him moved in ways nothing should ever move. He wished Ratchet were there. He wished anyone were there. Wasn’t there somebody else that was supposed to be there?

“Prowler?” A weak but familiar voice sounded from somewhere far, far away. Or was it very close? It was hard to tell. “P- Prowler, my optics- are you there?”

“Jazz…” He replied almost unconsciously. “A- a- affirmative.” Most of his professor was screaming system failure, warning him of what he already suspected. He couldn’t see Jazz, not in his immediate line of sight, but knowing he was there was comforting. Knowing he was there for the end.

“W- we need h- help, com’on, we n- nee-”

“It’s o- okay. I- it’ll be okay, J- Jazz.” It wasn’t often Prowl was willing to talk so openly to others. Not about how he really felt at the moment. But who was around to witness this anyway? Who would be there to see his vulnerability? Rules, regulations, laws, sanctions, they didn’t matter anymore. His job was done now, right? He’d done well?

“B- big talk for a b- bot that soun’s l- like a g- g- glitch ‘ouse.”

“Haha. F- funny.”

“We must b- be in b- b- big trouble if t- the mighty Prowl is l- laughin’.”

Warning: System failure imminent

“W- we m- must be j- just f- fine if you c- can still crack j- jokes.”

Stasis mode will activate in 5…

“G- got me t- there, P- Prowl- ler.”

4…

“…W- who gave you p’mission to c- call me Pr- Prowler…”

3…

“A- ah, there’s t- the tightass I kn- know.”

2…

“Y- you’re r- really g- going to go out like t- th- this, J- Jazz?”

1…

“N- no b- better way, Prowl- Prowl- Prowler.”

Initiating stasis…

“Goodnight.”

“G- Goodnight…”

Procedure successful.

——————————————

Camping. Frankly, you hated it. It sucked! It all sucked. You’d much rather be back in the garage working on whatever project you had going on at the time. Cars were your specialty, though you chose to believe you could fix anything if enough effort was put into it. Unfortunately, out here in the middle of NOWHERE, you were out of luck when it came to machinery.

It was still bright out when you went to set up your tent. A beautiful, clear sky. You picked some random clearing near a small stream to lay your things down. While camping wasn’t your strong suit, building definitely was. That’s why you were even doing this in the first place- “no better teacher than experience”, your mother told you. You didn’t see what kind of mechanical experience you’d gain from this bullshit, but you also knew better than to question her.

Whether you wanted to be here or not, time still kept marching forward, and you wanted to save every bit of daylight you could before the forest got too dark to traverse. It took about an hour to get your campsite set up enough to be livable. You were expected to do much before time was up, but you had a couple days to complete that. Ugh, days. You had to spend days out here.

The sky darkened a little earlier than you expected. Sunset was in an hour, yet the perfect blue you’d been enjoying before was slowly being dimmed. When you looked up you saw black clouds. The kind that roll over the sky when a thunderstorm happens. The forecast didn’t call for rain, and even if it did it’s not like you weren’t prepared, but those were definitely no good omen.

A strange, low droning noise became more apparent the darker the sky got. You were trying to ignore it before, maybe the forest just made that sound sometimes. But no, when you looked up, you could make out something else strange.

Those clouds were coming from… nowhere, it seemed. Like two very very very tiny planes were producing enough smoke to cover the sun like a volcano.

Then it got weirder.

Strange little black things begun to jet out from thin air. They went in all different directions, some producing smoke themselves. You finally came to your senses when something up there definitely exploded. Whatever the hell was happening in the sky was not normal and you were not going to be in a random forest when the apocalypse or whatever came. More sounds crashed above, each getting louder by the second. While most of the black things were headed far from your location, you didn’t want to be there when one landed.

The campsite was left abandoned. Your legs felt like someone put them through a taffy puller. Your brain was so focused on getting back to civilization you didn’t notice the glaring issue right above your head.

Well, it was less glaring and more hurtling. Hurtling towards you. From the sky.

Needless to say, you were not very happy when the ground shook and a shockwave of dirt and ash blew past you. You were surprised there wasn’t a crater or a forest fire or something. No, instead there was… well you were too far to see, but it was strange. White metal, maybe.

A terrifying thought passed through your panic stricken head. Somebody could be over there. Maybe it was a plane crash, maybe people were dying, or- or worse! Whatever you were witnessing wasn’t normal, obviously, but hell if you were going to sit on your ass while (assumed) people were in danger.

You just hoped that instinct was right, because most of your other senses told you to hightail it out of there. Suddenly, camping didn’t sound too bad.

[mychlapci]

Megatitties! Apologies for the 2nd post sent recently cause i wanna add onto the other anon who spoke about the megaboobs.

Megatron would definitely feed his bitlets whenever they demanded it, 100% spoiling them because they’re so demanding and he’s proud of their angry, half-babbled glyphs repeated until their carrier finally scoops them up, opens his chest-plates and let them greedily drink from his nozzles, giving the odd growl when they didnt share with their eachother. Him being oddly soft when one of the sparklings falls asleep, still sleepily trying to hoard a nozzle for itself, that he ends up sitting on his throne, going over some datawork with sleeping bitlets cuddling against his titties <3

Maybe it gets out to the autobots that Megatron has bitties, and now theres faction wide interrogation, clearly led by prowl and Maybe Optimus, because why do 4/5 of the bitties have blue optics. Unless Megatron carries that gene (he 100% doesnt since 1 little bitty has red optics) the sire is an autobot. Prowl has his suspicions and intel-reports show that these tiny bitlets share a decent amount of red..

Nobody admits it, nobody wants to admit it. But when a intel-report comes in saying Megatron is sparked again, all hell breaks loose in the middle of a battlefield. Nobody can do anything to stop prowl as he storms over to Optimus and DEMANDS an explanation. The Decepticons have definitely made bets on who would be bold enough to fuck their leader until he was sparked up, Who would put their spike anywhere near their crazy, stubborn, psychotic leader’s valve? And who would do it TWICE? But now they’re all making bets on how many times both leaders have gone at it away from the battlefield, or even on the battlefield depending on the horny meter. And making bets on when Prowl is gonna crash / bluescreen.

- Chase anon <3

Also, whats your opinion on Megaratch and Megop? I definitely favourite Megaratch but rambling about the two leaders, because technically they can say them fucking isnt treason since they make the rules, is needed.

oh god, Megatron's angry little bitlets rocking red plating and blue optics, which isn't something that the autobots find out until someone who was in Megatron's capture escapes and explains to the high command that one of their comrades, not pointing any fingers, seemed to have put their dick inside Megatron and created these oddly adorable abominations. The decepticons clearly realize that their leader's sparklings were co-created by an autobot, but none of them are going to say anything about it, what are you, nuts? The only one who says anything is Starscream, and he got his ass kicked by Megatron the moment the words “autobot spike” left his mouth. So everyone is just silently placing bets, but they're pretty sure it's gotta be Optimus. They theorized Prowl for a while, but the guy just isn't red enough. 

Prowl literally realizing it must be Optimus the first time he sees the sparklings on a recording Jazz brought back from a spy mission, but he tries to not jump to conclusions. Until rumour comes around that Megatron is sparkled again. This means that sometime during their last big battle, Optimus and Megatron must have strayed into the shadows and their dear, beloved, righteous leader shoved his spike into Megatron, out of all bots, and made him mewl over and over again until his gestation tank was so full his frame had no choice but to start making another batch of bitlets. The first batch is still getting breastfed, Optimus, what the fuck - Prowl, probably, in a fit of rage, not really aware what he's even saying anymore.

also btw Chase anon… why must your brain be so big. i am now forced to admit that megaratch is actually my guilty pleasure ship. I love megop dearly with my life, theyre my toxic old man yaoi, but… shit, you hit the nail on the head. Can I just indulge and say... Prowl screaming at Optimus, demanding to know what was he thinking, and Optimus is thoroughly confused until Prowl just straight up asks him if he'd fucked Megatron. Everyone's so angry that their bets fell through when Optimus swears he didn't. Well... then who did the blue optics and red paint come from?

[arceespinkgun]

Jazz is much more interesting and multifaceted than people give him credit for. And it's super disappointing to see how the fandom interacts with him, especially as a black-coded character. The sheer amount of casual racism and fetishization is distressing, especially because it's mainly dispersed by his so-called "fans"

Jazz's interpersonal relationships are very fascinating and could be an important part of his character. However people seem to be unable to properly handle or understand that aspect of him; both official creators and fans. While I don't claim I know the character better than anyone else, I also don't think it's that hard NOT to write anti-black content and fetishize the character

An opinion I have which could almost be called controversial, is that I don't think Jazz and Prowl should get along at all. I would like them to be dysfunctional, I love them as worsties. I don't want them to have a bonding moment where they suddenly understand each other and work in tandem harmonically. I want them to retain that conflict of clashing ideologies and methods. I want them to agree to disagree, rather than meet each other halfway

I really feel this—at this point, I've seen most of the media Jazz appears in, and there's so much to his character that just doesn't seem to be engaged with at all. For example, how social is Jazz really? This is the guy who just stood in a field and let snow completely cover him in one episode of the Sunbow cartoon... and he often comes across as isolated from the people around him. How much of this is because he won't open up, and how much of it is because he is just a very independent person? Could he be a secret introvert? How deep are his friendships with others when many of them seem to amount to "the person Jazz hangs out with" and there are often fewer interactions between him and his friends than you'd think? These are just a few fascinating questions about the character that people rarely ask.

The rest of my response got really long so I'm putting it under a cut:

While I'm Asian and not Black (and I don't want to speak over the voices of Black fans) the racist, anti-Black tropes found in a lot of fandom writing about Jazz truly do seem like they could be so easily avoided. Basically every single one of them involves interpreting the character in the exact opposite way that multiple different series portray him! One example is how many people write him as being lazy/trying to get out of work constantly—no version of Jazz has EVER been portrayed this way in ANY series, so wouldn't it be so easy to just not?! I'm 90% certain that this is due to a mix of people's racist biases showing through in their fanwork, and also the uncritical replication of other people's racist fanwork without actually stopping to look at who this character really is (also largely caused by racist biases).

I'm not letting racist tropes in actual TF series off the hook, but I'd really wish that as transformative media the creations of fandom would be attempting to address and improve these issues instead of making them 10,000x worse by adding racist tropes that weren't even present in canon. For example, how is the Sunbow cartoon—the show so racist it had fucking Carbomya in it—one of the best portrayals of Jazz there is? I feel sad that the continuities most often discussed are some of the ones that serve the character the worst, actually. Like basically nobody's going to talk about how Jazz bravely fought Galvatron one-on-one in the Marvel comics or anything.

When it comes to Jazz and Prowl—I have very mixed feelings. I took no issue with them being longtime friends in some earlier media like the Marvel UK comics run or the Dreamwave comics, and I felt like it made a lot of sense with how they're characterized. But it doesn't seem like people examined or explored it. Instead, what's popular is layer upon layer of racist tropes (and other gross, strangely essentialist ones—why are fanfic writers so weird about characters from Praxus?) and in later canon media (with IDW2 being the worst in its messaging), Prowl has been so linked to police brutality and more issues than I can even go into here that it feels deeply inappropriate for these characters to be friends now. Because of these issues, I even feel uncomfortable having acknowledged that they were friends in any media, and while normally I'd analyze this dynamic in more detail or show excerpts that highlight it, I don't feel like I can because I can't trust people to not be gross in response.

I also remember the whiplash between IDW's Spotlight: Jazz (very underrated story by the way) in which Prowl is maybe the kindest anybody has ever been to Jazz, versus a couple years later, Prowl thinking it's a good idea to POINT A GUN TO JAZZ'S HEAD to get his attention. It's bad enough that the character the Autobot logo is depicting is horribly stained in this way—very disturbing—but I feel even worse knowing that something that was once nice for Jazz has been so ruined in both canon and fandom. I think this situation is beyond the scope of fans to tackle and that TF just needs to get its shit together regarding social issues. That being said, I feel like this makes it even more important that fans stop replicating racist tropes in their fanwork, since that's making the situation even worse.

TL;DR Jazz is great and if I see one more fic in which Prowl stops Jazz for speeding I'm going to explode

[moonlight-tmd]

LOL

Imagine if the jettwins 'abducted' (by leading him away from the rest of their teams lmao) bee? like, they'd try to convince bee to reconsider prowl as a spark mate, or to promise not to become boring and responsible. bee would be shocked then amused, then explain everything to the twins and that they have nothing to worry about.

also, what's Jazz and Prowl's reaction to this lmfao

Hah, yeah. They would totally pull him to the side when no one's looking and question him. It all depends on what continuity this is in.

I like my "Bee died and Prowl got depressed" headcanon for ProwlBee; original and continuation of it. Btw i added the tag #revival!prowlbee to every post related to it so you can find it easier on my blog.

I imagine Prowl was halfway into his recovery when the Elite Guard visited, he and Bee weren't dating yet. Sentinel got fuckin spooked by Bee and Optimus playing along. The jettwins literally almost trampled the poor bug in attempt to tackle-hug him. Jazz had to save him from them, he gave Bee a big hug and a ruffle on the helm before the twins snatched him away to welcome him back.

This was also the first time Jazz has seen Prowl smiling since the incident. It was truly a miracle. Jazz has heard Prowl's confession back when he was mourning Bee's death, he didn't say anything and let Prowl recover first, he knew something was gonna happen sooner or later.

Now the next time they visit is when Bee and Prowl are together, they've been officially dating for maybe 2 weeks now.

Jazz is hella proud of them. Things went down and they pushed thru it together, good for them. The jettwins however... yeah, their surprise is directed towards a different emotion. They see Bee and Prowl basically clinging to each other on the couch and they immediately know the threat of someone fun being in a relationship. So when everything is going smoothly and nobody's paying attention to the scout at the moment they snatch him and bring him behind the plant and interrogate him.

They didn't really see Prowl when their team visited after Bee's death, they only heard about how Prowl was doing from Jazz. Bee is kind of hurt when they suggest him reconsidering his relationship with Prowl but he brushes it off and tells them that nothing will change and they still will do pranks together. They had a group pinky-promise in the first place, and pinky-promises are not to be broken.

I don't think Bee would tattle on them like this to Prowl cuz he doesn't want Prowl feeling unworthy of being his sparkmate or something so he never mentions anything happening. There is however one thing that has occurred after that... the teasing.

The ungodly amount of romance teasing from the Jettwins. In private and in public. As i said in this post, they would recite the tree rhyme and tease him when they do pranks.

Jazz is a mix of amused and disappointed. Prowl is just amused and bashful, he loves hearing that Bee loves him and Bee's reactions are adorable. Bee is just full on embarrassed and hates it with passion. He doesn't hate everyone knowing he loves Prowl- he would shout it from the highest skyscraper if given a chance, he just hates the twins teasing him like this.

If we go the non-angsty ProwlBee route then;

Jazz would surely be surprised cuz he didn't expect Prowl to find a love interest in such outgoing and hyperactive fella like Bee. No offense, Jazz likes Bee- the little man is funny, has groove and enjoys some nice sax tunes with him. He's happy for them, opposites do attract after all, huh.

The Jettwins are a disaster like in the previous post. They are scared Bee will turn all mature and responsible and lose all his fun because if it so they snatch him and the interrogation happens.

Both Jazz and Prowl are amused by the little teasing shenanigans the twins and Bee have. They both know nothing bad will happen from it but it's still amusing to watch- Prowl might act more affectionate when the jettwins are around just to mess with them. Bee is both blessing and cursing Prowl for doing this. This feels good but he wants to have peace, damn it! Don't hype them up!

[minniethemoocherda]

Iridescent: Chapter 9

Summary: When Jazz is promoted to Head of Special Operations, the last thing he expected was to have to work with a face from his past.

A/N: Yay Bluestreak is finally here! Also yay it's my birthday! So I hope you enjoy this gift to you guys of a new chapter! Xxxxxx

Ao3

FF.net

Jazz and Prowl stood in the hanger in silence as they waited for Hound and Bluestreak to return. The silence wasn't comfortable but it wasn't awkward either. Prowl just had no need for small talk which Jazz was actually grateful for.

Jazz would say that their relationship over the past few weeks could be categorised as colleges which in of itself wasn't activity negative or positive. Which again could be a pretty good description of their dynamic. They would do their work together when needed and that would be it.

It had been a bit of a relief actually, to not have to put on a persona for every single in person interaction. Jazz no longer went to bed feeling exhausted every night. Plus he was actually on top of his paperwork for the first time since joining the Autobots.

Jazz rocked back and forth on his heels as he counted down the seconds until Hound and Bluestreak were due to return from their missions. Jazz wasn't entirely sure why Prowl was also waiting but whatever, he didn't want to rock the tentative peace they'd managed to make by asking.

The atmosphere only turned slightly awkward as Mirage arrived, giving Prowl a pointed glare as he stood between them.

Before Jazz could intervene, their first agent arrived home.

Hound strolled through the hanger door, seemingly unbothered by the layer of grime he was covered in. Hound was the only spy Jazz knew that actually enjoyed sitting in ditches for hours.

Hound waved at Jazz, but when he noticed the other spy besides him, Jazz watched with a thinly hidden smile as he started to hastily tried to scrub some of the dirt off his green chasis to little avail.

Mirage bowed in the old fashioned Tower's way of welcoming someone home. Hound tried to miming the gesture, over extending himself and bonking Mirage on the head.

This time Jazz didn't bother to hold back a smirk as the pair blushed.

"Welcome home mech!" Jazz said deciding to save the pair from further embarrassment and clasped a strategically placed servo on Hound's back so as to not spoil his own finish. "So, what did you make of Devcon's intel?"

Devcon was a bounty hunter that Blackout had occasionally hired for some of their even more off the books type missions. After their last assignment, Devcon had mentioned that he'd noticed Lockdown behaving strange, well stranger than usual for the homicidal maniac. In that he had been teaming up with different people recently, which was odd for a notorious loner.

Hound shook his head.

"No I didn't see Lockdown working with anyone. He was mostly guarding the Vos base from the top of the remaining towers. I think they'd had some kind of break in recently."

"Oh really?" Jazz said nonchalantly.

Hound shrugged before perking up. "Oh yeah, I did actually meet up with Devcon on my way back! He told me to pass on his condolences for Blackout but that he was looking forward to working with you."

Whilst technically nobody in the Bounty Hunters Guild were allowed to align themselves with either side, it was a pretty open secret that Lockdown only took jobs for the Decepticons whilst Devcon only worked with the Autobots. Although to be frank, Jazz thought that their personal pissing contest had nothing to do with the either cause. But whatever, Devcon was a decent enough guy for a bounty hunter.

"I'll tell him my thanks. Now go get some fuel down ya before you keel over!" Jazz ordered.

"Will you be joining us?" Mirage asked as they started to head towards the rec room.

Jazz shook his head.

"As much as I know you will miss my presence, I have still got other agents to wait for."

Besides, it would give those two an excuse to be alone.

Almost having forgotten that he was there, Jazz turned his attention back to Prowl who had shifted off to the side and had been pointedly looking in the opposite direction of their conversation.

To some people the reaction might've come across as anti-social but Jazz appreciated the guy giving them space to catch up.

There was something else in that look as well. While Jazz hid behind smiles and laughter, he'd noticed that Prowl preferred to hide behind neutrality. He wondered what emotion their Head Tactician was trying to cover up.

Jazz's thought were interrupted when the hanger door opened once again, this tine for the speeding force of Blustreak. The young bot barely gave herself any time to transform to robot mode before crashing into Prowl.

Jazz leapt forward on instinct, not that he would've been able to protect Prowl in time but still. It wasn't until he'd jumped forward with arms out stretched that he realised that Bluestreak hadn't flattened their commander into an energon flat-cake. Instead her arms had wrapped around Prowl's midsection in a metal crushing hug. Perhaps what was even more surprising was that Prowl was hugging her back.

Momentarily startled, it took Jazz a second to also realise that he had hear the screeched of metal from above. He looked up to see Bumblebee's arm also reaching out from the vent above them because of course the little shit hadn't listened to him.

Prowl and Bluestreak hadn't noticed Bumblebee. And Bumblebee hadn't noticed that Jazz had noticed him. So for the sake of Jazz's momentary sanity, he decided to keep it that way.

"So I'm guess you two know each other?" Jazz drawled as Bluestreak finally let Prowl breathe again.

"Yes! He's my brother! Well not biologically, but that doesn't matter! He's still awesome!" She beamed.

Huh, the not biologically part was surprising. Even beyond the pair both being Praxian they looked incredibly similar with their red chevrons and matching doorwings. Not that it was any of his business.

"And you must be Jazz! Congratulations on your promotion! It's so cool to finally meet you in person! I've heard so much about you!" Bluestreak cried, jumped towards him but managing to bounce back on her feet before she could crush him into a hug as well. Her bubbly personality wasn't what Jazz was expecting of their new sniper. But he couldn't deny that her enthusiasm wasn't infectious.

"And congratulations to you for completing your first mission!" Jazz said, wrapping his arm around her, tugging her closer when she didn't hesitate to lean into his side. "And listen, I know that the first mission is always the hardest so as your new commanding officer, I want you to know that you can always talk to me okay?"

"Oh I'm okay! When I shot them through the scope I pretend it's a video game and that they weren't real people!" She stated, smiling up at him with big blue optics.

Okay... well... Jazz did not have the phycology skills to unpack that. That was going to have to be something for Rung to deal with.

"Should I write up my report now?" Bluestreak asked.

"Nah! Why don't you head down to the rec room? I'm sure there's a lot of bots your age who would love yo get to know you!" Jazz made sure to say that last part extra loud. Hopefully Bumblebee would get the message.

Bluestreak glanced back at Prowl who nodded in return.

"We will talk later. For now I will walk you to the recreation room." Prowl told her.

"Okay! See you later!" Bluestreak finally letting go of Jazz with a wave.

He waved back as she trotted alongside Prowl, talking his ear off about this, that and everything.

Jazz watched as Prowl listened to her babble on, one hand on her back as though to assure himself that she was really here. His mask of neutrality slipping enough for Jazz to see the relief in Prowl's eyes.

Jazz's spark burned with the sting of jealously at seeing the pair interact. But he pushed it down. It wasn't their fault that the only family he'd ever had, had either abandoned or betrayed him. He was happy that the pair still had each other in the nightmare of a war they'd been forced into.

At least that's what Jazz told himself as he stood alone in an empty corridor.

[transmorphobots]

Meet 90s Au Prowl!

He was a normal every day doors to doors salesman after his childhood career in Cyber-Gymnastics didn't really follow up. He would sell magazines, toasters, whatever else useless junk and he was... surprising, to say the least! Prowl doesn't like traffic, its stressful for him, so rather than do his routes on wheels he would navigate past traffic by parkouring over buildings to get to his destination. He thinks nothing of this, it was the only way for him to get around it.

He met the journalist Jazz because they both went to the same dive bar after work and they hit it off. Prowl later saved Jazz's life from their mutual friend-turned-enemy, Steamhammer. Jazz has a lot of dirt on Megatron's schemes and Prowl went along for the ride, believing in protecting his friend. This led him to meeting the Autobots and its what got him on the original mission to sink Megatron's Yacht. His parkour and navigation skills are incredibly valuable but nobody knows where he learned to throw knives so well.

He developed some of his hand-to-hand combat skills with the help of Heavy Load, who ran a self-defense class on Cybertron.

When he got to Earth he immersed himself in learning to navigate the world which eventually led him to learning what telephones, satellites, and the internet was. He manages most of the Autobots online security but he also has a blog where he posts pictures of things he's seen on Earth. It's mostly butterflies.

Prowl is sometimes hard to read as he speaks very factually and not with much inflection of tone but he loves his friends very much and he loves Earth too. He prefers the Forest Base and other remote bases so he can avoid traffic but he will travel into the small town close to the Forest Base to ask his human friend, the 80 year old Shirley, to help pay the Autobot's internet bill.

His current mode is the 1985 Mitsubishi MP-90X!

[starprin101]

If Transformers Played Among Us:

Honestly just giant robots being petty as fuck

Everyone is just killing each other out of spite

Like, "Hey Starscream and Airachnid remember when you killed both my partners hahahahaha-" *proceeds to stab one with knife and other with tongue*

If an Autobot gets killed they blame the 'Cons and vise versa

If anyone stands for one second too long an emergency meeting is announced

They constantly argue and waste voting time

When Megatron dies they immediately vote Starscream

90% of the time it's true but he still vehemently denies it

Bots like Wheeljack, Grimlock, Dreadwing, Random/Hothead Blitzwing, etc. prefer to kill to win while the quieter ones sabotage a lot like Soundwave, Shockwave, Bumblebee, Ratchet etc.

When Optimus is imposter I imagine he doesn't really want to kill anyone

He'll probably kill one Decepticon and let everyone else do the work for him

While everyone's arguing he'll still be the one to say "Hey maybe we should stop and actually think about this" but nobody listens

And he just happily watches while they vote everyone off for him and he barely does anything

He'll only kill someone if they catch him venting or smth

Megatron's the only one who's onto him

Like, "Hey don't you think it's a little suspicious how every bot who's been left alone with him is found dead later on, and he's always there to fix whatever is sabotaged but never actually does it, and no one's seen him do a single task, and he never says where he was or what his tasks are, and he's found the most bodies? Shouldn't we at least consider him a suspect?"

*Megatron was not the Imposter*

Knockout would absolutely flirt with the imposter

Bonus if Breakdown's the imposter

Prowl always wins

Always

Ratchet gets very annoyed when he's interrupted from his tasks, especially if it's an emergency meeting

He can't bring himself to to kill anyone. It's against his coding

Unless they're a Decepticon

Bumblebee and Sari would be an unstoppable team

Like they'll always stick together and do tasks and double kill together

They always got an alibi for eachother

"It can't be Sari. We were in Electrical the whole round"

"But I went in there many times and didn't see either of you once"

"..... scrap."

Things get messy when only one of them is the Imposter

Sentinel would be in Security watching cameras the whole time

He's the one who calls as many emergency meetings as he's allowed

"IT'S JAZZ HE'S JUST WALKING AROUND AIMLESSLY AND APPEARING FROM ONE ROOM TO THE OTHER!!!"

"I think your computer's glitching, and this is my first time playing, I don't know where everything is"

"THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THE IMPOSTER WOULD SAY!!!"

*Sentinel was the Imposter*

Because Soundwave apparently is a telepath he can accurately guess who the imposter is

Everyone thinks it's unfair since he has the advantage so they set some rules

He can only accuse the imposter if he witnessed them venting or killing

And he can't follow them either

He sticks to these rules which actually help for when he's the imposter

"Soundwave you were the last bot with Starscream, did you see anything?"

*hiding a bloody knife behind his back* "Soundwave: witnessed nothing"

Soundwave would absolutely hack the game just so he can get more pets

For a technologically advanced alien species they sure can be a bunch of dumbasses

This all started because Raf, Jack and Miko were trying to explain the "Red's kinda sus" meme to the Autobots

[anon-e-miss]

I wonder if Prowl will shun Jazz for taking the little seedling or go willingly in the hopes jazz will take him to his baby ❤💙💎

As the light-cycle passed slowly by, the bitlet never really settle. He took the shortest of naps as exhaustion overtook him, but he spent the majority of the long joors wailing or sobbing. Jazz had prepared to bribe his creations with energon goodies to keep their peace but they surprised him with their empathy. They tried to draw smiles from the bitlet, using the puppets their grand-ori had made them for their emergence-cycle. Separation from his originator, and almost certainly hunger made the newling miserable but from time to time he calmed enough to watched them for a bream here or there, before he fell back into his misery. Throughout the mega-cycle Jazz and his ori tried to convince the newling to take some fuel, but he refused the bottle each time. It might have been Jazz’s imagination but he thought the bitlet’s colour had dulled a little, though that could have been the dim light of their habsuite. All of the windows were boarded shut, like every other habsuite in the Dead End. It protected them from stray bullets.

Punch left Jazz to mind the inconsolable newling and his own bemused creations. At least the Twins had decided to see some humour in the situation, instead of sulking about the cacophony. They had never seen Jazz unnerved. It had been important to him to keep the anxieties of their situation, and his business from them. Too soon they would be too old to hide the realities of the Dead End, and the family business from. Jazz would guard their innocence as long as he could.

“Good news, Jazz,” Punch declared after the door had latched behind him. “The Death’s Head took off the light-cycle and the Constructicons are on his tail. Bruticus actually tried to knock Lockdown out of the sky.”

“So Swindle’s personally on the hunt... That’s good. There might be nobody home to guard the dryad.”

“Y’re gonna go this dark-cycle.”

“I gotta. Newlings don’t last long without fuel.”

“How do ya plan on convincin’m to come along quietyl?”

“Hopefully he’s reasonable... or desperate. If I have to use the bitlet to lure’m out, I will. But I’d rather not bring’m out. If anyone’s at home, his wailin’ll draw’m out.”

“Ya’d be right, I suspect. I’ll listen for yer call. If ya can’t gettin’m this dark-cycle, will try again tomorrow. Don’t be stupid.”

“I won’t get caught.”

Swindle had not delayed his hunt by servicing his security grid. Jazz found it still disabled, though he triggered a second EMP grenade just to be safe. The garden was utterly silent, despair hung heavy in the air. It seemed to Jazz as if every crystal shrub and tree was grieving with the dryad. He rubbed the back of his neck. Jazz knew he should have spoken to the mech, reassured him that he would return for him, but Jazz had been impulsive. His progenitor protocols had screamed in his helm as Vortex’s glyphs repeated over and over in his memory banks. It did not matter to his core programming that the newling was not his. He as innocent. Jazz saw Gripper’s brutalized creations in his helm and took a long intake. His programming had never settled back down after he had stumbled upon that scene.

Jazz set off another two grenades as he found Swindle’s boobytraps. It was more than there had been the dark-cycle before but it was far too little and far too late. Swindle had trusted his high walls and his flashy security grid to keep out thieves, but any thief with a couple vorns experience would have been to find a way around the grid. It was all show, and no real substance. Fear of the fate that lay in wait for thieves and debtors had kept Swindle’s loot save. Too bad for him Jazz was not sensible enough to be afraid.

The crystal brush was dry and brittle, Jazz realized as he slipped passed. The flowers that had been in bloom all over the grotto were limp and dead. A visualization of the dryad’s mourning. Jazz looked out towards the sprawling garden and saw the whole of it was dark and dead. With his grief the dryad had killed every crystal planted in the garden. Swindle must have been furious. What would he do to the dryad if it remained like this. Some of these crystals were rare imports, and Jazz knew what they had cost. He had stolen more than a hundred of them for Swindle from all over the globe over the course of the vorns. They would not be easily replaced.

He found the dryad where he had left him. The tree he was bound to was as dead as those surrounding the grotto. Without the lush foliage disguising it, the cuff around the dryad’s wrist could not be mistaken for anything but a vicious restraint. Ugly chains wrapped around the crystalline dryad from the base of his crystal form, all the way his frame. It was horrid, and ugly. Might it be punishment for the death of Swindle’s garden? Or had the dryad tried to escape somehow? Jazz stepped into the clearing and inched towards the dryad, searching the ground for more traps. It worried him that the dryad remained crystalized. Might the perceived loss of his creation have caused him irreparable harm?

Suddenly a vine, or perhaps a root reared up and slashed at Jazz from just metres to his left. Jazz dodged neatly. Another erupted from the soil and Jazz jumped again. They lashed at him from all sides and Jazz twisted, jumped and flipped about, only barely avoiding the dryads attack. Jazz leapt over the mass of angry vines and scaled the faux waterfall even as the vines slashed up at him. He found himself clinging to the dead tree, chassis to chassis with the dryad. Before Jazz’s optics, the dryad transformed from a roughly mech shaped crystal, into a striking, and enraged Praxian.

“Thief!” The dryad snarled in his face.

There was contempt in the glyph and unbridled hate in his field. Jazz could not exactly  fault him. He stared at the dryad for a moment. It was still difficult to wrap his processor around the idea that dryads were real, that this garden ornament was a living and ventilating mechanism, but he was pulled from his stupor as the dryad tried to thrash against his chains. Fresh energon flowed down his arm from his cuffed wrist. Jazz could hear the chains around the mech’s plating grinding against his plating.

“Stop, stop, stop,” Jazz entreated, though he could not imagine how he could actually force the dryad to obey. The bound mechanism’s pale optics glowered at him with contempt.

“Why? Because my value will be diminished?”

“No. I don’t care ‘bout yer value. I don’t want to see ya hurt.”

“Lies. You are a thief.”

“I am a thief. Y’re right about that.”

“Lockdown hired you to steal my creation.”

“How’d ya know Lockdown hired me.”

“He has been persistent in his efforts to get Swindle to sell me. But Swindle wishes to fill the grotto with living statues. I was not, I am not, for sale.”

“So why not steal ya?”

“He knew well I would not go with him.”

“Ya wanna stay here?”

“Lockdown lusts for me. Swindle lusts for wealth and beauty. Both are intolerable, but one more so.”

“Scrap,” Jazz’s fuel tank rolled as he asked: “Is the bitlet his?”

“No. My creation is no ones but my own,” the dryad replied, and his optics flashed with white heat. “Swindle has not found another dryad despite paying a great fortune on the services of bounty hunters. I would not tell him where my kin reside, thus he settled on propagating me.”

“Propagating...”

“Lockdown paid a dear some to help stimulate me so that I would bud.”

“‘M sorry.”

“Do you think I care if you are sorry?”

“Probably not. Look. Swindle’s off chasin’ Lockdown ‘cause he figures Lockdown took the bitty himself. There’s no tellin’ when he’s gonna come back. We don’t got a lot of time to get away.”

“You think I will go with you?”

“If ya want yer bitty back, ya,” Jazz replied. The suspicion the dryad was all but seething with was not a surprise. He would have been worried if the mech was too cooperative. “Even if ya could get out o’ these chains on yer own, ya got an entire city to search. Come wit me, ‘n ya get yer bitty back ‘n ya won’t be Swindle’s ornament, or Lockdown’s berthslave.”

“And what would you have me do for you?”

“I don’t fraggin’ know. I took the job from Lockdown ‘cause he was willin’ to pay the crystal’s weight in shanix. I didn’t know he was a dryad. I didn’t think ya existed in anythin’ but my ori’s stories.”

“My kind do best when we are nothing but fairytales.”

“Y’re probably right.”

“I am worth more than my weight in shanix. It has been millenia since my kind were commonly found in manicured gardens.”

“I don’t deal in mechanisms.”

“A thief with a conscience.”

“Everyone has their limits.”

“What did you need that payout for?” The dryad asked. “Drink? Whores?”

“My brother.”

“Why?”

“He fragged off his patron ‘n Kaon. ‘M tryin’ to put together ‘nough credits to pay his fine ‘n get’m home.”

“It appears we have something in common.”

“What’s that?” Jazz asked.

“We both do stupid things for our brothers.”

[thanksjro]

Dark Cybertron Chapter 2: Going from Zero to Antichrist Real Quick

Bumblebee and his camp buddies are trying to figure out what to do with the Titan who just popped out of the ground like a prairie dog, as the sky looks like a Lisa Frank notebook thanks to the portal to the Dead Universe. It’s honestly very nice, we should should get more pretty apocalypses like this.

Bumblebee starts throwing out orders at everyone, much to Slag’s chagrin. When Slag brings up the point that they probably can’t do much of anything to a guy roughly a hundred times bigger than they are, Bumblebee tells him to shut up and do as he’s told.

Yeah, I had about the same reaction, Slag.

So the Dinobots do their thing. Swoop, who I think is the only guy here who can fly, goes up to see what the Titan’s doing. It’s not much, other than looking really upset. Oh no, what if he’s afraid of heights? Poor guy.

Even if the Titan isn’t moving, the mere presence of the thing is jamming signals, which is kind of an issue. Ironhide’s ready to shoot it in the foot, and Arcee will help, because she’s a team player now. Bumblebee has a minor crisis over whether this is the same Titan that told Starscream he was a prophesied son of a gun, but Prowl doesn’t seem to think that it is.

Prowl, who has been suffering from short-term memory lapses over the last several months or so because a bug-man was controlling his mind.

Yeah, let’s maybe take his opinion on the matter with a grain of salt, even if he is right.

Over at the Lost Light, Orion Pax is visiting Brainstorm’s workshop, where everyone’s favorite science man is admitting to having studied the Dead Universe’s effects on the living and interviewing people who had been to the area.

Man, I sure hope that guy signed a waiver, otherwise Brainstorm’s going to be in a spot of trouble.

Then we get a quick rundown of what the Dead Universe is: an omnicognizant parallel universe that functions on fundamental principles that differ from our own and wants you to die. So, obviously not a place you would want to go to. Still, we gotta, because that’s where the plot is the Dead Universe is gonna vore Cybertron if we don’t.

Brainstorm agrees to cook something up to make the trip through the Gorlam Prime portal easier.

Back on Cybertron, the Titan looms in the distance as we check in on an oddly pristine-looking Iacon. Rattrap tells Starscream to come out of the closet, because the Titan still hasn’t moved and doesn’t seem like it’s going to anytime soon. Starscream does come out, but it’s with his arms full of weapons of Autobot design that he appropriated from the ruins of Kimia, because he doesn’t trust that Titan to not start some shit. Rattrap suggests that they maybe get a second opinion before they start murdering people for standing in a barren field.

Back on the Lost Light, there’s a little shindig going down at Swerve’s, everyone staring down the table where Optimus, Rodimus, and Ultra Magnus are seated. Swerve takes the opportunity to do what everyone else is probably really wanting to, and snaps a few photos of them for his scrapbook. As soon as he’s done, we get to the Emotions portion of our issue.

Rodimus is letting himself be vulnerable in front of the man he idolizes, and I think that’s very brave of him.

Nobody’s feeling super great about the situation they’ve been presented with, but there isn’t a lot that can be done about it now. Just gotta work with what they got. Rodimus asks Optimus how he feels about Starscream being elected leader of Cybertron.

But I thought that freedom was the right of all sentient beings? You know, like the freedom of choice in our government officials, even if they aren’t the best option we could possibly have, because at least they’re better than the guy who had bombs planted in people’s heads for crowd control purposes? Are you saying that it only counted when the concept of freedom could be manipulated so you could go kick Megatron’s ass, and that actual freedom of choice doesn’t jive with your personal sensibilities as much as you’d like everyone to think it does? No wonder you’re going to try to overthrow the entire Earth’s government system to get humanity annexed into Cybertron’s bullshit in a few years’ time.

But perhaps this Starscream thing is actually the work of Megatron! What will Orion do then?

…I mean, do I even have to say it?

ORION, THAT’S GAY.

And I thought we’d already figured out what to do with Megatron back in “Chaos Theory”, where you spent three issues waffling on the subject until the man himself told you to execute him, because even he was sick of your crisis of self. The only reason you didn’t get to act on it was because Megatron disappeared after Vector Sigma blew up and then you fucked off into space without even bothering to check if he was actually dead.

But enough of Orion promising to kill/kiss Megatron, it’s time to see what Brainstorm’s cooked up. It’s not much, but to be fair, he’s only had a few hours to pull something together- our ship’s genius has made a few forcefield generators, using nothing more than some forcefield generators and juice he squeezed out of a bug. Science truly is amazing.

And I bet Trailcutter hates this invention too, for multiple reasons this time!

Cyclonus, who is looking especially purple today, agrees to join the excursion to the Dead Universe, even though it’s pretty clear he really, really doesn’t want to. Hardhead seems in better spirits than our resident space jet, though maybe that’s just bravado macho-man bullshitting on his part.

With our team put together, it’s time to jump out of the spaceship and into a place that quite literally wants them dead. But first Rodimus has a little chat with Ultra Magnus about his feelings. A lot of sharing this issue.

Magnus doesn’t feel fit to be in charge while Rodimus goes off to save the day and maybe die, because he doesn’t have that special something that makes a leader a leader. Charisma? The ability to think on your feet? The ability to see people as people and not numbers? Not having people know you’re actually a much smaller man running around in an Ultra Magnus suit? Whatever it is, Rodimus seems to think that it’s trumped by a mysterious something in his hand, and that Magnus will do just fine.

While Team -Imus goes into the murder reality, Magnus and the Lost Light will be going off to find Jhiaxus, because they need something to do while our protagonist and his absentee father go on their own adventure.

Back on Cybertron, Starscream’s visiting prison, and wants to talk to a very good boy without the guards overhearing. Jazz makes a very vague threat about what will happen if any harm comes to the prisoner, then steps away.

Let’s talk about how to sell toys for a second.

This issue of “Dark Cybertron” had a cover featuring Scoop, the very good boy I’ve mentioned before, because it was paired off with his Generations toy. We know from reading RID that Scoop is the leader of a group called the Construction Patrol, and he likes to help simply for the sake of helping. Sounds like a nice, if generic, character. How is this issue going to introduce people to him? Will he bust out of prison to save the day? Fight evil through heroic sacrifice? Do anything besides talk?

No, he’s going to tell Starscream he’s a herald of death that was foretold in the robot bible.

Yeah, that’ll move some fucking product!

This isn’t even the most batshit thing Scoop’s going to pull in this event, but it is what they decided to put in the issue that “features” him.

Over with Shockwave, we’re treated to some renewed friendships, as Nova Prime and Galvatron reveal that they don’t hate each other after all, but have a mutual respect based in subjugating those weaker than them.

I’m guessing this is a contrast to their previous relationship dynamic in older publications, but I’m not going back to comb through the likes of Heart of Darkness to check, because it really doesn’t matter.

There’s a bit of a snag in Shockwave’s plan to bring Galvatron and Nova Prime back to the Not-Dead Universe, as the space bridge in the Titan burnt up when it got there. Gee, that sucks. I guess all those “Prelude” issues about getting the Titan from Gorlam Prime were sort of a waste of time, weren’t they? Love it when I’m told I wasted my time reading motherfucking Ramondelli issues.

Speaking of Ramondelli, it’s Dead Universe time.

Sigh. Hello, public domain pictures of space on the overlay layer option in Photoshop. It’s nice to see you.

No, it isn’t. I lied.

I’m sorry, public domain pictures of space on the overlay layer option in Photoshop, this isn’t your fault.

So we’re here in the Dead Universe, and it’s looking pretty wild and crazy, though the characters are likely thinking this for a completely different reason than we are as readers. It turns out, the Dead Universe… is dying.

…MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM THAT’S SOME GOOD WRITIN’ RIGHT THERE

Also, Cyclonus has disappeared, not that anyone actually gives a shit, because they’re too busy dealing with the giant space leeches that just showed the hell up. Dang, why’s that happening?

…That only happens as a form of population control, or if the young in question are sickly and have a low chance of survival, not just because the mama rabbit got a bit peckish between lunch and dinner, you stupid fucking robot.

Half of this writing team won awards a couple years after this was published, I want you to remember that.

They fight the cyberwraiths for a bit, things look like they’re getting dicey, then suddenly they fuck off as Cyclonus shows up, probably fresh off the end of a goddamned panic attack because he’s back in the Dead Universe. Then he proceeds to vomit up some black energon. That’s a fun thing, glad you made me look at that.

Rodimus is concerned that one of their team members has got the Hollywood Tuberculosis cough, but Cyclonus doesn’t want his fucking pity. The fellas decide it’s time to get a move on, seeing as they’ve been here a grand total of 20 seconds and been attacked, so they need to get this over with ASAP.

As Team -Imus flies off in a ship I don’t remember them bringing along, someone decides that they’re going to stick their finger in that puddle of vomit.

Nightbeat you fucking idiot, there aren’t any sinks in the Dead Universe! Now your hand’s gonna be all gross for the entirety of this event! He’s not even analyzing it, it’s just on his hand! Why is Nightbeat having zero concept of personal hygiene a running theme in the things I read? Fuck!

You may be wondering what Nightbeat’s doing in the Dead Universe, or even where he’s been for a good chunk of IDW. We’ve seen him in flashbacks from before the war, but not during or after, least not within anything I’ve covered. So, what’s be been up to?

Fuck you, you’ll have to wait for a later issue to be told what Phase One bullshit you’ll have had to read to understand why this dumbass is here.

Back on Cybertron, Prowl is telling Bumblebee that he sucks because he’s not acting. I’m not exactly sure what he expects Bumblebee to do about the Titan who’s just standing there. It’s not like issuing a loitering ticket is going to do anything. Then the Decepticons attack them, among their ranks being the scariest fucking Ravage I’ve ever seen.

Why do you look like that? Rojo’s supposed to have the cutesy style on this team, why the fuck did he turn the kitty cat into one of the terror dogs from Ghostbusters? 

Anyway, that’s the end of the issue. Sure hope you’re invested enough in trying to figure out what the fuck Nightbeat’s deal is to snag Robots in Disguise #23.

[pixeledpurple]

In a transformers magical girl theme, who would have what powers/what would they do?

Um....  Starscream has the power to just completely end it all but no one, including him knows it.  This is based on what happens at the end of Armada, and yes, it would have similar results.  If y’all haven’t seen Armada, Starscream is epic in it but it ends really really sad and I hate it.  I mean I love Armada, I just hate the end.

Bumblebee would have electric stingers like Bee in TFA.

Ratchet has magical healing powers.

Jazz and Prowl are themselves but their personalities are magnified like 10 fold. So Prowl is 100% letter of the law and says exactly what the odds are of absolutely anything.  Jazz literally bounces instead of walking and often just bounces circles around Prowl when their walking together.  Everyone is absolutely baffled by how Prowl puts up with it because she’s PROWL.  But they are totally epicly in love and no one know it at first because Prowl is not one for PDA and Jazz respects that, but then one day something happens and Prowl just KISSES Jazz, like big romantic music swells, lights soften, time slows down kind of kiss, and everyone just gapes at them like WFT???

...So, I wouldn’t be mad if someone wrote or drew any part of my little Jazz/Prowl magical girl fantasy now.

Um….  Starscream has the power to just completely end it all but no one, including him knows it.  This is based on what happens at the end of Armada, and yes, it would have similar results.  If y’all haven’t seen Armada, Starscream is epic in it but it ends really really sad and I hate it.  I mean I love Armada, I just hate the end.

Bumblebee would have electric stingers like Bee in TFA.

Ratchet has magical healing powers.

Jazz and Prowl are themselves but their personalities are magnified like 10 fold. So Prowl is 100% letter of the law and says exactly what the odds are of absolutely anything.  Jazz literally bounces instead of walking and often just bounces circles around Prowl when their walking together.  Everyone is absolutely baffled by how Prowl puts up with it because she’s PROWL.  But they are totally epicly in love and no one know it at first because Prowl is not one for PDA and Jazz respects that, but then one day something happens and Prowl just KISSES Jazz, like big romantic music swells, lights soften, time slows down kind of kiss, and everyone just gapes at them like WFT???

…So, I wouldn’t be mad if someone wrote or drew any part of my little Jazz/Prowl magical girl fantasy now.

Oh! I got so distracted with the relationship I forgot to talk about their powers! So whatever Jazz does, just involves a lot of sparkles. I mean so many sparkles. I mean srsly. She has this music blast thing and it's just music notes and sparkles. It's highly effective. Prowl is mostly a hand to had combat fighter with a staff weapon. Her biggest strength is calculating odds and numbers but can also fight like nobody's business.

[badly-drawn-jazzwave]

Oh no, poor baby Aura, she got scared of Jazz? What happened to make Jazz so angry that it traumatised the poor little baby??

That is a story to be told.

You see, when Jazz and Soundwave’s bonding (and subsequent creation) became public knowledge, not everyone was as elated as the two of them.

While the war may have been over, both sides were still getting used to the idea that they had to work together and could no longer just bash each other’s processors in. Some Decepticons in particular found it difficult to assimilate to peace due to the fact that they’d found themselves so used to the violence that had dominated the majority of their lives. A couple Autobots couldn’t stomach the thought of cohabitating with mechs that had killed their friends and family, believing them to be incapable of true change. And both sides in general couldn’t seem to get over their general hatred of one another.

So when Jazz and Soundwave went public, it triggered a couple interesting reactions. Disgust was the primary one, so were dismay and disbelief but those were pretty easy to shake.

But there were a few mechs who took a more…morbid interest in their relationship, particularly in Aura.

You see, her conception was a special case. Cybertronians hadn’t dabbled in carrying for millennia due to the Functionist regime and the war so Aura was a bit of a miracle: the first successful bitlet created by two healthy mecha that wasn’t constructed cold or derived from a hot spot. 

This particular miracle of science drew Shockwave to the bitlet like a moth to a light and though the former Senator found himself redeemed after the Dark Cybertron events, he was far from being the mech he’d been before. His scientific curiosity overpowered his attention to decorum and boundaries and he sought out the opportunity to interact with the bitlet.

Jazz and Soundwave were well aware of Aura’s special status but when other bots began carrying and having their own bitlets, they relaxed a bit when Aura’s speciality became a little more common. They enrolled her into an academy, gave her the all-clear to pursue her interests, and got some jobs of their own: settling into a quaint domestic family routine. They were out in time to pick her up from the academy together every orn and when they weren’t able to make it, one of the cassettes took her place.

On a particular orn, Jazz found himself pretty busy and Soundwave was completely swamped with his own job so they sent Ravage to go pick up the bitlet along with Laserbeak. Classes ended and the two symbionts waited at the academy gates for the their host’s creation to finally make her way out. Some time passed, the bitlets all found themselves being picked up by their creators and the grounds soon grew empty with no sign of little Aura. Ravage immediately commed Soundwave, asking if perhaps she’d made plans to stay behind for an extracurricular and Soundwave immediately let them know that Aura had announced no intent whatsoever.

Immediately, Ravage and Laserbeak took to scouting the academy grounds and they grew worried upon realizing that while her scent was fresh enough to indicate she’d been there during the start of the orn, it was old enough to show that she’d left sometime before her classes came to an end.

And worst of all was the presence of an odd scent that was mixed in with Aura’s. It was cold, metallic and vaguely familiar. As Ravage pondered over who it belonged to, Laserbeak hacked into the academy’s security footage and discovered some disturbing news.

Apparently one of the science instructors had failed to show up and guess who was brought in as a replacement?

Shockwave.

The cameras showed that he’d taught all of the courses without issue up until the period when Aura had been present and when her class had ended, Shockwave had brought her aside and asked a couple things that seemed to catch the bitlet’s attention. Nobody had thought to stop Shockwave as he walked through the halls with Aura on his heels, paying no heed as he led her into the instructor’s lounge and ultimately stepped off the grounds using the entrance reserved only for the faculty of the academy. Shockwave had taken the bitlet somewhere else and as soon as Soundwave was made aware of that fact, all hell literally broke loose.

Calls were made to Prowl and Optimus, demanding cooperation and all information pertaining to Shockwave’s current whereabouts. Units were mobilized and the lull in enforcer activity was eradicated by everyone’s desire to find the bitlet.

But the chaos of that compared very little to the hell that broke loose once Jazz was made privy to the situation. Noone knows how exactly Jazz tracked down Shockwave at his personal apartment but he got there before anyone else did and by the time Soundwave made it there, he was met with an oddly silent Jazz waiting on the steps of the abode with a crying Aura curled up in his arms. She wasn’t hurt, Shockwave hadn’t done anything to her (yet) but she’d been witness to the massive beatdown Jazz had given Shockwave.

It was enough to give her a few decaorns of fitful recharge where she couldn’t rest unless she was curled up between her creators or had all of the cassettes wrapped around her in her berth. She grew a little paranoid around Jazz, of which the saboteur deeply regretted though he understood where she was coming from, and as a result she spent more time around Soundwave.

With time, Aura found her relationship with her carrier restored and as she grew older, she came to terms with the fact that while Jazz was capable of great fury, he’d never turn it upon her.

This event is also the reason why Aura’s so reserved. She doesn’t trust so easily any more, developing a bit of that paranoia that her creators are so popular for. It took Jazz’s SpecOps mechs YEARS for her to be okay with them being in her presence and much longer for her to remain in their care without the presence of her creators or the symbionts.

Shockwave’s still alive and kicking and though Aura can’t really remember what occurred that day, she will always remember the mech with the cold yellow optic and dead voice to the day that she offlines.

[inthedayswhenlandswerefew]

Queen Lyrics for When You’re Feeling Low

1) “But there’s a heartbeat pulse that keeps on pumping, some sunshine ray through a crack in a shutter, or a sight of a light at the end of a tunnel” (Action This Day, Hot Space)

2) “Gotta face up, better grow up, gotta stand tall and be strong” (All God’s People, Innuendo)

3) “But I’m ready, yes I’m ready for you, I’m standing on my own two feet” (Another One Bites The Dust, The Game)

4) “You stand so tall, you don’t frighten me at all” (Back Chat, Hot Space)

5) “Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see” (Bohemian Rhapsody, A Night At The Opera)

6) “Breakthru, these barriers of pain, breakthru, to the sunshine from the rain” (Breakthru, The Miracle)

7) “Some sleepless nights in wait for you, some foreign presence you feel comes creeping through, some stream of hope the whole world through” (Calling All Girls, Hot Space)

8) “I gotta be cool, relax, get hip, get on my tracks” (Crazy Little Thing Called Love, The Game)

9) “I gotta shape up now, you gotta know why” (Dancer, Hot Space)

10) “Fight your battle but you leave on time” (Dead On Time, Jazz)

11) “Go to sleep and dream again, soon your hopes will rise and then” (Dear Friends, Sheer Heart Attack)

12) “Should be waiting for the sun, looking ‘round to find the words to say, should be waiting for the skies to clear” (Doing All Right, Queen)

13) “Hear what I say, don’t lose your way” (Don’t Lose Your Head, A Kind Of Magic)

14) “Tonight I’m gonna have myself a real good time, I feel alive” (Don’t Stop Me Now, Jazz)

15) “When your problems seem like mountains, you feel the need to find some answers, you can leave them for another day” (Don’t Try So Hard, Innuendo)

16) “Don’t try suicide, nobody’s worth it” (Don’t Try Suicide, The Game)

17) “Don’t destroy what you see, your country to be, just keep building on the ground that’s been won” (Father To Son, Queen II)

18) “Oh, got to get rid of this feeling I’m feeling inside” (Feelings Feelings, News Of The World)

19) “Fight from the inside, you can’t win with your hands tied” (Fight From The Inside, News Of The World)

20) “Don’t look back, don’t look back, it’s a rip-off” (Flick Of The Wrist, Sheer Heart Attack)

21) “When you’re through with life and all hope is lost, hold out your hand, ‘cause friends will be friends right ‘til the end” (Friends Will Be Friends, A Kind Of Magic)

22) “Can’t you tell when we get it down, you’re the one, you’re the best in town” (Fun It, Jazz)

23) “Tomorrow comes, tomorrow brings, tomorrow brings love in the shape of things” (Funny How Love Is, Queen II)

24) “You don’t waste no time at all, don’t hear the bell but you answer the call” (Hammer To Fall, The Works)

25) “Wait for the sunrise and everything will seem so clear” (Hang On In There, The Miracle)

26) “These troubled days of cruel rejection, you come to me, soothe my troubled mind” (Heaven For Everyone, Made In Heaven)

27) “Well I tell you my friend, this might seem like the end, but the continuation is yours for the making” (The Hero, Flash Gordon)

28) “I’m having a hard time, I’m walking a fine line between hope and despair” (I Can’t Live With You, Innuendo)

29) “Gotta find me a future, move out of my way” (I Want It All, The Miracle)

30) “God knows, got to make it on my own” (I Want To Break Free, The Works)

31) “I’m caught in a dream and my dream’s come true” (I Was Born To Love You, Made In Heaven)

32) “Keep your chin up when you’re feeling lonely, don’t let ‘em get you down” (If You Can’t Beat Them, Jazz)

33) “So risky, but I gotta chance it” (In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited, Sheer Heart Attack)

34) “You can be anything you want to be, just turn yourself into anything you think that you could ever be” (Innuendo, Innuendo)

35) “No one knows what I’ve been through, let my flag unfurl” (The Invisible Man, The Miracle)

36) “Sometimes I feel so sad, so sad, so bad, but no one’s gonna stop me now, no one” (It’s A Beautiful Day, Made In Heaven)

37) “It’s a long hard fight, but I’ll always live for tomorrow” (It’s A Hard Life, The Works)

38) “I’ve been wrong but I’ll learn to be right” (It’s Late, News Of The World)

39) “Life is much too short to while away with tears” (Jealousy, Jazz)

40) “Oh get yourself together, things are looking better every day” (Keep Passing The Open Windows, The Works)

41) “All you people keep yourself alive” (Keep Yourself Alive, Queen)

42) “Now listen, no one stops my party” (Khashoggi’s Ship, The Miracle)

43) “One shaft of light that shows the way” (A Kind Of Magic, A Kind Of Magic)

44) “We’re far apart and I’m growing old, but while we live we’ll meet again” (Las Palabras De Amor, Hot Space)

45) “Cause I’ve made my break and I won’t look back, I’ve turned my back on those endless games” (Leaving Home Ain’t Easy, Jazz)

46) “Why don’t you let me make a brand new start” (Let Me Live, Made In Heaven)

47) “Life is cruel, life is a bitch” (Life Is Real, Hot Space)

48) “I lie in wait with open eyes, I carry on through stormy skies” (Lily Of The Valley, Sheer Heart Attack)

49) “Hurry put your troubles in a suitcase, come let the new child play” (Long Away, A Day At The Races)

50) “Forget regrets and just remember, it’s not so long since you were young” (The Loser In The End, Queen II)

51) “You won’t remember when this is blown over, and everything’s all by the way” (Love Of My Life, A Night At The Opera)

52) “I’m playing my role in history, looking to find my goal, taking in all this misery but giving it all my soul” (Made In Heaven, Made In Heaven)

53) “I’m gonna take a little walk on the wild side, I’m gonna loosen up and get me some gas, I’m gonna get me some action” (Man On The Prowl, The Works)

54) “A voice from behind me reminds me, spread out your wings and you are an angel, remember to deliver with the speed of light a little bit of love and joy” (The March Of The Black Queen, Queen II)

55) “Bring out the charge of the love brigade, there is spring in the air once again” (The Millionaire Waltz, A Day At The Races)

56) “The one thing we’re all waiting for is peace on earth and an end to war” (The Miracle, The Miracle)

57) “Come on, take a shot” (Misfire, Sheer Heart Attack)

58) “Somethin’ harder’s coming up, gonna really knock a hole in the wall, gonna hit ya, grab you hard, make you feel ten feet tall” (Modern Times Rock N’ Roll, Queen)

59) “I’ve walked too long in this lonely lane, I’ve had enough of this same old game” (Mother Love, Made In Heaven)

60) “No I’ll never look back in anger, no I’ll never find me an answer” (Need Your Loving Tonight, The Game)

61) “Please don’t you cry anymore, can’t you see, listen to the breeze, whisper to me please” (Nevermore, Queen II)

62) “Oh oh the night comes down, and I get afraid of losing my way” (The Night Comes Down, Queen)

63) “Just a new man, yes you made me live again” (Now I’m Here, Sheer Heart Attack)

64) “Gimme one night, gimme one hope” (One Vision, A Kind Of Magic)

65) “When your plans go wrong and you turn out the light, but inside of your mind you have to put up a fight” (Pain Is So Close To Pleasure, A Kind Of Magic)

66) “Rest your weary head and let your heart decide” (Play The Game, The Game)

67) “No man could understand, my power is in my own hand” (Princes Of The Universe, A Kind Of Magic)

68) “You had your time, you had the power, you’ve yet to have your finest hour” (Radio Ga Ga, The Works)

69) “Your every day is full of sunshine, but into every life a little rain must fall” (Rain Must Fall, The Miracle)

70) “Sometimes I get so low, I just have to ride” (Ride The Wild Wind, Innuendo)

71) “You got your whole life ahead of you” (Sail Away Sweet Sister, The Game)

72) “The slate will soon be clean, I’ll erase the memories, to start again with somebody new” (Save Me, The Game)

73) “Dancing, what a damn jolly good idea” (Seaside Rendezvous, A Night At The Opera)

74) “By flash and thunder-fire and I’ll survive, then I’ll defy the laws of nature and come out alive” (Seven Seas Of Rhye, Queen II)

75) “And the world will surely heal my ills” (She Makes Me, Sheer Heart Attack)

76) “I guess I’m learning, I must be warmer now, I’ll soon be turning ‘round the corner now, outside the dawn is breaking” (The Show Must Go On, Innuendo)

77) “Today the cloud hangs over us and all is grey, but some day, one day” (Some Day One Day, Queen II)

78) “I’m okay, I’m alright, ain’t gonna face no defeat” (Somebody To Love, A Day At The Races)

79) “Pull yourself together ‘cause you know you should do better, that’s because you’re a free man” (Spread Your Wings, News Of The World)

80) “Don’t lose control just hang on out with me” (Staying Power, Hot Space)

81) “Try my best, be a real individual” (Tenement Funster, Sheer Heart Attack)

82) “The nights grow long, but dreams live on” (Teo Torriatte, A Day At The Races)

83) “Oh my friends, it’s been a long hard year, but now it’s Christmas” (Thank God It’s Christmas, The Works sessions [non-album song])

84) “No use sitting and thinkin’ on what you did, when you can lay back and enjoy it through your kids” (These Are The Days Of Our Lives, Innuendo)

85) “But you know I don’t give a light, I’m gonna make out all right” (Tie Your Mother Down, A Day At The Races)

86) “I feel like no one ever told the truth to me, about growing up and what a struggle it would be” (Too Much Love Will Kill You, Made In Heaven)

87) “Can’t we give ourselves one more chance, why can’t we give love that one more chance” (Under Pressure, Hot Space)

88) “Living breathing rock n’ roll, this never-ending fight, was it all worth it, was it all worth it, yes it was a worthwhile experience” (Was It All Worth It, The Miracle sessions [non-album song])

89) “I’ve had my share of sand kicked in my face, but I’ve come through” (We Are The Champions, News Of The World)

90) “Shoutin’ in the street, gonna take on the world someday” (We Will Rock You, News Of The World)

91) “But now I’m the one to decide, who needs, well I don’t need, who needs you” (Who Needs You, News Of The World)

92) “But touch my tears with your lips, touch my world with your fingertips, and we can have forever” (Who Wants To Live Forever, A Kind Of Magic)

93) “A breathtaking scene, with the dreams of the world in the palm of your hand” (A Winter’s Tale, Made In Heaven)

94) “Not tonight, come tomorrow, when everything’s sunny and bright” (You And I, A Day At The Races)

95) “Whenever this world is cruel to me, I got you to help me forgive” (You’re My Best Friend, A Night At The Opera)

[neveralarch]

for the director's cut ask thing - To Be Securely Held

This is the last commentary request I have in my inbox! Thank you for your patience, I'm getting way busier as the summer winds down.

To Be Securely Held started as Dez ( @sauntervaguelydown ) and I batting around the idea of what could be the 'good ending' to the Decepticon Rung AU. The whole process of the Decepticon Rung AU seems to be constantly cycling through different timelines and thinking of ways the core Megatron/Rung/Starscream relationship could be better or worse. Usually worse! When I say 'imprisoned by the Autobots' is a good ending, I mean relative to pretty much everything else we've come up with

I was actually on the same fencing trip as the one where I was brainstorming Allez, and toward the end of the trip Dez and I were just aimlessly chatting about Decepticon Rung and trying to come up with a way for the trio to actually be happy. The main problem in the series is that Megatron is fundamentally right about society needing to be fixed and fundamentally wrong about how to do it - and Rung is always going to be unwilling to compromise in the end. The secondary problem in the series is that Megatron wants Rung to himself, and Starscream wants anything that Megatron wants, and Rung actually likes both of these disasters and won’t choose between them unless one of them forces him away. The tertriary problem is that all three of them think they are the dom in this relationshp and Rung is the only one who's right.

We'd come up with an AU where Rung takes over the Decepticon army but is miserable because he had to take Megatron out to do it; Dez had written her fic where Megatron hides Rung away in a prison ship so he can have Rung to himself and they're both miserable. People were commenting on Lake House about how they were rooting for the trio and so were we, but it just seemed like everything always turned out sad. Fortunately, we had a brain wave:

After that, we basically plotted the whole thing, and then I started writing it while on a plane and frantically tried to finish a scene while the plane was landing so I wouldn't forget it. This fic wanted to exist real bad.

A lot of the basic story is straight out of chat - Dez came up with the initial scene of Megatron and Starscream fighting their way to Rung, and a lot of the choreography of the making out is also hers because she came up with this image of Starscream crawling up onto Megatron's thighs and turning Rung's head so Rung has to kiss Starscream instead of Megatron and I COULD NOT shake that. Dez also came up with the idea that Jazz would offer conjugal visits for cooperation, I started talking about everyone's reactions, and away we went from there.

One of the new parts of the fic that came out during the writing process was the Jazz/Prowl framing. I already had it set up as an outsider perspective when I started writing, but the further I got into it, the more I wanted Megatron/Rung/Starscream to seem... aspirational in a way, like they have something that other people want. That hooked together with my mulling-over of sexuality and attraction and we ended up with this fic's Prowl, who wants to be cared for and coddled a little, but thinks the only thing on offer is hooking up. If Starscream ever found out that Jazz and Prowl got together after watching him and Rung, he'd first be horribly offended and secondly be hysterically amused.

The other new part of the fic was that Starscream and Megatron thought Rung died in the battle until they saw him in the corridor. I'd written out the whole fic feeling like there was an emotional component missing - why are Megatron and Starscream so frantic when they see Rung? Why are they willing to make these trades? But it didn't click together until I was in my second round of edits. I really like how it turned out, so I'm glad I followed the emotion here instead of trying to tone it down. Something similar happened with Jazz - it was fun to write him as irritated with Rung, so as I got further into it I just let that part get blown up into Jazz losing his processor a little over this nobody medic who keeps dropping out of Jazz's memory.

What else about this fic... I feel a great pressure when writing for this series to come up with good and weighty titles since Dez set the bar so high with the Banners from the Turrets. Originally this fic was just called 'Insecure' but I like 'To Be Securely Held' because it contains the idea of insecurity but also circles back to the ending where Starscream is arguing with Rung about WHO is doing the HOLDING here. (It's Rung. Rung is the dom and he is doing the holding.)

My favorite - Okay, my favorite thing about this fic is Jazz's little spiel to Starscream about grinding against Rung's spark window, because it's very vivid and also shows exactly how far Jazz let Rung get under his plating. But my second favorite thing about this fic is all of the Red Alert things. I like how weird Cybertronians can get - they're very into their special interests, and Red Alert's special interest is everyone else's lives. I like to think that Jazz and Prowl do end up cuddling in front of the cameras in Prowl's room. Jazz grumbles but can't overcome Prowl's soft spot for their security director.

Oh, and the ending of this fic hints at the true 'good ending' to the Decepticon Rung AU - but I won't spoil it now, because we might write it someday :) Thanks for asking about this one!!

[spockandawe]

what about Prowl for the ask meme?

HECK YEAH! I had a few faves who didn’t make it into my inbox and I was considering covering on my own, and he’s the one I got to talk about least, so this is perfect!

First impression: It was very much... a mixture of some cold, some angry, some controlling. He was one of the ones who jumped out to me in mtmte 1, because I had no context for where the story was beginning, and his scene with chromedome gave me my first emotional baseline for how to be looking at the current atmosphere in the story. You’ve got Rodimus pushing tone in one direction, Prowl in another, etc. So I had no idea what his specific deal was, but that stood out to me

Impression now: I love him so much. And desperately want him to take a vacation for a century or two. I’m too lazy to look up meta I’ve written, but Prowl has a thing going on where he sees himself as making the hardest decisions because nobody else will or is able to. And he doesn’t carry himself like a Jazz or a Bumblebee, he’s not approachable or nonthreatening or charming. So he’s making lots of ugly calls while not looking very friendly, and he acts like he doesn’t care about other people or what they think... but he cares so much, and this is a disastrous combination. He’s so hurt when he thought Bumblebee was his best friend, but Bumblebee couldn’t recognize he was being mind-controlled. And the more he gets upset, the more he people away and alienates them, and the more he gets upset that.... people have been pushed away and alienated. He’s so capable, but such a fucking disaster once things start to spiral, and I desperately want him to have someone close enough and stable enough that they can anchor him if things start to slip and persuade him to maybe take a sabbatical

Favorite moment: Oh, this is hard. He doesn’t have the same kind of huge, sweeping scenes that I got to pick from for Megatron or Tailgate. He’s got so many little moments that are a quick punch to the gut without much time to linger. Okay, two favorites. One, when he’s just been set free of the mind control and is so fucking hurt that nobody could tell the difference between normal prowl and mind-controlled prowl. It really draws into sharp relief how sketchy the decisions are he’s been making, but also, like. God. Just imagine. That concept hurts so good. But also, I’ve got so, so, so much love for his appearances in the mtmte flashback arc. It hurts to see the contrast between him now and him back then, where he was still stiff and awkward and cold, but so much softer than he is after four million years of war. But particularly, the moment when he tells Chromedome that he’d leave the planet if open fighting broke out, Chromedome is like ‘you’d leave me behind?’, and Prowl is like ‘...I assumed you’d come with me.’ Christ that hurts.

Idea for a story: Oh my god, it would be so self-indulgent, but... At the end of LL, the quantum duplicate crew is basically a gang of fugitives, since they’re knowingly harboring Megatron and keeping him away from facing actual justice. Now, they’re staying far away from Cybertron. But let’s say that someone persuades Prowl to take that goddamn sabbatical. Let’s say Prowl flies halfway across the galaxy to get away from work, but still has trouble dropping the space pilot thing. Let’s say he stumbles across the Lost Light :V Basically, I want the LL effectively kidnapping Prowl and dragging him along on their space adventure. I mean, I want this story for Prowl, Pharma, Getaway, everyone I can get my paws on, it’s just the premise that varies. But the Prowl scenario is so much extra delicious because he’d be so outraged, and he’s just a delight when he’s offended-angry. And also because things were left on such an ugly note with him and Chromedome during DC, I want to lock them in a ship and nudge them towards actually talking some of their baggage out.

Favorite relationship: Okay, so Jazz is a classic, but. Chromedome. I love all the flavors of this. I love it adorable in the past, I love it falling apart in the past with them struggling to hold it together, I love thinking about everything that could have happened in the meantime, I love Prowl finding out every time Chromedome marries a new husband. I love it both as a dumpster fire in the present, and as something that maybe, maybe can be possibly salvaged in the present, if they’re very lucky. Basically, I like to characterize Chromedome and Prowl in the past as Prowl thinking ‘I assumed we were planning to get married, we just weren’t in a rush to formalize it’. And then that... didn’t happen.

Especially when you dig into how much Prowl cares underneath the coldness and how badly he reacts to perceived betrayals, and when you dig into how well Chromedome really understands everything that drives him, this ship is a bottomless well of tender and/or painful emotions.

Unpopular opinion: I’ve probably established by now that I’ve got no idea what anybody’s opinions about anything are :P Umm. I like finding a balance where I can simultaneously hold the opinion that he’s a not-terribly-repentant war criminal and that he’s not an abuser, and I know I’ve seen people trying to black-and-white the issue in one direction or another. When I’m nitpicking characterization, I see some people glossing past the ways Prowl doesn’t just feel angry, he also feels hurt, which is annoying when it was explicitly a part of the Spike storyline. (shout out to spike for being my least favorite prowl relationship in the entire series, i don’t hate many characters, but i hate him so, so much)

Favorite headcanon: Ooooh, okay. So I’m in love with the idea that in between every dead husband, the Prowl/Chromedome relationship started to revive a little, until the reasons it didn’t last before come back into play, Chromedome pulls away, and Chromedome gets married to someone else. That sucks. Even without the headcanon that he thought they were basically engaged when they were young, it sucks so much just on its own merits. That’s three times when he looked like he might be getting another chance... and nope, Chromedome hasn’t just rejected him, Chromedome has picked someone else. I like to characterize Prowl as being at least a little bit still in love with Chromedome, even after all this time, even if he’s angry with himself for still loving Chromedome. And I’m a sucker for inflicting pain on characters I adore. This would be three times where he’s gotten another chance with the person he loves, and it’s yanked away, and Chromedome falls in love with someone else. It serves no real plot purpose, but man does it hurt so good.

[unrepentantgeek]

Stolen Light

Once upon a time a god named Drift of more humble origins rose up with his comrades and helped with the downfall of a great threat. But this threat was not easy to defeat, and by the time peace was finally won much blood was on the young god's hands. When all was said and done and the immortals' political scene was revamped he was thrust with charge of the Underworld and the prison it hid.

Though though he rediscovered himself and chose a new way to live with the stigma of his past and newfound role most forgot or ignored him and the rest feared or distrusted him. He saw it as inevitable and outwardly wrote off the treatment. But it was hard not to take to heart at times, and more to the point he was lonely. So though he couldn't often bring himself to visit the mountain most other gods called home or the mortals when he could no longer stand his solitude he visited the realm of the living.

That's when he first saw him. Hot Rod, son of the God of Life. Hot Rod was messing around in a field playing with some animals and nymphs. Flowers and grass that shined like flame in the sunlight sprouted like his footsteps. Simply the sound of his laughter made everything brighter, Hot Rod himself shone like the sun and the sight of him made Drift's spirit soar.

When Drift visited the mortal plane in hopes of seeing Hot Rod a second time he was alone, carving pictures into a rock with a knife. And this time, Hot Rod noticed him. Instead of being angry Drift had been spying on him, Hot Rod invited the God of the Underworld to join him. And despite being aware of who he was Hot Rod didn't show an ounce of fear.

One secret meeting led to another, and before either realized they were meeting every chance they had. Hot Rod was everything Drift had tried not to let himself want after he realized the depth of the isolation thrust on him. And Drift listened to everything nobody else listened to or just wouldn't take seriously because of Hot Rod's demeanor. How stifled he felt, how no matter the situation nobody took Hot Rod seriously. The way his mother gave him as little freedom as Optimus would let her get away with.

Eventually Hot Rod's mother realized something was amiss and in a bought of paranoia sought to place Hot Rod under house arrest. When he met Drift in the middle of the night, he was distraught and furious. Drift could see how tired and fed up Hot Rod was was getting really unhealthy, and it distressed him seeing his solace and secret love in such a state. So he offered a solution: Hot Rod could flee with him to the Underworld. At the worst, it would be a vacation that bought them time to find a solution.

Hot Rod agreed without thought or question, trusting Drift explicitly. Neither was sure what the feeling in their chest was as they made their escape, but they had a good guess. Still unsure, both kept silent. Despite Wing & the Wreckers' influence in Drift's life and Hot Rod being older than his attitude made people expect this was new territory for both of them.

Hot Rod thrived in his new environment. When Drift was busy with his duties Hot Rod spent his time in the palace garden, playing with the spirits of children and animals or helping the gardeners. His mere presence had a tremendous effect on the Underworld. His mere presence made the plant life both native and otherwise thrive and the whole place was somehow brighter and cheerier.

As Hot Rod came into himself his powers grew with him. Plant life in places that constantly saw his presence didn't die, and new grass and flowers never seen before colored like fire that glinted with a golden glow sprouted wherever there was soil to sprout from. Soon enough Hot Rod came to be called Rodimus our of respect for his growth, power, and influence on the Underworld.

More importantly Drift and Rodimus had never been happier. As their bliss and confidence grew they naturally fell together as the love between them grew and blossomed. Things had never been better. Yet the universe conspired to give them trouble.

Grief stricken at the loss of their child or perhaps furious he was no longer under their influence the God of Life neglected their duties. And the mortals suffered, dying when normally they would recover and losing crops. The world froze over to match the God of Life's neglect, and even more people started to die.

Something has to be done. So Optimus ordered the patrons of justice, Prowl and Ultra Magnus to run an investigation. Even the muse of comedy and friendship Swerve didn't have any ideas what happened to the missing young god. But eventually, a lead was found in a nymph known to spend time with Hot Rod in the past. But that didn't mean things were working in the God of Life's favor.

You see, Perceptor even despite the time and distance was close to and fond of the God of Death, and has noticed how Drift was finally happy. And Springer though kept more distant than he liked by his duties and the God of Life's tight leash on their son was aware that Hot Rod had been spending time with someone who seemed to be good for the fiery Hot Rod. Together, they worked out the possible answer already. They were aware the God of Life's assumption wasn't likely true.

So they informed the God of Travellers and Thieves Jazz of their theory quietly and convinced Optimus Prime to send him alone to make an unbiased search and assessment. Jazz indeed went alone, and found Drift and the renamed Rodimus were lovers, and happier than anyone had thought either was a capable of. Nothing heinous had happened, and Rodimus didn't want to return.

Ultra Magnus and Prowl reported the results honestly, hoping the news would sooth the God of Life. Instead everything got worse. Finally Optimus set up a meeting to sort everything out. Drift was distraught, convinced he would he ordered to let the God of Life lock Rodimus away. Rodimus feared losing his freedom and happiness. Together they scoured the laws andore they had access to searching for a solution.

The meeting started out just as feared. Despite multiple claims nothing has had happened, that there was nothing to punish Drift for and Rodimus had consented to everything that happened the God of Life refused to see reason. They demanded that 'Hot Rod be rescued so everything could return to how it was supposed to be.' Optimus was clearly on the verge of ordering Rodimus' and Drift's cooperation.

Instead, Rodimus pulled out a fruit from the Underworld's oldest tree. Its fruit if eaten bound its consumer to the Underworld irrevocably. Amidst horrified gasps at them desperate move, he demanded to be allowed his freedom and his love if he returned to the mortal plane. The God of Life refused his and Drift's pleas. So Rodimus took a bite despite Drift's protests. There was no longer any choice, he said. And for every refusal to let Rodimus have his freedom in the mortal plane and have his lover visit him, he would take another bite. The God of Life refused and pled until finally, another bite would take Rodimus from them forever. And so half the year Drift and Rodimus had to themselves and half the year Rodimus spent in the mortal plane, within the God of Life's reach but finally free to live his life.