#thinks about it for two seconds and is like 'it's Rodimus isn't it'

[of-nyon]

Synopsis of an angsty Driftrod groundhog day fic that came to me fully formed during a nap today but idk if I really want to actually write it so I release it into the wild, you have my blessing if you want to take a crack at it (I reserve the right to write it myself also if I ever decide I'm ok with writing it)

Drift is the timelooper, the fic is set during his marriage with Ratchet while Rodimus is on the Exitus (and generally having a Bad Time). He starts looping a pretty innocuous day and has no idea as to the cause. He loses track of how many times the day repeats as he tries to figure out how he can break out, starts anticipating everything Ratchet says/does. Ratchet catches on that Drift is being squirrelly and weird. He probably suggests to Drift one day to maybe catch up with Rodimus because [scene missing, idk you tell me I'm not the one writing this thing properly].

Drift contacts the Exitus because Roddy's not picking up. Thunderclash is like oh he's not on shift right now we'll go see if he wants to speak to you.

Rodimus is passed out in his room, engex overdose or something this is the part i'm not comfortable writing tbh. He gets rushed to the medbay, Thunderclash relays it to Drift and admits no-one would've checked on Rodimus if Drift hadn't asked.

Drift goes to bed that night knowing it's not his relationship with Ratchet he needs to Fix, it's Rodimus.

The day resets. Probably a few permutations where Drift calls earlier before Rodimus passes out in his room, but it doesn't stop the timeloop. He decides he needs to go to see Rodimus himself.

This part might be a bit of a pulling-it-out-of-my-ass but he still has his contacts from when he was Deadlock and decides fuck it, might as well see if Skywarp will a) pick up and b) agree to help.

Skywarp is like 'fuck off' and Drift is like 'pls I need help :('. Doesn't work. Loop resets at the end of the day.

Tries Skywarp again but this time Drift goes for the 'hey I'm still Deadlock and I need to infiltrate an Autobot ship' angle (this might be after a few more tries and he figures out what will get Skywarp to agree). Drift eventually manages to get himself to the Exitus early enough in its day cycle to get to Rodimus before Bad Thing Happen.

Rodimus is Very Surprised to see him, Drift goes straight for the kiss, it's angsty but also not. Day DOESN'T reset after he winds up in berth with Rodimus (maybe in a guest room since Roddy's room is a tip and he's embarrassed about it). Wakes up next morning to a message from Skywarp asking where the fuck his money is, (he gets paid after some badgering) and Ratchet just like 'you could've left a note >:('

He smooths it over with Ratchet, this can end up as dratchrod if you like but driftrod is the main focus of the fic.

Rodimus gets support and therapy and a friend group who actually gives a shit about him. the end.

[cozzzynook]

Rodimus having no idea he's a tank carrier because it's so rare and was outlawed way before he was born. Tank carriers are seen as a legend because no one has ever seen one. Because of this Roddy has no idea he is one.

Due to starvation and constant stress his coding has never turned online. But when he's on the Lost Light he feels safe and makes a home for himself. Especially after he bonded to Drift and Ratchet.

His coding activates and he becomes sparked. Except no one knows including himself. He thinks his symptoms are from bad energon, stress, not sleeping enough.

Ratchet knows something is wrong but when he scans him Rodimus comes up as fine because his equipment isn't made for tank carriers.

When he starts showing they all dismiss it as him eating more and no longer starving.

Then one day his valve starts leaking and he feels a horrible cramping feeling. Drift and Ratchet are busy working and he doesn't know what to do.

He lays in bed panicking as energon leaks out and he's in so much pain. He has no idea what's happening to him.

I love this ask so much. I’m making a long fic out of this.

-

The first memory in his processor was not like the first memory of other bots on cybertron.

His very first memory file was deeply embedded and locked within a personal file beneath a personal file that did not belong to him but another he did not know.

Two mechs who he never knew designations of, could not find a single photo or holovid of nor could he ask another who they were.

All he had to go on was this memory chip implanted in his mind with a first view of both himself and two others. A shared memory file, a gesture long passed and well hidden within Nyonian culture he dare not speak to another out of fear of experimentation and functionalist backlash that remained even after the fall of Cybertron.

A mech laying in a bundle of soaked blankets on a hard floor covered in fluids that looked to be in deep pain but smiling at him. As another looked worried beyond possibility as they just as equally gazed down at him touching his helm with a sensitivity he’s never even knew the most delicate wire deep medic to have.

A touch he’s never once felt comfortable giving to another in fear of their reaction.

Their species didn’t call for such delicacy and as such it was deemed an insult to be given. Seen for the weak really.

He didn’t understand what was wrong with him for the two mechs to treat him that way when the second mech that held him was the one in such pain.

His memory core always warmed and saddened at the sight of the two and he’s never been able to figure out why.

All he knows is that the two were whispering words and pushing feelings into his spark that he’s never figured out nor been able to talk about. Rodimus isn’t sure why this memory plays from time to time during the course of his life but it has.

Always at a pivotal moment.

When Nyon fell at his own servos.

When he was shot and killed by Megatron, becoming Rodimus Prime.

When he went to find the knights of cybertron and when he encountered the Djd and time traveled.

The day he almost lost his crew and ship only to bargain for their ability to keep said home on the promise of searching out materials and fuel for Cybertrons restoration and to keep Megatron off world to give their people time to settle and rebuild their lives.

It was a shot in the dark but thankfully his flames were incessantly bright and his finish wasn’t so bad either.

The memory flux always played during pivotal moments, though annoying no Starscream and Windblade and Bumblebee so they’d say yes was not a pivotal memory flux moment. It was a pivotal personal record of his. That particular memory flux only happened when a huge moment was happening.

So why on in the galaxies milky debris was he getting memory flux after memory flux night after night ever since he started fragging conjunx Ratchet and Drift?

The two were conjunx to each other and he was just a fun time short fling that they felt bad for and kept around. He didn’t like saying it out loud or thinking about it but he knew it was true.

The two would grow bored of him eventually and when they did he hoped he could handle it.

Maybe that was why he had the memory fluxs lately?

They were going to leave him.

Maybe he should beat them to it? Rip the adhesives off and get it over with? Play it off so it won’t hurt so bad in the future? Salvage what he could so it wouldn’t be so painful in the long run? Should he just up and leave? No. That might hurt them even if they wanted to be rid of him. Maybe he should just…slowly separate himself? That could work. Right?

He tried excusing himself that same night when the two came back.

He didn’t even make it out the habs door when Ratchet grabbed him by the waist and demanded in his usual grouchy tone for Rodimus to spill what was wrong.

He…burst out in tears after trying to pull himself free of Ratchets grip for a solid five minutes only for Ratchet to lift him with ease and set him on his and Drifts laps on their couch. Drift put two digits on his chin and turned his helm holding optic contact and suddenly he was crying telling them he’ll leave and its okay that they don’t love or want him. He’ll just leave and they never have to think about him again for as long as they live.

That..—that got him a very confused and concerned set of optics and em fields that didn’t know what to do at the sudden burst of emotion coming from their intended conjunx.

Rodimus was able to slip free of their hold and stand but the two were a lot quicker than he was at the moment and they grabbed hold of him before he could run off.

The two of them were completely confused by Rodimus sudden influx of emotions and tears and the insecurity they thought was majority replaced by reassurance.

They can admit they should’ve conjunxed him already but they were truly waiting until they landed on a beautiful planet to conjunx him, not just floating in space. Although, knowing Rodimus he probably would be fine with that. Maybe they should just conjunx and spark bond with him while they floated through space? If thats what it took to assure their intended conjunx and make him happy, they’d do it. But they also knew he deserved more than a rushed mating ritual.

“Roddy, we love you. We don’t want anyone else. We just want to wait until we’ve landed to conjunx you.”

“Kid, please, no more crying. We can talk about this,” Ratchet was not one for tears no matter how many patients he’s seen breakdown, it was never his strong suit. But seeing Drift or Rodimus cry? It physically tore his spark apart.

It seemed Rodimus couldn’t even stop himself from shedding his optics and so the two led him into berth where he curled into the both of them and buried his face ashamed and embarrassed and still so genuinely hurt and afraid. His emotions felt stronger than a normal em field should and Ratchet waited until Rodimus was deep in recharge to scan him fully from the tips of his helm flares to the sole points of his pede tips.

Every single scan he could think on came back normal.

His spark was its usual difference to the average spark readings since his spark was traumatized at what his files describe as a delicate developmental stage. It was an extremely rare occurrence to appear on file and it was never added more detail than that given their government never wanted even their medical staff to know what happened under the circumstances of safety. He’d done some digging once, he found it meant they emerged from the spark with dysfunction. He never got more than that and knew anything else would mean his offlining and so he worked with what he had.

Ratchet informed Drift of his clear readings and Drift looked as if he couldn’t believe what Ratchet was telling him.

“Maybe he needs to see Rung?”

“As if the kid will willingly go to a therapist,” Ratchet rolled his optics as he fought the urge to ignite a smoke tube. “We keep an optic on him,” Ratchet finally said after a long moment, “we can’t be obvious about it either. Don’t want to aggravate whatever this is,” he huffed with a shoulder drop.

For now they knew Rodimus wasn’t in immediate or any danger for all they knew but it was safe to say something was going on and they knew to handle it with extreme care and caution.

In the following weeks they found Rodimus was often tired.

Taking the time to recharge in multiple bursts within his office after actually completing his work, he would curl into a protective ball of sorts and recharge. He abstained from his usual meteor surfing activities which greatly pleased all of his crew but worried Drift and Ratchet past this quadrants moons. Rodimus never liked passing up the chance to meteor surf for anything let alone for recharge.

Multiple scans yet again from Ratchet and nothing.

His spark was still its normal unusual pace and his frame was healthy minus the minor nutrient deficiencies. He was in good health and it bugged the two to no end since they could only watch their intended recharge throughout the day always exhausted and slowing in pace. Rodimus would drop into a deep, snoring sleep that scared the two since he never snored and didn’t wake no matter how hard they shook him.

But no matter how strange this new tiredness was, neither Ratchets nor First aid or Ambulons scanners could pick up anything being wrong with Rodimus.

Eventually the two had to accept that this was a new norm for their intended and so they began to carry a blanket and pillow in their sub space so they could have Rodimus safely recharge on them instead of his desk.

Rodimus didn’t seem to notice how exhausted he always was but the crew did and they expressed concerns to which Ratchet said Rodimus scans were normal. Many figured it was his lack of self care catching up to their captain finally but Drift and Ratchet felt differently. They just didn’t have proof but they just knew it was something else.

Things only became stranger when Rodimus suddenly didn’t like his usual brand of energon anymore. Sure they knew he never really liked any energon specifically since he was so used to starving during the war and when he lived in Nyon. But now he purged at the smell and sight of certain fuel foods, cubes and drinks.

That made Ratchet lay him down in their berth that Rodimus began to pile soft blankets onto that admittedly did make recharge a lot better. Though the two weren’t originally a fan of the pillows they couldn’t say a thing when they saw how comfortable Rodimus slept on them. Especially now that he was purging at the smell and sight of energon he usually never had a problem with.

Rodimus relationship with energon wasn’t the best but that was because he’d consume fuel even if he didn’t like it. Now he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t even be in the same room as most fuels which terrified Ratchet and Drift who immediately noticed Rodimus getting smaller. They were one nano klik away from taking a pod and bringing Rodimus back to Cybertron for Ratchet to do an invasive frame search on him when the two accidentally drank their energon around Rodimus.

The mechs tanks growled something fierce and his optics were becoming static with tears as he looked from their energon to them as he held a servo on his tanks that somehow had a small swell to it even though Rodimus hadn’t eaten in almost a month. They were quick to rush their mugs of energon to him and when he grabbed both and poured both into one mug and drank the fuel eagerly, they were smiling so happily when he was able to finish it and not get sick.

Ratchet did a thorough scan on Rodimus when the mechs back was turned and he was drinking another mix of both Drift and Ratchets fuel in the sword mechs arms while Drift rubbed his spinal strut, Ratchet was shown a clean bill of health. It left him silently fuming as he felt like he was failing Rodimus but Drift gave him a look that told him to focus on their current success of Rodimus finally being able to fuel again.

From that moment the two were more than happy to see Rodimus drinking fuel made for their frame types. He always mixed it saying it was disgusting if he didn’t and neither argued since they wanted him healthy and fueling. So when he began to gain weight in his aft, thighs and tanks they didn’t complain one bit.

Ratchet wasn’t sure why he was gaining weight in those areas only and he wasn’t sure why Rodimus was steadily gaining the most weight in his tanks or why it was round and heavy with no jiggling. He can admit he was happy their intended wasn’t wasting away but he was concerned about Rodimus getting even more tired as he fueled more than before while having mild frame pain.

The frame pain with no readings as to why sent him over the edge making him growl with a deep rev of his engine and he was throwing a wrench through the wall before he knew it. The action scared himself and Drift but it scared Rodimus even more making the mech try hiding his optics as he slightly waddled from the room with an apology.

Ratchet tried stopping their intended but Drift interrupted and told him it was okay.

“This is..stressful and scary..you throwing the wrench through the wall is fine Ratty. But whatever is going on with Roddy.. is making him sensitive..we should give him a moment and you need a moment too just like I do.”

Ratchet hated when Drift was right.

He scrubbed his face plate with his servos and vented heavily. Nodding his helm, Ratchet went to drop heavily onto their couch as Drift went off to the training rooms most likely. For a while Drift can let loose and use his claws and fangs to get his frustrations out while Ratchet can let himself ignite his smoke tube and forget everything for a while.

They were both worried about what Rodimus was doing and they commed Minumus to check the cameras to keep a detailed optic on their intended which was immediately bypassed with Minumus going to sit with Rodimus to keep a much closer optic on the mech since he was worried for him as well.

Rodimus went to the lower decks with Minimus and sat near the heated oil where he felt his frame relax and some of the pain slip free. He told Minimus he could leave which got him a blank stare so he rolled his optics and asked if Minimus could get him the new blend of energon he preferred to which the mech did but ordered him to stay where he was.

Rodimus hated how he had to follow that order seeing as he now needed help to stand since his tank was getting too heavy for him alone to raise himself.

He just really wanted a moment to sort himself and pretend he wasn’t scared. He knew something was wrong with him. He knew it wasn’t normal to be drinking Drift and Ratchets blend of energon that wasn’t made for his frame type and it wasn’t normal to be this exhausted to the point he was tired even after a nap or deep sleep. Not to mention his frame was uncomfortable now and his tank was heavy like something weighed him down.

He wasn’t an idiot, he knew Ratchet was scanning him when his back was turned and when he was sleeping. He knew Ratchet didn’t know what was wrong and he knew Drift and Ratchet were extremely worried about him. He tried not to let his emotions and em field get the best of him but he often couldn’t keep the emotional flux to himself. Ratchet and Drift were incredible at dealing with them but he wished they didn’t have to.

Venting deeply, he shifted his hips a little to try and find a more comfortable position as he dropped his shoulders and sniffled.

He didn’t want to cry right now and he wished he wasn’t stressing Ratchet and Drift out but he couldn’t help it. He didn’t know what was wrong and the memory flux he now had every night was not helping.

It seems the last time he was truly stress free and beginning to fuel at proper times of the day is when this all started. A reward of sorts for following a healthy recharge and fueling schedule was a passionate two days and nights in berth with his intendeds.

He wonders if he somehow messed something up during that time? If he knocked something a-loose or he was sparked?

He laughed at the impossibility of the second option. Ratchet would’ve seen that and he was barren anyway.

Their people had hot spots for sparklings or carried within their spark chamber until it was time for the new spark to emerge and they were placed within their frame that the sire built.

His spark was desolate in that regard.

It wasn’t fit to house another spark and furthermore he didn’t even have the sparkling sub compact spaces. He would never be able to feed them nor grow them.

When he first found out he was…inconsolable and clawing at his frame from crying out of anguish and frustration. He couldn’t understand what he’d done to deserve being barren and he couldn’t fathom why it bothered him so much in the first place. He’d found out during his time living in Nyon and that place was in no way suitable for a sparkling. That same night he was plagued with the memory flux he could not decipher but knew meant something was coming.

Not long after Nyon was destroyed by his own servo at the acceptance of his people.

It hurt.

It still does.

Even now so far from home, cruising along the galaxy further from what he’s done he was pained by his past and the current situation he couldn’t help but feel was his fault even if deep down something was nudging at him telling him it wasn’t his fault.

He placed a servo on his tanks off instinct and allowed himself to listen to that odd buried feeling he recognized as a type of coding coming to light in his processor. He felt it whenever he was near a sparkling but pushed it down and ignored it until he’d forgotten it. After learning he couldn’t have a sparkling he pushed anything to do with them away. It was too painful and while ignoring it hurt he couldn’t help but do it. The fear of exploring it far outweighed his need to divulge in the curiosity.

“Here, Rodimus. Your energon,” Minimus handed him the heavy mug and he gratefully accepted, keeping a servo on his tanks. He felt…at peace and his tanks softened at the gesture and his nerves didn’t feel so high strung anymore.

“I just want to be alone right now Mins. Please?”

There was a moment of quiet that encompassed the room and he was grateful for Minimus sitting further down with his back turned as he began to talk to his own conjunx quietly. He could hear Megatron asking about him and he silently sent an apology message to both mechs who returned it with Minumus telling him vocally not to do so and Megatron responding the same.

Neither faulted him for being, sick? He didn’t exactly feel sick but he felt off and tired while also feeling..normal in a way? Now that he wasn’t purging and could fuel again he felt better, a lot better, but the pains and exhaustion that his weight gain granted him reminded him things weren’t normal.

He consumed his fuel, rubbing his tanks as he sat against the low heat boiler— well low heat for him, he was still a fire mech at spark—and drifted in and out.

Eventually exhaustion won over and he was recharging mostly comfortably until he felt someone place a servo on him and he woke with a mild start shielding his tank with the servo that hadn’t left its spot.

“Its just us kid, its okay,” Ratchet soothed, vocal cords scratchy and deep as always, hints of tube smoke on his breath as he bent down to lift Rodimus up.

Rodimus tried pushing him away and protesting but Ratchet grouched at him making him laugh.

“I’m not that old kid, my knee struts can pick yer aft up easy,” Ratchet smirked as he lifted Rodimus with his knee struts cracking a little. Rodimus felt guilty for having Ratchet pick him up when he felt it should be the other way around but Ratchet flicked his spoiler making Rodimus stiffen and clench his thighs together. Ratchet assumed immediately he was in pain but the moan Rodimus struggled to capture left Ratchet’s optic ridges raising and his dermas lifting with them a moment later.

The scent of slick was wafting into the old medics olfactory sensors and soon he was sending an image capture to Drift who pinged him back not a full klik later ordering they get back to berth where the two could reconnect with their intended and reassure each other that things would be alright.

Minimus was long gone by the time Rodimus was on the elevator with Ratchet nipping at his helm flares making him almost drip beyond his modesty panels.

Drift was right at the elevator doors pouncing the two with greedy fangs that left bite marks on both their neck platings. His servos were about ready to take rodimus and Ratchet apart in the public empty space until Rodimus fidgeted and pushed him forward so they could reach their hab sooner.

“Please,” he moaned once inside their door even as an unknown mech hurried past blushing at their heavy em fields, “please, overload inside me.”

Who were they to deny his sweet cries as they laid him on the berth, mindful of his tanks and sensitive spoiler that fluttered so much it ruffled the sheets and helped him arch up his frame as he slid open his modesty panel. Valve dripping and swollen with slick and charge that tasted heavy and sweeter than cyber nectar during the summer heat.

Drift and Ratchet’s panels retracted so fast it hurt when their spikes pressurized and fanned the warm air.

They couldn’t even get themselves to attempt foreplay with their beautiful intended.

Spikes slipping past swollen folds and deep biolights that glowed impossibly magnificent.

The medical officer in Ratchets coding couldn’t help the subtle scan he did on Rodimus as the mech cried from feeling their spikes slip inside him at the same time. His exterior node just as swollen as his interior nodes, valve cycling down on both the spikes that were struggling not to overload early inside the heated plushy walls that weren’t as tight as he felt they should be. They were warm, wet, swollen and greedily taking everything they had to offer even after months of being untouched.

He wasn’t so lost in the pleasure he couldn’t file that for later but a look from Drift told him he wasn’t as subtle as he’d hoped and he relayed the information. Neither were at all able to stop pumping their spikes inside Rodimus until they were buried hilt deep and the tips of their spikes were touching a wet bulge that opened and allowed them deeper inside.

It was something neither Ratchet or Drift had but Rodimus always had it. The very first time they fragged it scared Ratchet a bit but when he found nothing wrong on his scans he left it alone. Now he wonders if he should’ve investigated it more thoroughly.

“Ah, Ratch, Drift, please, oh- please, overload inside me,” Rodimus cried, writhing on their engorged spikes that pushed roughly into his swollen node and squelching flesh that gave way to the two and only the two.

Ratchet and Drift put their thoughts to the back of their processor as Drift lifted Rodimus’s leg carefully to reach deeper within and make Rodimus lift himself closer to the swords mech who purred. Fangs digging blood from Rodimus’s neck cables as he felt Rodimus and his tanks push into him and grip his shoulder strut so hard he dug his digits until the paint chipped and metallico lightly bled.

Ratchet didn’t appreciate feeling left out and used his digits to tease along the seams of his chassis, both servos finding the hooks and unclasping the tight chest panel that gave way to heavy chest pouches that were swollen and sensitive to the air hitting them.

Rodimus cried out half over loading from the exposure and light brush of his dark nozzle against Drifts plating and Ratchets delicate touch. The medic took note of the changes and something flicked within his optics that he found within Drifts.

They both couldn’t stop themselves from apologizing to Rodimus who cried static as he painfully overloaded the moment Drift buried both his and Ratchets spikes as far as they could within Rodimus valve past the valve caps and into something they’ve only ever felt in Rodimus. As Ratchet gripped Rodimus’s pouches and twisted his nozzles making him release an ocean of charge from his valve and fizzle out his optics from over stimulation.

The two were soft as they kept pumping into Rodimus but they couldn’t find it in themselves to stop as Ratchet checked his systems and helped Rodimus wake up.

Little speedster was fragged past his capabilities that night as he was stuffed with overload making him feel fuller than he now typically did.

Scan after scan on himself and Drift that came back normal with a high in nutrients they were pouring into Rodimus valve was all Ratchet got and all Drifts internal scanners told them. Rodimus’s scans were reading normal with signs of exhaustion that the two felt a little bad about but strict berth rest under Ratchets orders left Rodimus’s readings normal again save for the faint pain readings that Rodimus told them was discomfort.

After that he was confined to the berth and their hab where his tanks grew steadily and it was attributed to him fueling so often and recharging so much.

It was two months later that Rodimus was alone in their hab suite, tanks feeling tight and more than just uncomfortable. He wondered if fragging every day while stuck on berth rest was the reason. He couldn’t help how charged he felt. Ever since they left the lower decks two months ago he was constantly in need of their spike and would cry until he got it. At first it was concerning him but when Ratchet found he was just overly charged but needed nutrients that their frames were overly providing and pumping into him, things were a bit calmer and the two weren’t so on edge.

He was surprised the two finally left to their shifts after waking to Rodimus shifting uncomfortably and struggling to get up to use the wash racks. His tanks were heavier than he liked admitting though the two knew since they’d lift it for him when he stood up to take the weight off for at least a solid klik.

It seemed today that wouldn’t work seeing as it hurt to have either of them touch his tanks.

He actually flinched when Ratchet put a faint digit on his tank to see what was wrong. He groaned shifting away from the mech but asked for his help to the wash rack while apologizing. He didn’t mean to worry them but his waste compartment felt painfully full and his tanks were beginning to cramp into his back plating and his spinal strut was stiff and twitching with bad nerve flares.

He decided to stay in berth after using the wash racks with an audible sigh of relief much to the twos panic.

He was uncomfortable, felt swollen in a way he hadn’t while his frame was changing and his tank felt like it dropped the moment he let himself drop back onto their nest.

“Roddy, we’ll be back within an hour at most,” Drift assured more so himself and Ratchet as Rodimus nodded half way and breathed deeply through the discomfort.

“Comm us immediately if something changes,” Ratchet ordered, it was funny, he was getting so many orders thrown at him when he was co captain of the ship. He couldn’t bother to find the orders anything but endearing since they were worried about him.

“I’m gonna try and sleep,” he told them as he shifted deeper into the pillows that he now used to sleep sitting up since it was too uncomfortable to sleep laying down.

He wasn’t going to be able to sleep, he knew that, but they didn’t. He wanted a moment alone to work through the pain without either of them panicking. He hoped whatever this was would be finished before they came back. Ratchet was heading to the medbay to get the next few days off while Drift was just doing the most important part of his new shift that’d only take thirty minutes at most before he was racing back to their hab.

He felt guilty for making them worry but they told him not to think about that, he took those words to spark when he felt a staggering pulse of pain contract around his hips and across his tanks making him flinch and stutter a vent.

His servos instinctively rubbed circles along the sides of his tank as he vented shakily and slowly laid back into the pillows until he felt another pulse ripple along his tanks and a heavy weight crush against his valve panel that seeped through his modesty panel.

His optics were wide and confused as he felt another pain grip him by the tank and twist at him until he was gripping his own tanks venting harshly feeling as if something within him was strangling his insides with how tight they became.

He punched out a breath of nothing as his windpipe struggled to do anything more but flex at his strained attempts to inhale as his tanks lurched and dropped fully.

He didn’t have a clue what was going on or what was happening to him and he didn’t have time to figure it out when he suddenly felt his tanks squeeze tighter this time before suddenly letting go and his modesty panels slid open without his permission. Releasing a flood of fluids that gushed until it seeped into the berth and made a puddle around him.

He felt his frame getting a momentary break and he rushed the best he could to sit forward but his tanks were in pain and too low for him to do more than shift to his side where he got stuck when another pulse of pain wracked his frame and he felt something within his tanks shift and he punched out a yelp of pain as he gripped the soaked sheets feeling like his insides were being torn apart.

He tried to focus on breathing when the intense feeling came to an end but he could feel another one slowly building and he was cramping in this position so he rocked himself on shaky and weak arms until he was on his servos and knees with his valve burning in the exposed air and moisture coating his frame as he began to overheat.

The pain came in another wave and this time he was slightly prepared as he grit his denta and grunted the best he could as he vented harshly when it was over.

His vision was blurry from tears building and he swayed on all fours as the next intense pain slammed into his frame feeling worse than the last.

The next pulse of pain lasted longer than the others and he wondered for a moment if this is how he would die? Why did it have to be so painful? What did he do to deserve this?

The memory flux he long associated with dread came to the forefront of his processor and he bent down sobbing as he thought this was really how he would die.

He’d die from intense pain until his spark gave out and he would never know what the memory flux meant or who the two mechs who plagued his entire life were or what they were saying.

He sobbed into his arm as he felt another painful pulse ripple through his tank and this time it made his spinal strut seize and he coughed up nothing, struggling to vent as he let his upper half collapse into the ruined sheets and pillows feeling his spark tighten from the ongoing pain and he closed his optics. He didn’t want Ratchet and Drift to see him like this but he didn’t want to die alone. He didn’t want to die at all.

“Oh my sweet spark, I’m so sorry we have to leave you like this,” a voice he didn’t know spoke to him and looking around the room with bleary optics he couldn’t see another bot but the voice persisted, weak as he felt, loving in a way he never knew possible and so comforting he almost forgot the pain he was in.

He felt another large wave of pain crash into his systems and notifications popped on his hud in his native dialect he’d long forgot was different than standard cybertronian glyphs.

His memory flux came to the forefront as he struggled to vent and gripped his tanks as the pain pushed him over the edge to the point he felt he was being ripped from the inside out that he let a strangled yelp turned cry free into the pillow and his arm as his memory continued to play.

Everything was fuzzy and he couldn’t really hear anything beyond the memory flux nor could he stop himself from letting the bond open allowing Drift and Ratchet to feel his pain, knocking them still and breathless as they struggled to gather themselves and their systems that had to reboot from the unbearable torment suddenly unleashed from Rodimus’s end of the bond.

“My sweet spark, you look so beautiful,” the exhausted mech that looked like he did said breathless, while cuddling him in a bundle of blankets, “one day you’ll understand why we had to leave you and one day you’ll be able to decipher this memory we pass on to you. But for now it will only come in silence as a warning for when you need it. Be it good or bad,” the mech that was built like him and carrying a large tank spoke tiredly before kissing his helm with the help of the mech who had his colors.

“We love you so much sweet sparkling. But it’s dangerous now with the functionalists hunting mechs like you and your carrier. So we have to leave you with a trusted amica who will take great care of you, our beloved sparkling.”

The two mechs were crying and kissing him as much as they could like always but this time he could understand what they were saying and it made his spark melt and tighten.

“We love you sweet spark and every time you flux in recharge and see us it’s our warning of safety and love to you. You will only know our words and voice when you have a sparkling of your own so you know whats happening to you sweet spark.”

“We’re so sorry we can’t be there to love and take care of you. We’d give anything to see you grow and give you everything your spark desires. But we were caught and now all we can gift you is life and this memory.”

“My sweet bitty,” the mech the same color as him cried, “i’m your sire and I love you so much.” He sobbed for a new reason as pain wracked his frame, he could half understand what they were saying but the pain was unbearable and he felt something move inside of him that made him terrified and yelp.

“Always know this my love,” the mech who physically looked like him cried, “just know we love you and we never wanted to leave you,” the mech cried as a loud bang sounded and shouting started.

“We love you sweet spark,” the other mech spoke before standing and shooting at a mech who barged in. He watched as the mech who looked like him tried to get up and run only to fall and cry in pain, shielding him.

The mech who was his color shouted and used their frame to shield the two of them and a hole was blown into his spark for his efforts. He cried feeling a piece of him he never knew be ripped away and he watched as the mech holding him pleaded for his sparklings life and to do whatever they wanted with him.

The mechs remained silent and the mech holding him was shot in the helm.

A final act of love was the mech wrapping their arms around him to shield him from the fall.

The memory ended with the sounds of what he now knew to be his cries before ending and he opened his tear stained optics to his berthroom where he was alone.

His professor was half putting together what the memory flux was until he felt another sharp pain ripping his attention painfully and he let out a strangled cry as he felt pressure begin to lower in his tanks and the door burst open to their hab and a rush of pedes barged into the room before halting.

The sounds of vents heaving and the shocked em fields wrapping around him didn’t take his attention for long.

He felt another wave of pain rush him and he gripped the sheets tighter feeling his frame rock at the pain as he tried to alleviate the worst of his pain.

“Roddy!”

Drifts cry and Ratchets heavy pedes broke him from his pain and he felt relief at no longer being alone as he sobbed allowing Ratchet to begin checking his valve panel hearing him curse the worst he’s ever sounded as he let it slip that what came from Rodimus was fluid he didn’t know mixed with blood.

“Frag! Ratty whats wrong with him?!”

“Damnit Drift I don’t know!”

That made the room grow silent as Rodimus panted, accepting Drift lift him up and lean his weight onto the swords mech as he panted. Optics close as he felt a moment of relief.

He felt disoriented, overheated, tired, exhausted and in the worst pain he’s ever felt.

He shifted a little when he felt the beginning signs of pain coming and he knew he couldn’t handle being on his back or sitting half upright as he was so he shifted himself and Drift and Ratchet immediately asked him what was wrong.

“End..bed..end..” He panted the words out hoping they understood and when the two began to carefully move him to the end of the bed, he thanked them the best he could before gripping Drifts servo and squeezing in pain when another painful pulse rippled through his entire body making him grit his denta in a long whine and groan that turned growl at the end.

Ratchet was frantic running scan after scan as Drift tried to tell him to breathe and while he understood, he was tired and overheated and the words weren’t helping. For some reason he felt like he needed to have his knees on the berth and he needed Drift holding his front or at least up there with him.

He was shifting before he realized, stopping when another painful pulse stabbed him this time making him whimper and cry in embarrassment as his waste tanks opened and he pissed himself.

Ratchet was still scanning him frantically and got so angry he ripped the device from his arm and began to feel on Rodimus’s chassis plating near his spark before stopping to help Rodimus shift so he had his knees on the edge of the berth and Drift was holding him from the front while Ratchet held his sides and thats when he felt how tight they were. He’d never experienced anything like this and he was terrified because he didn’t know how to help and he was terrified they were losing their conjunx.

Drift was shedding tears as he tried to soothe Rodimus who held onto him and gripped his servo at the next painful pulse. Something about this one felt different and he was still apologizing out of breath for pissing on himself while Ratchet and Drift were trying to soothe him that it was okay when he felt something kick, actually kick, him from the inside and move down making him gasp out a sob.

He couldn’t breathe out the word, what, fast enough before another heavy strangled tightening gripped his tanks and something in his processor told him to bear down, the same voice of the mech who looked physically like him, and he was suddenly gritted his denta on the next pulse as Ratchet held his sides and Drift his front while holding him up in a close hug.

Rodimus gripped Drifts servo and bore down feeling something move down and he stopped venting as he did so, letting his whole frame sag once he stopped and thats when Ratchet moved down after Drift yelped from how tight Rodimus gripped his hand.

“Kid, whats wrong, talk to me, please,” Ratchet got down and looked at Rodimus valve when Rodimus suddenly bore down again and Ratchet didn’t know what to do so he let him.

He felt Rodimus’s tanks and felt that the top was hard, harder than what was physically possible for their species and he felt fear spike up in him all over again. He was running so many scenarios in his processor that he all but blue screened for a klik when Rodimus bore down once more and screamed, as he put a servo on his valve and his optics popped open with new tears.

“Roddy! Whats wrong?! Roddy?!”

Ratchet gently moved Rodimus servo, the first movement he’s done this past hour that wasn’t bearing down in pain while he sat uselessly behind him watching, and felt along the swollen and painful looking valve only for his optics to bulge out when he felt something.

“Primus! Kid! What is this?!”

“Fuck Ratchet! What is it?!”

“I don’t know! But it’s coming out!”

Rodimus gripped Drifts servo again and struggled to bear down. He was exhausted and the pain was too much. This was too much.

“Kid? Kid! Ya gotta stay awake! For whatever this is ya gotta stay awake!”

“Roddy? Roddy! Wake up Roddy! Come on wake up!”

He groaned feeling the two lower him onto the berth on his back and he whined feeling pain wracking him worse than before as Drift slapped his face plates to wake him up and Ratchet pressed on his chassis opening it up and lifting his nozzles to keep his spark going.

“Tired,” he barely got out as his vision went in and out.

“We know Roddy, we know. But you gotta wake up and then when this is over you can sleep as much as you want but for now you gotta wake up!”

“Come on kid! Don’t do this to us! You gotta wake up kid! You gotta live, please!”

Rodimus felt himself intaking air as Ratchet made his spark strengthen and he felt their tears on his face plates making him open his optics.

He hated seeing them cry and he hated being the reason…maybe he could try one more time?

He pictured the mech who looked down at him with so much love and the mech who first laid eyes on him as the other mech screamed and soon he was screaming too before cooing.

‘Huh,’ his processor felt something click but he didn’t through the exhaustion.

He shifted himself tiredly and with their help he sat up and shakily pulled his legs up and put a servo on one knee when Ratchet lifted them for him and he felt Drift sit behind him, putting his legs beside his to help them stay up. Rodimus gripped his servo and Ratchet stayed near his valve as he put a servo on his tanks feeling how impossibly tight it had become as Rodimus inhaled and pushed.

Pushed as hard as he could feeling something move further down and suddenly it felt like he was on fire the second time he bore down.

He couldn’t stop the agonizing scream he let out.

It didn’t even sound like him.

The sound of it stunned the two mechs with him and before he could apologize or do anything besides let his spark spin, he was pushing again feeling something press against his valve as he screamed bloody murder.

He was sure he crushed Drift’s servo with how tight he was gripping and shaking it but the mech didn’t say anything, just held him and let him crush it as he pushed again and heard Ratchet gasp as if Primus himself had gifted them something wonderful.

“Keep..keep pushing kid! Keep pushing! Its..its..yer almost done Rodimus, oh primus, yer almost done,” he beamed catching the two off guard.

Rodimus was too busy pushing but Drift was able to ask, “ratty? What is it? What is…primus..”

Drift could see past Rodimus since he was the taller of the two and he could see why Ratchet was crying and smiling for an entirely new reason.

With a vocal shattering shout, Rodimus gave the last bit of strength he had into this one last push and he felt the ring of fire covering his valve and frame slip free of him and dropped into Drift’s frame crying from an over abundance of emotions.

Nothing registered to him for a nano klik until he pushed out something that felt squishy and thick and he heard Drift and Ratchet gasp and then…and then a cry rang out in the room. A cry that made him open his optics and start crying for an entirely new reason.

He struggled so much to lift himself but Drift did it for him and Ratchet brought the crying, screaming, flailing, little bundle to him. Allowing him to cradle them in his arms and look at them. Really look at them as he held the reason his frame changed. The reason they worried for a year and some months. The very reason he was in endless pain for so many hours.

A sparkling.

A real, crying, tiny, strong engine sparkling that was all protoform and no metallico just yet.

Flailing little arms and legs in his hold, with unclear optics that looked just like Drifts shape and Ratchets color with beginning helm finials like Drift and heavy weight like Ratchet.

A sparkling.

Their sparking.

“Oh my gosh..Roddy..you were sparked..all this time you were sparked…”

Drift looked at their sparkling like they hung the stars and Ratchet hadn’t stopped crying since he realized.

“We have a sparkling Ratty! We’re sires! Oh my gosh we’re sires!”

Drift’s em field was drowning the room in happiness just like Ratchets and all Rodimus could do was cry in happiness as he held them.

“My bitty,” he sobbed, “you’re my bitty,” he wailed hugging them close. Finally understanding the memory flux.

“I love you so much,” he cried, “I love you so much,” he sobbed, kissing their helm and counting their digits before looking at their spark. It looked exactly like his own.

He felt fear and the two were on guard thinking he was having another when he shared the memory flux through the bond.

They suddenly understood his fear.

It was kept quiet and only high command and first aid knew that Rodimus had just emerged a sparkling from his tank.

The two cleaned their berth as Rodimus held their sparkling, allowing them to feed from Rodimus nozzles that began to leak energon milk. Megatron stood guard outside with Minimus listening on their comms as Ratchet scoured the forbidden archives and found information on tank carriers and how functionalists offlined them all save for a few. They hid their existence and didn’t teach medics about them. Thats why Ratchet couldn’t detect them and thats why Rodimus didn’t know.

Ratchet said a whole slew of words none knew existed and when he left to call the high council, they knew many would disappear for a while.

The crew was alerted that a sparkling was on board but not how they emerged.

Rodimus was immediately confined to berth rest and Ratchet manually checked him over while he was asleep.

Drift was holding their sparkling as Ratchet gave Rodimus an actual diagnosis and planned for a special energon diet to make up for the metals he was low on that their sparkling soaked up.

“He really grew a sparkling and we didn’t even know,” Drift let their sparkling grab hold of his digit and laughed quietly when Ratchet stole their sparkling with a smile.

“They’re beautiful,” Ratchet smiled, going with Drift to lay beside Rodimus who was knocked out cold.

“I’d do anything for them,” Drift smiled, kissing their delicate helm.

“We owe the kid big time,” Ratchet half joked.

“Absolutely,” Drift smiled, inhaling the scent of their sparkling with Ratchet.

A grumble from Rodimus and the two rubbed the side of his tender tanks and he sighed going back to sleep.

“I can’t wait til he wakes up. Then we can think of names,” Drift whispered giddy.

“Let the kid sleep,” Ratchet smiled kissing their sparklings tummy, “he’s more than earned it.”

“Mm yeah,” Drift smiled, “he has.”

-

[altraviolet]

How do you find a character's 'voice'? I have no problem writing OCs, but when it comes to existing characters I get so anxious that I'm mischaracterizing them!

This is a great question! This is definitely something I struggle with sometimes. Here are some of the things I've done to try to keep characterization consistent:

watched a bunch of videos about characterization and the craft of writing

gone back to the canon and reread parts that featured the character you're trying to write

reduced the character to like, ONE descriptor, ONE "essence," if you will. JRO did a great job making very identifiable characters for us. although many of the initial characterizations are modified by the end of the comic, you can still use that "essence". I'll give an ex in a minute but after you identify that "essence," keep it in mind for your character when you write them

when writing from their POV, or from a close third narration (or heck second person talking to them), remember what the character knows. how did they get to the place they are now? what kinds of details in a room would they notice?

This is not all I've done but it would take me SO LONG to put together more points so we'll move on~!

Okay so for more details on the above:

The Essence Thing

I think Ultra Magnus is a really good example of this. We're introduced to him having a very specific outlook on life (we literally see through his eyes in one early panel, it's great). We understand him to be a VERY strict mech who adheres to the Autobot Law to the letter (semi-colon, actually, lol). We see him meticulously arrange and rearrange objects, we see him point out screws that are misaligned by 0.001% (paraphrase, I don't remember the exact wordage). All in all, it's really easy to understand in just a couple of words who he is. Meticulous to a fault. Rodimus distracts him by using bad grammar on purpose.

By the end of the comics, he's loosened up a little. And (SPOILERS for the end of the comics), Megatron telling him to abandon his armor and be true to himself is something he's receptive to. Whereas in the beginning he wore it as somewhat literal armor. And refused to smile.

So what have I done with my fic? Well, it's important to keep in mind that UM isn't going to change all his ways. He won't be as much of a stickler as before, because he's learned to have friends in some capacity, and that's loosened him up a little tiny bit. But he's going to retain that core trait of being really into keeping things neat and tidy. And, the UM that Megatron told to abandon his armor isn't the one that made the jump. So I assumed they had that convo later in their friendship. The TEG UM still has those organized traits (cuz it's funny), but he's not as bad as he used to be.

So hopefully that makes sense. Boil your character down to a trait or two and keep it in mind for everything.

Oh boy the asks are piling up so I'm gonna try to go a bit faster now.

What The Character Knows

Let's do a little thought experiment. Tailgate and Drift walk into a random Autobot bar. What does each mech notice?

If I said one of them quickly identifies friendly mechs and the other one identifies unfriendly mechs, can you tell which did which? Who notices the energon specials and who takes note of the weapons behind the bar? Which one will remember a time he went with his conjunx to a bar and didn't get in a fight? haha

Okay so you can probably guess the answers that I intended for the above! Drift had a hard past, then became a violent Decepticon. Tailgate was asleep for 6 million years and then woke up and befriended a ton of people and had Movie Nights and also some trauma but he never had to fight for his life like Drift did.

So, as you can see, what the character knows (which is informed by their past, their education, their belief systems, the friends they have, the enemies they have, etc) really impacts how they see the world. And you can use that to your advantage by trying to look through their eyes keeping in mind what they know.

Sorry I'm gonna have to end this here, but this is a great topic. I'll try to write more about character voice and POV in the future. If you want to poke me later about it here or on twitter, please do. I will get my thoughts together and also find the links to the videos I've watched :)

[crying-fantasies]

When siblings fight

Masterlist

Rodimus

Sunset is Rodimus' only kid, thank Primus.

More times than not, some bots think that they are spark brothers (Sunset looks a lot like Rodimus when he was Hot Rod) before they realize that Sunset is a Terraformer and say something about it (occasionally they just say "ah, it's one of those" and Rodimus takes it as an insult even if it wasn't)

He is also usually way more calm and just tries to go on with his life, ignoring what others say about him.

Rodimus is another story.

"Dad, let's just go-"

"Ah no, I have a few things to say, hey, you frag face!"

"Dad!"

Is usually Sunset who stops Rodimus, in the worse case escenario he will call Ultra Magnus (who is an enforcer), he won't call Megatron because it could get terrible worse (Rodimus, sometimes, gets the old bot on his side, no one knows HOW) and get from a little commentary to bloody hell.

If someone says something about you, then both are on fire (literally) and ready to start a physical fight.

Optimus

Codexia is an only child and she is an angel, she never gets in any fights, in fact, she tries to stop them with tender words and then hearing both parts involved to give a solution.

No one knows how she puts everything in order, but she does, something that she really needs when she takes the title of Prime even when there is no war.

"How did you get them to an agreement?"

"Natural talent?"

If someone says something about you, Codexia tries to be hard, but fails miserably because she cringes everytime someone says a bad word.

Optimus is the one that appears menacingly behind both you in a protective manner, no one can even utter a sound, because that's Optimus fragging Prime.

When she was only Codexia she tried to be as natural and neutral as she could, when she was called Eminence that was even harder since the Autobots badge was put on her, keeps trying to go on with her responsibilities without relaying on Optimus.

Prowl

Chainbreaker is an only child, but he isn't a saint, well, not entirely.

Your kid haven't done nothing wrong in your eyes, he is very disciplined and prefers to talk above starting a fight, even when it doesn't involve him, such a nice kid, that's how every adult bot see him.

In the other hand, Prowl is more than sure that CB has started way too many fights and even made some mild ones worse, but he never has complete evidence of it.

Prowl doesn't know if he must feel worried by this behavior or be pleased (maybe proud) about Chainbreaker's ability to keep a clean track.

"Well played, kid"

"I don't know of what you're talking about, father"

CB really doesn't know, he does try to help calm the riot but he only gets it worse.

Truth is that he has Prowl's resting bitch face, something that he and some Praxians have to live with (Smokescreen tends to pat the young bot's shoulder armor in support and understanding).

Whirl

Whirl knows that Tik Tok is a sentient group of scraplets that can murder a cybertronian by eating it from inside out in mere seconds.

Does that make him stop the fights between his two girls? Absolutely no, he is in reality placing bets.

"That was my energon cube!"

"You don't even have a necessity for it, just drink water or whatever!"

"But that was my sweet flavored energon cube!"

They get physical more times than not.

Cyclonus is the one that stops the fight, or you, or he helps you because Tik Tok and Whirl Jr. can get so mad to one another that more than once you were way to close to being stomped on.

Tailgate is crying in a corner saying that he couldn't live with himself if something ever happened to any of them, almost bawling when they are cat fighting in the floor, he is going to buy more energon snacks, so stop this madness!

Whirl called you all boring, but he is the first one to stop any fight if it really does get out of control.

Blurr

When some parents have two hormone drive teenagers with a short temperament and around the same age, it's normal an even healthy to let them fight and get to a mutual understanding by themselves.

That's a liberty that Blurr and you can't have.

Not when your first child is wild and way too ready to throw a punch or your youngest that can boil someone alive if he really is on the edge.

"Pressurized hot tea pot valve"

"Dry hay hair pussy"

"Cry baby virgin"

"Poor excuse of a mammal"

"You call my tits little one more time and I'm cutting your wires while you recharge!"

Blurr has tried to stop them more than once, but Ripley and Typhoon know that he doesn't exactly mean it when he takes an authority aura, they know that he is way too soft when it comes to them.

When Blurr's long time friends come to the bar and see that kind of display they would laugh while saying how it melts their spark that Ripley acts just like her mentor when he was young, Blurr can only damn his younger self internally.

You need to be there to stop any fight from going too far (your husband simping for you in the corner, quietly).

Blurr has lost way too many loved photos in every one of his kids fighting moments, you tell him that those are still saved in data, he says it's not the same.

Bumblebee

Rosalinde was already a young adult when Blood Horn was forged so they never had a real collision with one another.

It's difficult to be angry with the little femme when she is just so little, and the bright pink of her armor is way too eye catching, making BH quite (a lot) more adorable.

And a lot more easy as a target.

Yet again, Rosalinde has grown worried about Bumblebee, her adoptive father, for as long as she can remember.

And Blood Horn is even worse than Bee when getting in trouble.

"What were you thinking?! That femme was thrice your size!"

"It's fine, she felt my punch in her face plate!"

"But then she stomped all over you! You are covered in dents and your own energon..."

Rosalinde ends up crying more times than not for her little sister.

Bumblebee tries to tell her not to worry, he is going to see what he can do and also talk to BH, but he can only do so much with you already in tears, everyone using your baby as a ragdoll and she going around like it was normal!

Bee can only believe that there is something wrong with the pink color, some kind of bad vibes or something, Arcee likes BH color and tells her so everytime they cross paths.

Jazz

Having three kids is a wild road, one that Jazz takes while singing "Life is a hallway"

He let's them vent anything they want to say because he believes in the growth by experiences.

Pauline is quite the smart cookie, getting away with many discussions as the winner, he is also the oldest, Amber Dust is your little boy, even when he is as tall as a house, so he tends to go for you in hopes of get your help.

Mariah, since she is the family's bebe, tends to be a little shit.

"Why do you have my music in your room?"

"I just found it there, okay bro?"

"Don't lie, Mariah! You don't even need it!"

"Please stop fighting or I'll tell creator about it!"

"Don't get in this, Amber!"

Amber Dust tends to be ignored even when he tries to keep peace, typical middle child crisis.

They never go to far with their words, so Jazz watches and hears from a distance, content smile on his face plate when the three get to a mutual understanding.

And intervening if things go too wild to his or your liking, it never happens, really, but is better be safe than sorry.

[transingthoseformers]

Gosh, I love Ratchma conceptually. because honestly, I'm pretty sure it was a friendship with a dash of unrequited love on Pharma's part because Ratchet was willfully oblivious to but not unrequited. But a genuine friendship, nonetheless, that I like to think would have blossomed into a friends-to-lovers situation post-war because I cannot see Pharma being anything but supportive and bluntly insulted on Ratchet's behalf the second Ratchet implies he's "over the hill".

I personally have a bit of a small kernel of an idea of a Delphi AU in which the DJD never showed up too distracted with the war, and didn't want anyone knowing about their sceret base there, so when Ratchet convinces the Lost Light to stop by since people are being recalled to Cybertron, Pharma thinks they are finally discussing the Relationship and Ratchet ghosting him for a decade. Instead, Ratchet says he's failing and he needs a replacement.

Pharma is not having it and immediately starts working on his hands and telling Ratchet not to say that Functionist slag near him. Just fully supportive and co-leading the Lost Light medic team. Ambulon and First Aid getting to see a cheerful Pharma and more of the lighthearted teasing friendship that may have existed. Like we get a glimpse of Ratchet being warm with Thunderclash and sees him soften around Drift post marriage.

There's a lot of will the won't they and dancing around it with joking and not quite flirtation.

And because I'm a sucker for it, Pharma and Drift actually vibing once they've sussed each other out and Pharma co-opting him to help "get that old bucket of bolts" to take care of himself. Pharma and Drift bonding over both having "unrequited" feelings for him and commiserating on it though it takes Pharma a bit of poking and bluntness to get Drift to finally verbalize it because saying it clearly would kill him.

Ratchet, though, gets the bright idea to instead hook those two up, thinking they are interested in each other and giving some very confusing messages and no one is exactly stellar at being clear or vulnerable here and trying to get by on "unspoken understanding" which isn't exactly fool proof. So, Driftma has a quick, in-depth conversation about if the two of them could work as either metamours or in addition to Ratchet. Which is, of course, when Ratchet starts pulling away.

Rodimus, who has just sort of been hanging out on the side and is always just there (he followed Drift once, so Pharma just sort of accepted this must be a package deal situation since he isn'texactlywidely experienced with friendships, and Rodimus scenting weakness took it and they are now friend-in-laws bordering on friends for real) points out that maybe they should actually just talk about this and asks if Ratchet knows that they want to date him and not each other. Because it sounded like when Rodimus had some potential insecurities about his place as Drift's friend when other friends were involved and they had to, you know, talk about it.

Driftma says, of course, Ratchet knows and then immediately realizes he does not and set out to correct this.

(I love Ratchma, but have a soft spot for Dratchma, too.)

Rodimus gives a very smug speech at their Conjunxing post-ceremony party.

OOOOO YES

It's interesting to think about Pharma without the Delphi Incident happening because it's such a big part of what we see so early in mtmte, but we forget how good of a guy he was pre– tarn bullshit

Ooo? On pharma and drift interactions

Ratchet:

Ratchet: oh, i see what's happening here! (Not quite)

Ratchet: matchmaker time

Win on Roddie for being the one to click in (not the final piece, but an integral) piece of the puzzle here! I imagined him in a tuxedo here

[cloudraker]

MTMTE Roddi or Whirl with a love-hate relationship with a human liaison y/n who prides herself on being super polite, lady-like and as professional as possible. But! When they think no one's watching they curse like a sailor.

I want you to know I sat and thought about this request for sooo long I think it's amazing thank you anon <33

MTMTE Rodimus and Whirl with a Ladylike Liaison

Under the cut :)

Whirl

Honestly thinks you're a stick in the mud, a second Magnus sent to ruin all things fun

He's going to spend a truly brow raising amount of time trying to provoke you, only to be met with professional indifference every time

It's truly infuriating, but he's made it his personal mission to get you to crack in some way and he's nothing if not determined (to be a pain in the ass)

It's when he hears something drop and shatter that he goes to investigate, hoping to find somebody to make fun of, only to find you standing above (what he thinks) is a broken glass and a bright liquid seeping into the floor

What surprises him the most is that your attitude has changed completely, curses he's never even heard of spilling from your mouth with practised ease

His entire worldview is changed, endless opportunity stretched before him at the sheer novel of words he's just learned. You've created a monster

It's only now that you notice him come in, and it's impossible to miss the glee radiating from his single eye

"Holy shit." "Whirl-"

Now that he knows you do have the capacity to swear, it's his new goal to make you do it in public. Others are rather confused at the new attitude Whirl has taken towards you, but simply write it off as Whirl being himself

Rodimus

Also thinks you're a stick in the mud, a second Magnus sent to ruin all things fun

As captain of the ship, he spends quite a bit of time with you during your shifts, and has decided that you're a very stuck up, no fun sort of person and isn't surprised in the slightest when you and Magnus hit it off

He was honestly rather excited about having a human on the ship at first, but quickly lost interest after realizing you wouldn't entertain his antics

It's when the two of you are on a late shift on the bridge when Rodimus gets a call from a bot you don't recognize, but from the way Rodimus stiffens it's clear he does

The entire call is basically Rodimus getting chewed out for something he may or may not have done and he may or may not deserve the chewing out, but the bot on the call was honestly just a dick about it

Once the call ends, Rodimus slumps into his chair and it's clear he's thrown off from what just happened

"Who the fuck was that?" "Wh- huh?" "Like, seriously. What a prick!"

He's truly amazed you know how to swear, a dumbfound look on his face slowly being replaced by a smirk and a huff as he chimes in with his own grievances

A bit miffed when you return to your upstanding citizen shtick the next day. Nobody believes him when he tells his tale of the night before

[decepti-thots]

Roddy x Megatron 🔥

Sorry if you meant this strictly in terms of shipping anon but I'm going to talk more generally about just their dynamic, oop.

Fandom often treats Rodimus' distaste for Megatron at the start as a principled, moral one. I disagree. One thing I do actually really like about their canon interactions, especially early on, is that I genuinely feel like Rodimus is not in fact primarily opposed to Megatron and his position on the ship because he simply thinks that Megatron does not deserve a second chance or anything for moral reasons; I talked about this like two years or so ago here, I think Rodimus fundamentally does not have an issue with that in principle the way a lot of the crew on the LL do. I think the thing which drives their dynamic at first is that Rodimus has a clearly personal dislike of Megatron, much more than he has any existential moral crisis about whether or not Megatron is irredeemable or whatever.

To me, this is much more interesting than questions about moral judgement. Prior to the introduction of Megatron to the cast, MTMTE isn't driven by moral conflict, IMO. Even when characters do things a moral judgement can be made on, that's not what the story is most interested in getting conflict out of. Take Rodimus' fuckup with Overlord, for example. It's very easy for an audience to frame this in moral terms, to look at why Rodimus doing All That is morally wrong, and it's not like it isn't. But the primary conflict that comes out of it for the story going forward is simply less interested in that than it is narrowing it down to one of personal failings, and what it means for the character. The fallout is around his captaincy and his insecurities and how these impact his relationship with the people around him, and what opportunities for personal growth that then presents, rather than a mediation on like, the morality of his actions. And that's not a misstep on the part of the comic! The comic is just using these heightened situations as a way to present larger-than-life canvases to blow those things up to a scale where they can be explored more broadly. The narrative engine of MTMTE at that point is one driven by heightened interpersonal conflicts, not questions of Right and Wrong, and the fallout follows that arc with buy-in from the audience. It's a matter of framing, more than anything.

Megatron's arc is not that; Megatron's arc is about moral existential crises and such, and my opinion on how well the comic can support that in the end aside I think the conflict accidentally created there is where the interest lies for these two. I think the unfortunately kind of untapped potential of the Megatron-Rodimus dynamic mostly lies in that dissonance, and I think it's way more interesting than the more common fandom approach of framing Rodimus' eventual approval of Megatron as some kind of redemptive salve that somehow validates him. Their dynamic is best IMO when it exists in a way where those two distinct approaches are clashing in a way that's made deliberate, and where Rodimus' perspective as someone more in tune with the comic's original perspective is one which disrupts the attempt to shift the needle over to questions about morality instead of the more focused look at 'well maybe you ARE an asshole who sucks, but can you maybe make some friends anyway, without you needing to not actually be an asshole who sucks?' The best Megatron-Rodimus dynamic, for me, is the one where Rodimus is kind of interrupting that attempt to do a quote-unquote 'redemption arc' and bringing it back to the level the comic originally functions at, and I think the dynamic is so much more interesting when that's happening, instead of Rodimus as a kind of facilitator of the whole redemption arc thing, idk. I don't think the comic ever really manages to do that tbh, but I think you can play with that in a fandom space because it gives you enough to work with, and it's what I always want out of fanworks about them tbh, in any context. Just more compelling to me than the more common 'Rodimus is a vehicle for confirming Megatron as Morally OK Now TM' stuff I tend to see.

[popculturebuffet]

Transformers More than Meets the Eye Retrospective: Dark Cybertron Part Deux (Patreon Review for Brotoman.EXE)

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to my more than meets the eye retrospective! It's the end of an era as we finish dark cybertron and bring an end to season one of IDW's transformers books. It's been a long road but we're finally done with an epic finale full of giant robot fights, douchebags getting suplexed and bisected dictators. IT's a good time.

To recap the last part:

Or for the long version, look at this link

When we last left off: Optimus was left at the mercy of a genocidal tyrant who wouldn't shut up, half the lost light was fighting for thier lives , the other half might of exploded , Starscream had concrete proof Primus hates him, and Bumblebee mostly stood around not doing much, which for once was actually the right call. Under the cut we finish that as three autobots debut, an autobot dies and another takes his place, and Shockwave tries to rewrite history without solving a mystery first, the blasphemy.

We open part 7 back on the Lost Light for the first time in a while as Hound is in command

Hound.. is a vetran soldier. I don't know much else and frankly I forgot he was on the ship, and had to look up if he leaves it after this season.. and he doesen't. How he's somehow in the chain of command is beyond me. I mean Blaster is still on board. How does Blaster rank bellow Hound? Blaster has casettes baby. He can do sound stuff.

Anyways the Amonites retreat, giving swerve a chance to realize he missed a call.. and everyone else to realise Magnus now has a LOT of problems as their all headed into Metroplex's eye. Impressive, not healthy you get it.

Inside the rodpod did explode but everyone was outside, so their safe though a legend was truly lost that day.

The Rodpod I

2013-2014 "An Embarrassment to Everyone but Rodimus himself"

- The TF Wiki

Skids does figure something out though: Turns out the reason the arrows looped them back around is that metroplex keeps shifting inside. They also notice Whirl's missing which can't be good. Speaking of can't be good Swirl calls.. and he's DEAD SERIOUS. How reality didn't fold in on itself is beyond me.

Yeah turns out the stuff they found in the water of Planet Danzig creates a "death plauge" And they need to get out now... then they need to get out now FASTER as the amonites are coming.

Back with Nova who continues to prattle about how he controls this unvierse, they can't beat him, his cybertronic turds smell like lilacs. Importantly it turns out I was wrong. the brand new space bridge isn't bumblebee, who escaped but Kup. Hazards of doing this in two parts without reading the second half first. Yes good ole Kup was apparnetly sucked into the dead universe during the infestation event, thank you editor box things, which wasn't on comixlogy unlimited at any point so I never read it. IT did feature the ghostbusters though so there's that.

Point is Kup's in danger. Our heroes , who have been taken from their prison cube to Nova's fortress, can't just up and run with him as his robot bones are brittle and he'll just snap if they move him. He then has nightbeat take thema way.. he dosen't say take them away but he damn well was thinking it.

Back with Shockwave he also mutters about how his plan is far from endgame but is less smug about it so I give him a pass. He's not happy Galvatron tore their space bridge in half but even without the ore he can fix this and has Galvatron carry off a bisected megatron, not trusting waspinator becuase "those damn kids always getting on my metallic lawn and such"

Back in prison turns out Nova has a reson to keep our heroes alive besides the sound of his own voice just not sounding as sweet if he's not berating someone else. He wants their sparks. Turns out Kup isn't a STABLE portal and thus if he wants to escape, he needs fresh sparks to keep the old man alight.

Things seem bleak.. when Rodimus gets an idea. He tells Nightbeat to look at his hand. While cyclonus wonders what the hell he's on about, which on a normal day would be entirely resonable with rodimus, turns out Rodimus has figured out how to free their old pal: The only time he's seemed like himself.. was when he was figuring out cyclonus, deducting the shit out of him. As he puts it it's shadowplay 101 to take away the part of a person that's most .. them. To supress it. So by giving Nightbeat a mystery to solve it fights it. Optimus is doubtful.. but is inttantly proven wrong: nightbeat HAS been trying to fight the brainwashing this whole time but Nova's so strong... but Rodimus presses on..

The answer of course is 190. It's a brilliant play and a brilliant scene: Rodimus rescues his friend.. simply by knowing him better. Rodimus may have a bunch of issues and the truth of this tally is a lot of them rolled up into one... but his strength is in people. He knows how to play them.. but he also knows how to comfort them, and forgetting that is what lead to most of his issues in season 1, ignoring what THEY needed or who THEY were. It's telling that after all he did and went through his two big moments int his crossover both come from empathy instead of his ego.

Nightbeat frees them while Rodimus prepares to come clean about what's been going on on the lost light.

Back on Cybertron Bee ambushes Galvatron and Waspinator, going full badass and telling Galvatron what he wants what he really really wants and he's sick of not getting what he wants what he really really wants. His blaster dosen't do much, immediate failure is Bee's brand after all, but it does distract him long enough for Bisected Megatron to shoot Galvatron and give us the greatest line ever

Bumblbee isn't happy with Megs chipper attiude, figuring the desolation of Cybertron is making him smile. That isn't, despite all his MANY flaws, Megatron loves this planet... he is however more than a little happy Starscream is in so much pain right now. Scoops calls Starscream out for using his position as Chosen One for his own personal gain while Starscream seethes.

Back with Team Magnus, turns out Whirl was being useful for once in a way that wasn't "shooting someone in the face" or "being hilarious" He was torturing an ammonite for informatoin, which isn't necessarily good but at least got us the info we need; Turns out the ammonites were still miffed and turns out I was wrong again: Whilr didn't END their war, just caused it to kick up with his murder, and they wanted payback.. and naturally Shockwave is behind this, having beefed them up in exchange for their help. Just as naturally the amonite explodes ove rit. Our heroes don't have time to process though as they get some fairly weak threats from above as two new players enter the game

Yup turns out Cybertron isn't the only planet with life as we meet Nautica and Chromia. Chromia won't play much of a roll HERE but is vital to another book whose lead we'll meet soon, but Nautica is a major part of the rest of More than Meets The Eye/Lost Light and i'm so happy to finally have her here. So ends part 7

Part 8 begins and ...

hey hey it's time to come over and have some fun with Megzy Taxi!

I will never get enough of this image. Megatron holdling his own legs, riding Bumblbee like a prom limo. I'm honestly disapointed Megs eventually gets put back together, I love this nonsense.

Back with Team Fuckup, prowl takes the lead.. and for once LISTENS to what someone else actually said deciding to be logical, reluctantly teaming up with soundave and telling Starscream to get his shit together. As for Rattrap he brought them here, as he really dosen't want god emperorship of a burning city.

Back with Team Magnus, Getaway disarms the standoff by revealing Nautica's autobrand. The Amonites break in and the team splits off: Ratchet and Magnus go with the new kids while Whirl and the others stay behind to keep the amonites off their backs. Ratchet breifly questions Chromia about her prounounds before deciding to drop it because the apocalypse is more important than finding out there's female robots.

The duo lead him to Metroplex's brain which is in his right shoulder

And we meet the final member of this trio, and while I love Nautica, she's easily the biggest introduction here for both the IDW comics (If not MTMTE) and transformers as a whole

We'll learn a little more about her as we go but windblade was a hyped intro... though apparently a contriversal one as she was part of a vote for a new transformer design.. and wasn't the one that won it. Protip DON'T do a fanvote if your not going to honor. Her Kabuki design didn't help, though I personallyt hink it's great; it gives her some unique flair.

Windblade's become important, being ported into both the Robots in Disguise cartoon and Transformers Cyberverse along with the movies. It's likely because the autobots didn't exactly have a tone of female characters, and Windblade's unique deisgn makes her stand out. Either way she's a welcome addition to the G1 pile.

Back with Team Rodimus, Rodimus finally explains the number: after a short recap of what happened with overlord and how he let Drift take the fall, he explains he told Magnus then the crew then invoked the crisis act: he let them decide if stayed as captain or not. He won.. but he carved the tally as a reminder of who he has to win back.

Optimus is.. less than sympathetic

It's unflinching harsh ... but i've come to accept it on this re-read as what Rodimus needed. We all need someone to tell us we're not as bad as we think we are, especially if your me or rodimus and have a lot of self hatred. But in this instance... Optimus is right. He's not here to tell Rodimus "You did all you could do". He fucked up horribly and SHOULD have just straight up resigned. He got two bots killed, lied to all of them, and then lied again and let drift take the blame. Rodimus is a good bot.. but he wasn't a good leader and Pipes and Rewind paid the price for it. Rodimus.. simply didn't want to give up: he wanted to still be the captain and redeem himself. And he COULD redeem himself without being in charge.. but hta'ts just not who he is. Everyone has to see him doing it. Has to see him. The attention has to be on him.. and Optimus knows this.

I will grant Rodimus stepping down wouldn't of been the best call either: Magnus is holding in there but just went through it, drift is gone, and as we saw today apparently hound's next in chain of command somehow. The only one who could POSSIBLY take over the roll and be okay coming out the other side at the moment is Ratchet and it's a roll he dosen't want. Rodimus shouldn't really be in charge.. but who else is there? And when we answer that question, will Rodimus, or ANYONE like this answer?

For now though those questions remained unanswered, as Kup is back up.. only to get a cyclonus chucked at him. Nova Prime is back, he's pissed and he challenges Optimus to a fucking challenge. One shall stand, one shall fall.

Back with Team Magnus, we get more of Windblade's deal: while the term dosen't come up yet, she's a Cityspeaker. She can communicate with titans like metroplex: while he can't TALK she can read his brain patterns. As for how this trio ended up here they were on Thunderclash's ship when they picked up Alpha Trion, who is usually with metroplex. He told them about Metroplex's crash and couldn't help him because he was so very close to something else and since the Vis Vitalis can't travel too fast due to Thunderclash's condition, Team Windblade volunteered for it and have done what they can.. but it's not enough.

Thankfully Magnus flashes on WHY they were brought here: to give Metroplex a jump using the quantum engines the same way they saved thunderclash. Magnus asks him tow ake up one last time.. and they hope: for a jump that will both revivie the titan and take the lost light and everyone in the titan home. "Burn bright metroplex, one last time".

Speaking of cybertron things aren't going well for Team Fuckup

Their attempts to attack the Necrotitan are failling, it's stomping i'ts way towards the triage center they have set up... Prowl flat out admits they need a miracle.. and sure enough a certain someone has been called many things..

I applaud the artists for all this glorious physical comedy with bisected megatron. While part of it's in the dialouge, props to Roberts and Barber, the visuals with this have been amazing

Prowl pulls a prowl and decides to just..try and shoot megatron. Despite megs both apparently having more of a plan than they do and being half a person and probably being able to easily survivie a shot to the head.

Turns out though Bee's faith.. was misplaced. Megatron hasn't changed and his plan is the truly awful "Evacuate like hell, let me call the DJD and we'll retake cybertron" Bee promptly drops him and calls him out, getting to the heart of things; Megatron was a freedom fighter.. but he isn't anymore. It's a cause he forgot for a campaign of terror, a talking point he ONLY brings up when he needs it. It's a good speech from Bee too. I don't have enough space for the panels sadly but you should still heart it in some form

"When I was in charge I stared into the darkness so long I let it consume me. I looked at our endless war, the friends we lost, the world we destroyed. But what I should have seen is our perseverance: we don't give up. And i'm not letting cybertron fall to anyone, not again. We make a stand for everything that's worth standing for. Our sacrifices won't be for nothing, We'll face shockwave and this monster together... and this time the good guys win.

And as he says the last part... hope arrives

Part 2 picks up right where this left off, as we're now down to just two main plot threads

Still some jumping around, jumping around get up get up and get down to be had, but it's now more contained. The Lost Light is back as Swerve proudly announces, and our heroes , fittingly crash into the planet. Bumblebee stumbles back into idiot mode a bit being genuinely shocked their somehow alive... in a comic where he's already seen Megatron and Metalhawk both come back from certain death. As Megs himself put it "Since when does anyone stay dead?". It's not a good sign of your ablility to lead when the previous leaders of both factions both didn't buy the explosion as a sign of death.

Remember: if there's no corpse and you didn't see their body turn ot ash or dust in front of your very eyes like poor hardhead, then there at least POSSIBLY alive. Say what you will about Rodimus as a leader, I have, Optimus has, Getaway has and will again, he knows damn well if there's no corpse or flaming bits of autbot in the atmosphere, their probably okay.

This plot point has always bugged me: NO ONE bothered to investigate and everyone just.. assumed they were dead. I get if they didn't have the resources but it dosen't sound like anyone tried. A loud explosion with again NOTHING left happened.. and they just assume the Lost Light's gone. I get the lost light couldn't contact them to prove they weren't dead.. but this is also a giant army that's had tons of bots go missing for less. Part of the Lost Light's mission is picking up various stragglers scattered throughout the universe who may not know the war is over. You see why maybe I didn't give everyone the benefit of a doubt going up the ass of a guy who can't bother to do the basic things to check if someone's actually dead!

So.. back to the good part. Inside Metroplex , Windblade understandably asks if he Mags knew he was throwing Metro at another titan. He wasn't, but figures Metro knew he was needed to fight another giant robot. Giant Robots can just.. sense these things.

The crew of the lost light reunites with Hound filling them in on why their here, and why they didn't call sooner: they did.. but STARSCREAM answered, something Hound and Blaster are pissed about. Also when Hound mentions the thumb, Prowl just.. can't reissit making a pissy comment about how "I thought you were looking for the knights of cybertron"

Megatron has a plan.. and this time it's not "Let me take over again that worked out so well the first time". He just needs a hand getting his half a body over to Metroplex's thumb.

Back with Team Rodimus Optimus and Nova have been punching each other, but turns out Nova has a secret weapon: adaptive armor. He can turn into any previous prime and thus uses this to gain the upper hand.. then turns into Optimus because he hasn't reminded anyone what a dick he is in the last 10 minutes. He starts to hit a wall as Nova continues to punch him, with Optimus finlaly breaking and reiterating why he's so intent on not being called Optimus Prime anymore: If he carries on the legacy of such horrible men.. he's endorsing it.. and them. All they did.

Back with Team.. .Something, things aren't looking good. Whirl is getting tired of killing people, which he admits is a bad sign, and Megatron prepares his hail mary: use the ore inside him and his space bridge self to bring the thumb back to metroplex. Bee dosen't know if he can trust him and Megs smiles as he peaces out.

Back with Optimus, Rodimus does what he does best: give a hell of a speech, this time explaning WHY he's always wanted to be a prime so bad

"You're wrong I never wanted to be Rodimus Prime, not deep down. Deep down I always wanted to be you. The real you not Orion Pax. When you became Optimus Prime, when you assumed the title the world didn't know the truth about Nova, Nominus and the rest. Back then being a prime meant demonstrating, no embodying certain standards. It meant decency, integrity and morality, all the things chancers like me pretend are unfashonable because deep down they scare us. And they scare us because we try to live by them but can't. Well guess what: you can. You can and you do every day. Thanks to you the word prime still means decency, morality and integrity. Listen the world will always need a prime.. but only if that prime is you. "

With this Optimus FINALLY snaps out of his self loathing and easily overpowers Nova. Turns out the real reason Nova dominated wasn't that he "controlled the universe". it was confidence. He used Optimus' own self loathing against him and once that was gone... and he made the additoinal mistake of hurting Rodimus... it was over.. was was the life of Orion Pax

With that Optimus is truly back.. I mean I never stopped calling him that but neither did half the cast. Our heroes are kinda stuck for the moment so we go back to Cybertron.

Team Fuckup is back to it's faviorite pastime: arguing. In this case Prowl is pissed at bumblbee's plan and our buddy once again has had enough of Prowl's shit over the course of the last season and chokes him breifly. If it were ANYONE ELSE this would be horrifying but it's prowl so

Scoops reveals the prohecy to starscream.. and the important part is the endgame as we finally get a sense of waht Shockwave's REAL plan is: to remake time and space as a constant present: no past, no future, just one NOW, one point in time. Forever. A stagnant nightmare that never questions or wants more.

For now though it LOOKS like our heroes have won as Megatron does what he promised and with his body back in full, Metroplex heals. now at full strength he easily finishes the Necrotitan and his intenral systems finish all the amonites.

Back with Shockwave though.. all of this was to plan.. or at least not so off plan he can't easily adjust: he has all the ores lined up, he has everything he needs, now he just needs to close up loose ends, having Metalhawk take Waspinator away.. and preparing to turn Galvatron into a battery. Good news is Metahawk seems to be recovering.. and thus only hides Waspinator. Good poor dude has been through enough and was entirley played. Unsuprisingly everyone else involved was a disposable pawn, with only Jhiaxus being in on it.

This sudden but inevetible betryal is also a good time to talk about the villians of this piece.. and how most of them are... meh. Shockwave himself is good, but spends most of the event in the shadows, despite us knowing i'ts him. The rest though are kinda one note, either fairly generic minons or in the case of Galvatron and Nova Prime, archetypes i've seen better. Owl House and Amphibia both did a better job of "villian who wants to return things to a worse time they think was a golden age", with more reasons why than "I'm an evil asshat." They fit their narrative pieces as "Sizeable threat who will be back later", and "The living embodiment of everything Optimus hates about being a prime".. but there's not much beyond that. Nova is just an expansonist colonalist asshole who won't shut the fuck up. That's all he is and neither book really built up how awful he is enough to make his return this big gasp. He's a big threat, he's evil and his murder of hardhead is legitly sad.. but he's ultimately just a gloating dickhead who goes down the minute Optimus looses his self loathin, excuses himself and lets hope in.

The story spends 3/4 of it's story.. on anatagonists who just aren't that intresting, and it's one of Dark Cybertron's biggest weaknesses. If your going to have a big bads minons take center stage they need to be charasmatic. These two dipshits weren't. I will give credit where i'ts due: the necrotitan was decent. I wish it had a less generic design.. but th eidea of this unstoppable giant monster of a transformer that simply by MOVING FORWARD decimates all in his path and whose one action decimates the one city cybertron has left, is terrifying and mostly well done.. but his generic design and taking up so much of the story makes it get tiresome fast.

So with issue 10 we're at a break in the story: the Necrotitan is FINALLY down.. though it's far from over. We also FINALLY get shockwave's plan and how all the pieces connect. In short all the various ores he seeded throughout his minons, such as putting death and ressurection in the necrotitan and change and life from metroplex. So all this, all these interactoins and plans.. was to get all the energy in place fo rhim to unmake the universe.

The idea of this .. isn't bad: that this complex as hell plan was all a masterstroke and he's almost won. The problem is it dosen't work narratively: the ores come up only in the setup for robots in disguise and overlords backstory in more than meets the eye. They aren't really that important.

Not helping is that Shockwave having this big plan in the background.. was something ANYONE reading this would guess> he's on the cover of the first issue, nova and galvatron both come off more as patsies than the actual plan and their plan of a new "golden age of cybertron" dosen't really fit Shockwave. Shockwave is a being of pure logic, why would he be nostalgic for an age of cybertron that failed horribly and lead to everything falling apart. He sees all the angles.. and thus sees WHY Nova and galvatron's day was done.

Instead we just spend most of the plot wondering how all this connects and it's just "oh the thing tha'ts associated with him was it, cool'> the actual PLAN is good, Shockwave wants to rewrite history to be one singular repeating moment, taking the complications and troubles of time away even if it takes the good with it. It's a truly horrifying concept, a world that can never change or grow and will jus stagnate in stasis for all time. The buildup to it just dosen't work. It makes all this epic battle.. come off like a distraction rather than some masterstroke. There were easier ways to pull this off in and out of universe.

Back with Team Fuckup who are slowly not livnig up to that name, Bee apologizes for choking Prowl for his insolence but Prowl's cool with it he deserved it. He's less cool with the fact their taking a break as Shockwave is still out there, but Bee insists they'll deal with it.. but deserve at least a second ot bask in having the lost light back. Unfortunately he also asks if Prowl has anyone he wants to see.. and we cut to Chromedome, with Bee blisfully unaware of HOW bad Prowl fucked over the lost light. At least for Domey's sake he's decided not to dig into metroplex's memory when asked: he's done enough of that shit and is finally saying enough is enough. No more.

Onto Megatron whose getting patched up and admits it probably isn't easy for Ratchet.. though weirdly, and in a sign of things to come despite Ratchet assuming Megatron's talk is intimdation.. Megs GENUINELy seems to be trying to make conversation and is complementing ratchet. It seems Bumblebee really got to him.

Back in the dead universe our heroes are stuck playing a game of "who wants to sacrifice themselves" before Rodimus tells them for the love of god stop it. No one's doing the big heroic sacrifice, they can find another way.. and sure enough.. Cyclonus hears singing.

We cut to swerves where sadly we don't get a ton of charcter interaction. The dinobots sing a bar song, some guy talks to brainstorm, and we DO get Swerve meeting his hero in blur.. only for Blur to find him annoying. Story of the poor guys life. It's not BAD character interaction what we get but it feels like Roberts and Barber were more intrested in plot progression than actually crossing over these casts, having them trade stories and really interact. There's a good moment or two like Hound pointing out how weird it is that after centureis of shooting their all having drinks, but in a 12 issue maxi series it's telling it took THIS long for any of the main casts of both books to interact and we're only putting aside one issue to do it that much. Part of the point of a crossover is to have interactions you normally CAN'T have. None of the lost lighters really get a chance ot talk to bumblebee or the others outside of a line or too.

We do get a good moment with Megatron at least: He calls bee in.. and asks him a question.. when does he think Megs came closest to victory? Bee of course is just a tensy bit horrified by the question.. but it has a point

It's a setence that gets to the heart of Megatron's arc here and beyond: that he really did have a point, really stood for something once: he was fighting simply so his people could be free... and the second he started a war, he lost sight of that and became a dictator.. and now he sees what he's become and dosen't much care for it. It's the start of one of the best arcs in all of More than Meets the Eye and one of the larger reasons why do this crossover: Without it we miss the start of one of it's best characters. We saw megatron in RiD and before this.. but it's here that Roberts fully takes the wheel after hinting what he could do in Chaos Theory and it is glorious.

So speaking of Glorious, Prowl tracks down Chromedome, who understandably has been avoiding his ass and wants to confront him for the whole memory erasure thing.. despite the fact doing so also cost Chromedome a lot, and was done ENITRELY because Prowl is an egotistical jackass who can't let go of control over his ex and who smuggled a dangerous criminal on board a ship because he can't let the war fucking go for five minutes. It shows Prowl is TRYING to change.. but still can't accept WHY he needs to, that he's got control issues. I mean it took bee fucking choking him for Prowl to actually start listening to him. Prowl wants to change.. but can't as long as he can't accept the consequence sof his own actions. On the bright side, Chromedome is REALLY not in the mood to take his shit and that leads to the greatest panel in all of comics history

Keep in mind Chromedome WARNED him. He fucking warmed him to get the fuck away. And he didn't so Domey POWERBOMBED HIM OFF A CLIFF. his expression of pure terror is just.. gold. Even after the poor guy DIED a heroes death he still can't accept rewind.. and boy did he pay for it.

So we get a brief intermission from this fight as Magnus asks Chromia if he can talk to metroplex, but the poor guy's mostly inert. He wants to ask about the knights... people had BEFORE but he figures with the raised stakes etc he might. no luck though.. Chromia already tried.. but he said no one deserves to know. Keep that in mind.

Magnus has to go break up a fist fight though, and Prowl is somehow getting lower than mocking someone's widow telling Chromedome everyone's too focused on the day to day and "HE NEEDS TO GET SOME PERSPECTIVE" and NO reaction image can represent the level of facepalm I gave over that.

Magnus breaks it up. Prowl is ONCE AGAIN a prick who ONCE AGAIN can't read a room telling Magnus "manhandling a senior officer is hardly behavior of the duly appointed.."

First off. You aren't you old crone. Autobot chain of command right now has you as Bumblbee's first officer. Rodimus is on Bee's level.. and Magnus is HIS first officer. Ergo, your on the same fucking rank.

Magnus corrects him.. he's not the duly appointed enforcer of the tyrest accord, but he STILL can make a citzen's arrest and lays out just why prowl sucks. And hearing this from someone as logical, as defferent to authority as magnus.. fucking slaps.

See this scene.. is why I fucking hate Prowl. He's confronted with the blood on his hands.. and refuses to accep tit wasn't worth it. The ends didn't justify the means. People DIED due to him.. and he still thinks it's okay. Magnus said it better than I could've dreamed but what the hell; Where does it fucking end? And how far is prowl REALLY from the people he's trying to stop? The events of the last two arcs are almost ENTIRELY on prowl not giving a shit who got hurt if things went wrong. A huge chunk of the unvierse nearly died.. and Prowl can't accept it wasn't worth it.

And here's the kicker: It really wasn't. There wasn't some greater good acheived. Putting Overlord on board caused Red Alert to self harm, killed Pipes and Rewind, and did more damage to Chromedonme's psyche, not to mention sent Drift off the ship. His black ops against tyrest, while well aimed... only caused the fucker to esclaate and had the lost light, the very people he clearly resents most in the world, not been there, genocide would've happened. Prowl is an arrogant, egotistical piece of shit who can never accept that while the FIGHT isn't nover, the war is, and he can no longer justify dooing horrible shit with it. And even if he could.. it's no excuse. Prowl just wants to do what Prowl wants to do without any consequences, and dosen't understand that's not what the Autobots stand for. Even at his weakest.. Bumblbee at least got THAT. He got that the way he was starting to think was wrong. He came out of loosing Iacon better.. Prowl came out the same. And all of cybertron ins going to pay for it. Thankfully for my blood pressure and for our heroes.. the lost light no longer has to foot the bill.

Magnus parts after the constructicons want to throw hands, not helping Prowl's case, and points out he's glad he has friends because "you'r the lonelist person i've ever met. "

So we end part 1 with Scoops revealing where he got all this.. Senator Shockwave. Yup.. and to confirm things are about to go sideways again, Metalhawk returns iwth his team and shoot starscream. Not fatally bu tonly because he's delivering a warning... just in time for Shockwave to send every last amonite there way, millions descending on the planet.

Part 11 and the cover, which is still shown in the trade loudly proclaims THE DEATH OF AN AUTOBOT. Sadly it's not prowl.

With the amonite's swarming Bumblbee has a plan RUN THE FUCK AWAY. Though it's for godo reason: with this size of event evacuation is SEEMINGLY the only option.. only for Perciptor to burst his bubble: This is happening EVERYWHERE. Ther'es no running.

Back with Shockwave he slowly becomes everything, everywhere, all at once, living all his timelines at once as they converge. Jhiaxus couldn't be a prouder mad scientest papa: turns out he's so into this.. because the student has become the master, easily succeeding him and both have the same goal.

Bumblbee regroups but to do so he has a big ask, one Magnus relays to metroplex; keep the amonites busy. He gladly agrees, though Windblade's a bit thrown off by magnus opening a conversation with "the world is ending". She.. she's new here.

Bumblbee assembles his own team to take down shockwave: Himself, Magnus (raw power), Getaway and Skids (Secret Agent Men), Brainstorm (Dead Universe Expert) and Megatron.. and whie Bee tries to sugacoat it, he knows what he is. It's made tricky by the fact they stil lhave an army to go through.. but Skywarp shows up with Team Metalhawk, including Starscream whose back to his normal level of ego and overconfidence. Missed that. Skywarp can take them directly in, while Soundwave plans to hold the line for megatron.. though ti's very clear Megs has changed... and has plans for when he gets back.

While they do that Prowl.. does something useful after his jackass parade last issue and forms devistator with the constructicons.. he dosen't want to and bee isn't happy to see it but metroplex needed backup.

So the team splits up with most of them taknig on mooks and screamer going for Jhiaxus, who turns out to have reactive armor. Starscream's got to prepare for one of his greatest weaknesses: a fair fight.

Meanwhile with Bee and Megatron, the duo find Galvatron whose injured. Megatron plans to just finish the bit but Bee gives one last speech to his new best buddy: He encourages him that this ten eyes for an eye attitude of his has caused nothing but an endless cycle of vengance and death with no defendants and points out anyone can be allies.. that goo dor bad.. they can make a new future and that Galvatron could be part of that. is it a tad naive? perhaps.. but it's a still a long ways from the bot who rejected metalhawk and the nails because they didn't fight in the war. Bumblebee's finally realized that to make ANY future.. they have to try something diffrent.. sadly.. he dosen't get to live long enough to do anything about it.

Bumblebee.. is dead. He finally turned the corner and he's gone. And it's telling how much of a turnaround he had during this crossover as i'm geninely heartbroken by it: bee really HAD turned around as a leader, realized how he failed, put his heart and soul into making things right, even turned the staunchest decepticon to his side with words instead of his fist.. and he dies suddenly, tragically and not even all that importantly to shockwave. He died.. because he was there and he could stop his plan maybe.

Megatron is livid as he prepares to fight shockwave who brags, but unlike Nova Prime actually pulls it off.

Back with the others, Magnus is about dead... when Brainstorm starts to feel a little woozy man.. then opens a portal: Optimus and Co have escaped.

Final issue. Whirl and Arcee hang out, sadly the only time they do though she wishes they had more. I forgot to mention she got a new paintjob, a new beginning.

Back with Team Optimus, it's explained HOW they did it: they heard the singing, realized they could make a gate and used Nova's corpse for their end, brainstorm for the other since he experimented so much with the dead universe. Problem is Cyclonus, Nightbeat and Kup all start to drop: they can't surivvie outside the dead universe and SOMEONE need sto carry them back.

So Rodimus and Brainstorm take the wounded back, with Brainstorm finding out he probably needs some of his magic juice himself. While he cooks that up a lot of fighting happens: the metroplex trio join in the fight though neither windblad nor nautica is that experinced, and Starscrema beats Jhaixus as Jhiaxus used some fancy shoulder blades.. and thus told screamer he had them.

At the end of all things Megatron denies he and bumlbee were friends.. but ti's clear they were. He's also horrified by Shockwave taking his idea that all bots are equal as meaning they all mean nothing. Optimus and Magnus arrive for backup.. but can't too much.

So both decide to take a crack at "I know your in there somewhere fight it". Optimus tries appealing to his old friend, the kindly senator he was before the senate turned him into the monster he is. This get shim shot and Megatron decides to try something else.

The impossible has happened: After realizing just how far he's fallen, what he's lost... Megatron.. has become an Autobot. For his people. For his future. For himself. And for his friend. It's honestly a brilliant idea if a risky one: take the greatest transformers villian.. and see what happpens when he truly tries to change. It reminds me of the many times my boy Magneto has reformed. And while it's a gamble, many fans apparently were not happy with this face turn... it's one that pays off as the series goes in my eyes. Megatron is trying to be better.. but it's both a process.. and something that won't go down well with those on the other side of that gun.

It's also something that's amazing it worked so well: before this in a lot of works Megatron was a bastard and you'd be forgiven for thinking this was an idea Hasbro kinda shoved in there.. because it was. Roberts confirmed at one of the cons that this was a mandate by them and he got the job. It's why this reformation takes place over 6 issues.

It's a testiamte to roberts and barber though.. that despite having to do a full 180, crazy.. it FEELS entirely organic to the story: Roberts had done enough background setup with megatron and had a full time travel story planned, so the framework to include him and have it mean something was THERE. He had to speed run his redemption but the fact he accomplished that in a few scenes and made it convincing.. is amazing. It's why i'm glad earthspark went with a reformed megatron as this arc is incredible from the jump depsite all this... and I can't wait to get fully started later this year. It's one of Roberts best acomplishments and i'm excited we're finally to it.

For now though .. it manages to reawaken the senator and in a truly heartbreaking scene they want to just let him go: after all, it's not SENATOR Shockwave's fault, it's what he became.. but The Senator CAN'T stop it: the time tive's part of of him.. and Optimus swears to remember him as he was before , with his new friend's help, putting him down.

So with that we have a few teases for the future: Starscream of course is back to normal, though the autobots, and cyclonus, make it clear he won't be able to slip back in THAT easily. Meanwhile poor soundwave breaks down a bit as he realizes what Megatron has done, and can't fahtom the betryal.. and galvatron steps in to be his new dad, setting up RiD season 2. Which thankfully is now out of my hands.l What matters is Optimus and Megatron. optimus makes sure this wasn't just a clever trick.. and it wasn't. That makes this complicated.. but the two step out of the ship, ready for what's next.

So Dark cybertron.. is mediocre. It has some really good scenes in it: Team Windblade are all great new additions for thir short time screen, the stuff with rodimus and optimus is truly special, Megatron's face turn is well done and Prowl gets powerbombed off a cliff.

Overall though.. it feels padded. It has good ideas, the necrotitan makes for cool imagery, but it tries to stitch so much together to make this big epic with enough space for everyone and everything, that instead feels bloated. While some GOOD shit like the antics of bisected megatron probably woudl've been cut down if this were 6 or 8 issues, the story would've been a lot tighter. We get a LOT of ground repeated: Prowl is pissy with bumblbee, Scoops yells at starscream. Nova Prime won't shut the fuck up. For all the great scenes ther'es a good chunk that's just the same shit happening again and again with only slight progress.

And as i've said it dosen't really "cross over" all that mucH: the casts of each book are largely seqestered from each other, so we never really get any conversation about how the lost light feels now they've had the journey and seen the consequences of leaving (i.e. starscream), or how those who stayed pooped the bed. We don't even get reactions to Bee's death.. the story just.. ends before anyone else finds out.

Dark Cybertron is really like a lot of event comics: it's longer than it needs to be, interrupts the flow of a good book to happen, and the consequences of it are better than the story of as a whole. It was slightly better on re-read and overall is better than robots in disguise, having more character development and less arguing.. but it dosen't save a bloated, messy story that wastes i'ts potetial trying to wring the maximum issues out of the story instead of doing it at it's best.

Next Time: We break from the lost light. Again. First up next month for SUPER MAY we ask the question "What's so funny about truth, justice and the american way?" Then it's Mighty Morphin Summer Baby! As I mentioned last time, we'll be ping ponging between BOOM!'s power rangers comics. I do have a special treat or two planned for the Franchise's 40th anniversary, a review of the movie, covering the first windblade mini series, but both are tbd at this point. I HOPE to cover them by the end of hte year, but it largely depends on my schedule. If all goes well you should get aan extra slice of transformers in August and MTMTE should be back by september.

When we return Season 2 begins! Megatron is the captain now, Rodimus is salty about that, and we see how everyone else adjusted to their new decepticon overlord. Thanks for reading.

[autobot-ratchet]

MTMTE 37-40

MTMTE 37

I forgot about Roddy's built-in shades lmAO lookin slick hon

aww, Cyclonus getting overwhelmed with emotion at seeing his old home again... I also like him apologizing for kicking the shit out of Tailgate way back near the beginning of the comic when he got upset at him for making him want to be a Decepticon. All he says is “I'm sorry,” does Tailgate even actually know what for lmAO

so fucked up that the little bit of the Shadowplay arc where Rung was fiddling around with a model ship in the background for two seconds was future Rung the whole time. It was even clearly a model of the Lost Light too

love that Cyclonus allows Tailgate to ride in his cockpit. Something something gay joke

poor Rodimus is so over this time travel shit lmAO

ghsfadjks Chromedome and Rewind are having this heart to heart while Whirl is standing like five feet away

ah yes. The curly straw that marked the fall of Cybertron lmAO

I like how Cyclonus agrees that Tailgate's face is punchable lmfAO

interesting that Rewind and Whirl are on the same page about preventing events in the past to change the future

honestly love the reveal that Brainstorm isn't going back in time to kill Orion Pax and win the war for the Decepticons, he's going back to kill Megatron and prevent the war from ever happening in the first place. It's the kind of thing you could pick up on yourself if you're paying attention but still comes as a shock because we don't understand why just yet

MTMTE 38

hell yeah, I love both Percy and Magnus putting Megatron in his place, fuckin tell him

“God, now I'm starting to sound like him” ha ha he's taking up your brain space idiot, get owned

aww, Brainstorm is good... he was just trying to fix things, for everyone...

god damn, Rewind lmAO you got Megatron so shocked he's speaking in lower case

“Megatron dies and we lose: but the universe wins.” man... truly there was no universe where things worked out for everyone, it was always either Cybertron suffers or everyone suffers and I can't blame Rewind for making that call

the way Chromedome is so gentle with him... yOUR HONOR........

I also cannot blame Whirl for saying “fuck the functionists,” like. He's right lmAO

and there it is, the message at the end of the very first issue. Man, it's already been such a journey and I'm only halfway through the story. I do like Cyclonus pointing out that everything they told Rodimus not to do has a net positive outcome, we've been doing so much good even if we've gotten nowhere with our original objective lmAO

BRAINSTORM IS GOOD... still wild that his thing for Quark was explicitly a crush, even if it was only one-way. But the more that the people he loved suffered, the more he wanted to go back and prevent, he just wanted to stop the suffering...

rip to that dude who became the sparkeater. Absolutely hilarious that it's their own fault that was ever there

aww Brainstorm, you do wanna go back to the present, you just don't know it yet, you're gonna be fine

and everyone rejoiced except for Brainstorm and Megatron, it's fine, they'll get over it

and now we've solidified the functionist universe as a thing that exists. So Brainstorm's actions are technically what brought about our final boss, huh? Not purposefully, but you know. It's wild how integral the functionist universe is to the quest lmAO

MTMTE 39

ah right time to check back in on team cringelord

this fuckin panel of Helex using his hand to take Blip's brain out of his mouth and put it back on his head may as well not exist, all I can think of is the scrapped version of this panel where he takes it out with his own mouth lmfAO

shout out to this page where Tarn explains why he wears the mask for tricking so many people into believing that he didn't actually enjoy torturing people to death and was just misunderstood lmfAO like straight up I saw so many people like “oh he doesn't want anyone to notice him closing his eyes and not watching the murder it must mean he secretly doesn't want to do it and is actually a good guy deep down!!!” and like. I'm gonna be real I don't know what the fuck Tarn meant by all that but I can pick up enough context clues from everything else he's ever said and done to figure out that he Did Not Mean That lmfAO

ah yes, the only member of the DJD who matters, get their asses, Nickel

I do have to say, Tarn running the DJD like a regular-ass office is extremely funny lmfAO “I'm largely happy with your performance, love the dismemberment, but there is room for improvement”

at least alternate Brainstorm tried to keep the rest of the crew safe. It wasn't his fault the DJD are a bunch of fuckin animals lmAO also oouughfhg that panel of Drift trying to protect Ratchet from Tarn still kicks my ass, he'll beg for Ratchet to put him out of his misery when it's his own life in danger but he'll jump in front of the DJD's ringleader to keep him away from Ratchet...

like. This moment where Tarn attacks Tesarus for the crime of daring to question his decision (in this case, his decision to leave Vos and Kaon to die) makes it pretty clear that Tarn is not secretly good lmfAO like straight up I saw so much bitching when Tarn killed Kaon in the Dying of the Light arc because “Tarn would never! This is OOC, the DJD loves each other, they're like a family!!!” and like... *gestures at this entire issue* *gestures at everything Tarn has ever done* This comic spends every moment that Tarn is on screen making it abundantly clear that his whole entire thing is killing his fellow Decepticons for literally any stupid fuckin reason and Tarn stans could not fucking take it when he killed his fellow Decepticon Kaon for a stupid fuckin reason lmfAO smh my head

it's so tragic because I don't even actually hate the DJD as characters, I think they're great villains. When Tarn showed his ass up in Cyberverse I nearly shit my pants with fear, and that's great! That's the mark of a good fuckin villain character! And even him being so pretentious is great because it makes you REALLY wanna see him get defeated! He's an excellent heel! But MAN were Tarn stans the most obnoxious people alive lmFAO they absolutely tainted him for me which is a shame

lol look at this idiot sulking in the snow because his idol denounced his cause ha ha get rendered obsolete, stupid

honestly Deathsaurus is so valid, get his ass

I cannot wait for Megatron to kill all their asses lmfAO god I cannot wait to get to the Dying of the Light, it's my absolute favorite arc and I'll talk about exactly why once we get there

MTMTE 40

and this one's my favorite individual issue, this is the issue that encapsulates everything I love about this comic, this is what it's all about

urhgjdf Pharma was so close to avoiding Delphi... just the nearest miss........

love the setup of Swerve arranging all these glasses for Tailgate to comically crash into and then he just crashes into Ratchet instead, get wrecked grandpa

aww Swerve don't be mean to Ten, it ain' t his fault your bar's empty

Love Chromedome being Brainstorm's defense lawyer in this trial. Also love Brainstorm immediately throwing Rewind under the bus lmAO I mean he's right but also, hilarious thing to try to pull, all things considered

ooh Nautica's so mad

hell yeah Brainstorm, you're right and you should say it, it's not fair to try to pin the actions of alternate Brainstorm on this Brainstorm, and good for Percy for standing up for him too

loooooooove Ratchet glaring while Brainstorm tells Rodimus he doesn't want to be kicked off the ship because it's his home. It was Drift's home too...

oouufgjd love Getaway feeding Tailgate bullshit significantly less, it's so agonizing watching him slowly manipulate him over the course of the comic

love Ratchet lowkey inviting all his closest friends for a final chat under the guise of checking for “super scraplets,” just stupid enough of a thing to be possible

“The only time people really talk to him is when they're sick- and I know how that feels.” RatcheeEEEETTT........🥺

ghsdfjk Ratchet setting Megatron up for failure in Mirage's bar is so mean lmAO but I mean. All he did was suggest Megatron do a poetry reading, it's Megatron's self-made reputation that's gonna make it a failure, so...

also love how First Aid is immediately onto Ratchet, “You know you can just. Ask to talk to your friends like a normal person right”

Ratchet is so sweet with Ten I'm gonna fuckin cry lmfAO

Magnus is Ten's favorite I'm gonna rip the arms of my chair clean oFF

and there he goes, off to find his man... I like. Still can't believe this happened lmfAO when Drift got exiled, I was fully prepared to never see his ass ever again, I figured his relevance was over and if we ever do see him again it'll be a bit part in a different series written by someone else, I can't believe that he was allowed to be cared about enough for someone to want him back, and especially for that someone to be Ratchet. Being a long-time Dratchet shipper while this comic was still going was just a constant stream of Ws and it was wild to experience lmFAO I had never won that hard in my life, I didn't know what to do with myself

also I just remembered, didn't Empire of Stone come out before this issue? So we already knew Ratchet went to go find Drift, we just didn't know when or why, or if it even actually was Ratchet lmfAO I definitely remember a theory floating around that the Ratchet in EOS was a hallucination or something. I also remember thinking, “Oh god, what horrible thing happened that made Ratchet have to leave the Lost Light,” and being floored when the answer was just that he personally wanted Drift back, there was no emergency, he just missed him. Like. What the fuck that's gay........

[richard1005]

A little info about my AU

-SPOILER WARNING FOR EPISODE 3 AND 4-

There reason that I put some random characters as the survivor of the Lost Light was that if I introduced to many relevant character in just one season it would be much more difficult to control the story. Character like Ultra Magnus, Whirl and Fortress Maximus are among the survivor and have a central role in the series, while others like Swerve, Rung and Tailgate will be introduced later and won't be explored much.

So the survivor of the Lost Light are the following:

Ultra Magnus-since Rodimus is a sparkling-is the commander of the Lost Light, or what's left of it. He isn't Minimus Ambus in this AU, but rather the brother of Optimus Prime (I liked the idea of the white convoy inside the armour), but the role of the Magnus Armour is the same as in IDW.

Fortress Maximus is the second-in-command of the Lost Light, the history he has with Overlord and Garrus-9 will still be there. I also thought of the idea that he is a baby Titan that is growing in his titan form like in Generation 1.

Whirl of Polyhex was definitely going to be included in the season 1 cast. I thought that his craziness and personality would somewhat match to Overlord's and now I can't stop thinking about him and Overlord just annoying the hell out of Fortress Maximus. The scraplets that he befriend will be added later, but unfortunately his rival/friendship with Cyclonus won't be added. He also has a thing for the other cyclops of the Lost Light.

I just couldn't let this two out of the main cast of the Lost Light. There won't be any Dominus Ambus shenanigans because in this AU he is an actual Decepticon agent. I also kept the backstory of Chromedome and Sixshot of Headmaster with Jack and Abel. Chromedome is an headmaster, but Rewind doesn't know. They are is also the bartenders since the original one of the Lost Light died in the crash (Not Swerve). And for their sake I won't put any Prowl problems, they don't deserve it.

Brainstorm this time has no affiliation with the decepticons, he is an autobot and his name is Genitus. He is the scientist/ Wheeljack of the crew. Since Perceptor is in the Wreckers there won't be any rivalry with him or any backstory with Quark. He's like the Headmaster Brainstorm, but with the personality of the IDW one.

Nautica is practically the same of her IDW counterpart. She is the biologist and the mechanic of the Lost Light, with just one tiny little difference between her and the canon counterpart: She is Tarn's sister. Yup...

Drift is an member of the Circle Of Light, the only good one at least (We will see why in season 2). He still has his past as Deadlock, but since Ratchet isn't in the story there won't be any romance for him. While he has the IDW body, I thought of giving him the Bayverse personality.

Even if she wasn't in the Lost Light crew (If we don't count the Vis Vitalis thing) I thought that this femmebot deserved more love. I love the one eye thing even if she isn't an empurata. I changed the story a little so she is a little more interesting. She is a sort of Strongarm, but she doesn't know every single law or doesn't question her commander. Whirl has a thing for her, but the feelings aren't appreciated.

Ignoring the Starscream and Getaway in the picture, the Protectobots were added to give a combiner team to the Lost Light and come on, they deserve a little more than appearing in Combiner Wars, almost dying in Lost Light and then reappear at the end. In this version Rook is in the original roster from the beginning, Hot Spot is a major like in Animated, Blades is an ex rescue bot, Groove and Streetwise served under Ultra Magnus and First Aid was the medic that saved Fortress Maximus after Garrus-9. They don't have the enigma, but are rather an artificial combiner, like Monstructor. Defensor can still generate his shields like in G1 and it is the first combiner of the series. Also, First Aid is a femme, she is still a fan of the Wreckers, though.

[soundcrusher]

Of ‘assignments’ and new friends

Part 7 of season 2 from my ongoing series set in the sentient SG/LL au from @cuppajj is out..

I hope you all will enjoy this.

Trigger Warning: I wrote some dark stuff. I don't know which warning applies, but it sure isn't sunshine and lollypops. Please, keep that in mind.

..-..-..-..-..-..-..-..-..-..-..-..-..-..-..-..-..-..

“Do you think sharks could live on land?” Asked Phoenix, who was currently laying in the new bunk-berth Rodimus had installed right above their dinette, while playing with his shark plush. Ever since that kind mech got it for him, Phoenix couldn’t go a day without having it in his arms. It was softer than anything he ever felt, and it was nice to simply hold something in his arms while reading on his data-pads or listening to Rodimus’ radio. 

“I don’t know.” Said Rodimus, as he watched the landscape outside their small ship. Something was moving out there, the prime could feel it in his spark. However, no matter how hard and long he scouted the area, he could never find something. It almost made him paranoid, especially with Thrillchaser on their tail and the DJD close bye. But he couldn’t let that feeling get to him, not when Phoenix was right there. “But I am sure that if they were able to walk on land, I still wouldn’t let you keep a shark. Our ship is too small to house more than us two.” Said Rodimus as he climbed up the ladder to go and lay down next to Phoenix. Settling down underneath the blankets, before raising them a little bit up and watching his brother slowly scoot over and settle down next to him. Clutching the shark tightly to his chest, while Rodimus wrapped his arms around his brother.

“But… it would be nice to have something like a pet…” Muttered Phoenix quietly, even though he knew that Rodimus had a point. Their ship was small, and considering how big sharks can be, a landshark would surely not fit. But maybe something smaller? “I mean… you’re gone sometimes… No, not sometimes… Often. And you don’t take me with you as much as you used to. We used to go anywhere together on the other planet, but now?” Asked Phoenix, as he turned around to look up at Rodimus with those innocent optics of his. “I know that… that I don’t want to go out that often anymore. It’s safe here, but at the same time, I want you to take me with you when you go to the city. I like seeing places with you and… and I… I don’t want to be alone…” 

Rodimus let out a long and heavy sigh. It was true. This might be the second planet they went to, but Rodimus has been even more wary of taking Phoenix into the nearby city ever since the incident with Thrillchaser, let alone the encounter with Tesarus the other week ago. And then there was the ‘issue’ with his newest ‘assignment’ hunting younger and vulnerable mechs. He didn’t want to risk Phoenix’s life, when visiting the city. “How about this,” started Rodimus, after thinking about what his brother said for a while, “I’ll take you to the city tomorrow. There’s this nice little cafe right across an arcade. I’m sure that you would love it there.” Said the prime with a soft smile, which earned him a big bright smile from his brother. “I would love that!” Cheered Phoenix, before quickly closing his eyes. 

It took a while for Phoenix to slip into recharge. Rodimus had to remind the youngling that, if he doesn’t calm down now, he wouldn’t be able to recharge, and then he wouldn’t have enough energy to go to the cafe and arcade tomorrow quite a few times. But as soon as the youngling was sleeping deeply, Rodimus carefully got out of the bunk-berth, used one of the bigger pillows as a body double, got his secret rifle, and made his way out of the ship. Locking it behind him to start the hunt for his newest ‘assignment’.

Which was easier said than done. Especially in a city as big and tense as this one. At least Rodimus had a location where his ‘assignment’ loved to hunt for younger mechs. And so, the prime made his way over to the club known as the “Silent song”, climbed up the fire ladder of the building next to the club and scoped out every opening. Making sure to note down and prepare for everything that might come, before waiting. 

Counting the hours, until he saw his ‘assignment’ walk out the backdoor, dragging a young mech, who didn’t seem to know what was going on, behind him. Only then did Rodimus climb down the fire ladder and follow the pair through the bustling streets and crowds, before halting in front of a shady looking alleyway. 

Of course, his ‘assignment’ wouldn’t want to do his dirty deeds close to his hunting grounds. “You don’t really know how to treat someone decently, or do you?” Rodimus asked with a dangerous lilt in his voice as he walked closer. Rifle in his servos, as he took notice of the passed out mech and the way the older one was looming over him. Looks like Rodimus came just in time. “And they called me a fragged up for liking strange things. I mean, it’s probably weird if you want to kiss a sparkeater just to know how it feels, but what you’re doing? I doubt that neither faction would like what you’re doing. Honestly, I wonder who I should deliver you to. Decepticons or Autobots?” That seemed to rile his ‘assignment’ up, because he dropped the young mech and rushed him. 

As if that fragger had any chance against Rodimus. Not when his ‘assignment’ went down with just one swift kick and a jab in the side with his rifle. “You’re a disappointment. Truly, something like you calls himself a Decepticon? Oh wait, you have been an Autobot first and changed sides right before the war ended to get away from your rightful punishment.” Chuckled the prime as he pressed the end of his rifle against his ‘assignment’s’ throat. Watching the look in his optics go from fiercy to panicked. 

“Ah, you realized who’s pinning you, didn’t you?” Chuckled the prime, as he leaned down and grabbed the mech’s helm. “Sadly, I can’t seem to remember you, and, frankly, I don’t think I will ever care enough to.” Said the prime, as he slowly trailed his hand down to the right side of his ‘assignment’s’ face, before igniting his flames. Slowly melting the mech’s face, while smiling the whole time. Rodimus wanted to make sure that the mech, should he survive, would always remember this day. But considering the crimes he committed, Rodimus doubted he would live long enough to even need a reminder.

It was still satisfying though. 

After Rodimus was done with his ‘assignment’s’ punishment, he used one of his tranquilizers to knock the mech out, before notifying the authorities. And it took them a long time to finally show up, ask their questions and hand over the bounty Rodimus earned fair and square. Although, they did keep half of the promised 2000 Shanix, because the ‘assignments’ face was burned and they wouldn’t write it up as an accident, if Rodimus didn’t leave some of the Shanix with them. And if asking for bribery wasn’t enough, they also left the young mech behind with the prime. Claiming that, it wasn’t their jurisdiction and that Rodimus should have called a hospital to come and pick him up. 

Which caused the prime to let out one long sigh, before he shouldered his rifle and picked up the young mech. Carrying him off to a nearby hospital, because, if everyone is just like the fraggers he had to deal with right now, he was sure that they wouldn’t even care about this poor mech. And what kind of Cybertronian left behind a young one in need?

Living and taking care of Phoenix sure enough made him soft…

While Rodimus was making sure the young mech in his care was safely delivered to the hospital, Phoenix was peacefully sleeping in their shared bunk-berth. Or, at least he was sleeping peacefully for a while, but like before, his dreams slowly twisted and turned until the nice dream was nothing more than a twisted nightmare. A nightmare that caused the youngling to wake up crying and screaming for his brother. But he couldn’t find him. Phoenix couldn’t find Rodimus and, to add to his panic, the ship was as dark as the halls of the Lost Light. Not even the small lamp on their dining table was lit. At least he had the small flashlight underneath his pillow. Which he got out and used to look for Rodimus. First, on the side of the berth where he should be, before climbing down and walking to the bridge. Only seeing an open hatch underneath the captain's chair? He surely will have to ask his brother about that. 

“Maybe he’s outside?” Whispered Phoenix to himself, before getting his poncho, putting it on, unlocking the ship’s door and stepping outside into the cold night air. Taking a few steps away from the ship, while shining his light in every direction. “Roddy?! Are you out here?!” Called Phoenix, before stopping in his tracks. There was something moving in the dark. He couldn’t see it, not even when he shone his flashlight in the direction, but he could feel it. Something was watching him. Something was out there, something, probably, dangerous. Or maybe it was an animal? Either way, after seeing a pair of glowing eyes stare at him, Phoenix started to slowly walk backwards towards the ship. Letting out quiet whimpers as he saw those eyes getting closer and closer. 

Although, the youngling didn’t manage to slip back into the ship, because he dripped over his own feed right before the ship’s door. Causing Phoenix to drop his flashlight and close his optics in fear of what the creature in the dark would do now. 

But the expected attack never came. No, but he felt something softly nudging his arm. Which was strange because a monster wouldn’t do that when attacking someone. At least, that’s not how Lightlost described the monsters who would attack younglings as soon as they saw  them. Maybe the strange attack was the reason why Phoenix opened his optics. Although, the second he saw the turbofox holding his flashlight in its snout while nudging his arm, Phoenix quickly forgot his fear. 

He was filled with excitement instead. 

“How did you get here?” Asked the youngling, as he took the flashlight back from the turbofox, while reaching out with his free servo to see if he was allowed to pet it. And he could! The turbofox even leaned its head into his servo! This was the best evening in his life! And Rodimus said that turbofoxes were dangerous. 

“Where’s your pack? You turbofoxes hunt in packs, right? Were you left behind? I know how that feels…” Muttered the youngling, but before he could get even sad, the turbofox was quick to get his attention again by pumping its head against his servo, causing Phoenix to let out a chuckle while he got up. “Hey, if you want, you can come inside and wait for your pack in there. It's really cold out here.”

And that’s where Phoenix and the turbofox spend their evening. With the youngling making sure his new friend had a bowl of energon treats, a nice blanket and some pillows to lay on, before he got himself some pillows and blankets as well. After that, Phoenix was already telling the turbofox how and why they were here. Leaving nothing out. Not the time he spent with his past crew, nor the time he spent on the Lost Light. Although, Phoenix spent most of the time telling the turbofox about the organic planet he and Rodimus first landed on, before telling it about the amusement park they visited last week. “And then, we visited that really cool amusement park and I got to ride on that… that… I forgot the name of the ride, but it was nice, slow, and went in a circle. OH! And it had those different animals to ride on!” And while Phoenix told his stories he felt like the turbofox understood every word he said. Which only added to the younglings excitement.

Although, even with the excitement keeping Phoenix up for most of the night, the youngspark still managed to fall asleep in the middle of telling his new friend about how he got his plush shark. With his head resting against the turbofox’s side, while his servos clutched the end of his blanket. 

And that’s how Rodimus found the pair in the morning. Phoenix sleeping soundly and the turbofox staring straight at him, with the prime staring back. After rubbing his optics and making sure he wasn’t dreaming

“Where the frag did you come from?”

[yes-i-write-fanfiction]

Thunderclash is just wondering why his kid hates him so much & he just keeps trying to bond with the kid, like, maybe it's because Thunders has been so busy lately? Kid still hates him. He doesn't understand until he runs into Roddy getting into a screaming match with another bot over how he isn't a good parent, how he's doing it wrong and even questioning if he even loves the kid. Thunders listens in and finally realizes why the kid hates him so much & why Roddy is angrier at him than ever.

Thunderclash decided that enough was enough. Today was the day that he was gonna confront Rodimus and ask why him his sparkling dislikes him so. He didn’t want to confront him like this but at this time he really didn’t have any other choice! He wants to be a part of his sparkling’s life and that won’t happen unless he knows what is wrong. With quick steps he makes his way down the hallway.

He’s on his way to Rodimus habsuite, where Rodimus and the sparkling should be, when he hears the yelling. One of the voices belongs to Rodimus and the other one to one of the crew members that he’s talked with a couple of time. He slows down and decides to peek over a corner to see what’s going on. Immediately he spots the two mechs but he’s shocked to see that his sparkling is also there. And it’s currently getting torn away from Rodimus by the other mech. Or at least he’s trying to, Rodimus is holding onto his sparkling tightly, who beeps in distress.

“-doing it wrong! You should not even be the one taking care of his sparkling!” the mech shouts and Thunderclash flinches at this. What in the Pit is going on?

Rodimus snarls and shows off his sharp dentea. “They are MY sparkling too! So don’t you dare even imply that I am unfit to be their parent!” The sparkling beeps in agreement and use their tiny hands to try and smack away the bot still trying to take them away from their carrier. The bot in question laughs cold heartedly.

“You are not worthy of being their parent! They are his sparkling and they should be with someone better than him!”

“Do NOT bring Thunderclash into this!” Rodimus roars in absolute rage and once again Thunderclash flinches. Is this… is this why his sparkling hates him? Because everyone keeps telling them his carrier is not good enough just because he is their sire? Suddenly Thunderclash is filled with an intense rage. Because of these bots his sparkling wants nothing to do with him. Because of them he’s losing valuable time with them? In just a second he’s behind the bot that’s still trying to take the sparkling away from Rodimus. He’s a giant, looming shadow and Rodimus’ optics widen as he sees him. The bot notices his sudden change in focus and turns around, flinching when he sees Thunderclash behind him.

“Th-Thunderclash sir!” he exclaims as he abruptly lets go of the sparkling and turns around fully to face the red eyed mech. “I-I didn’t hear you approaching! How are you doi-”

“Just what” Thunderclash says, interrupting the mech, “do you think you’re doing?” His voice is cold and filled with barely contained rage. The mech is trembling now. No one has ever seen Thunderclash this angry.

“I-I was just telling Rodimus here that he was holding the sparkling wrong! I was trying to show him how to-”

Once again Thunderclash interrupts him. “Do not lie to me. I heard everything you said about him and OUR sparkling. And you disgust me. The way you treat the carrier of my sparkling, the captain of this ship that have saved so many bots, is disgusting.” The mech tries to say something, anything to defend themselves, to explain that it’s all just a big misunderstanding, but Thunderclash is having none of it. “Silence. I want you to leave right this moment and never, EVER, approach me, Rodimus or my sparkling again. Am I making myself clear, sir?”

“Y-Yes sir…” the mech says, whimpering out the words, before quickly disappearing, leaving the parents and the sparkling behind. With him finally gone Thunderclash lets out a sigh of relief before turning back to Rodimus and his child. He looks at them sadly.

“I am so sorry Rodimus. I had no idea… I had no idea they were treating you like this. If I had known… Please, let’s talk about this. I need to know what’s going on so I can help stop this from ever happening again”. Thunderclash offers Rodimus his hand and after eyeing it suspiciously for a second he takes it.

“Ok. Let’s talk about it.”

[crying-fantasies]

Rodimus wasn't ready to be a creator (2)

Masterlist

Part 1 | part 2: Mental image | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | part 10

"When I tell you about a good dinner, a peaceful evening and a pleasant night, what do you think about it?" His hand trails behind your ear, soft whispers leaving his lips while he has you seated in his lap, his tone, as sultry as it can be, is tender as far as it can be, the soft static that his supposed sun kissed skin transmitted was giving you goosebumps in a very good way.

Your mind goes wild, Rodimus can't eat even if he uses his holomatter, a peaceful night just goes along your own preference but when his voice hits full force when he says a pleasant night, normally the idea of sleeping next to him, holomatter or gigantic robot, is always welcomed, but you can feel him in many more ways than before, feeling his desire for you in this physical form and also in his tone, he isn't the best to flirt but even his clumsiness brings you such joy that pools in your lower belly, blood rushing where it's needed to show him your eagerness and your bashful expression that he takes with delight.

Gosh, it isn't the first time you have him like this, but he just goes the extra mile.

"What would you think if I tell you about the new tattoo that I designed by myself just for you?" Rodimus takes your hand in his, holomatter feels strange, the usual static is less compared to other times after some improvement in the programming and his face can show more expressions, his light brown eyes still kind of lack most of the life that is always show in his big, bright blue optics.

His words makes you almost spin around and faint, but your hand reaches for a gap in all his shirts to touch directly to his holomatter skin, he seems flustered and even surprised, but it has been years since you two started dating, it was only natural that you tried something by yourself for once, he looks pleased but also embarrassed.

"I'll say, that I really want to see it... and touch it" that's all it's need to have him moving his strong arms to get all the shirts off him before Rodimus returns to his assaulting eagerness, kissing you with utmost necessity while positioning himself over your body without breaking such intimate contact, pressing his hips to yours, strong hands and calloused fingers gripping the blankets under you to press himself harder to your soft body, almost every corner fitting together in a natural way, as natural as it can really be, a pleasant sensation that he can only achieve with the human mode, he still needs to show you his new tattoo but the one on his right arm is getting all your attention with the firm muscles under the artificial ink when he manages to get his hand under your coverings, your body vibrating with "is this love" in the background that is getting louder by the second, his body protecting you from the outside world while his long legs had the job of keeping yours open, making the contact even better, hotter, more everything.

"Guess that I can only obey your orders" and so he compelled, pushing as far as he could even with clothes on but not for long when your hands left his long brown hair to start getting your own clothes off, feeling your warm skin on his temporary form, feeling how the engines in his original body revving with abandon, realizing once again how good it was to change things a bit and explore new possibilities with you.

All new experiences that started and ended long ago, and even when it was like that, all new possibilities and results that came from it are still present.

As a result, maybe not by normal human standards or biology, your son.

"Uncle Domey"

"Oh, Blacksun, what are you doing-"

"Erase my memory"

"What?-"

"Erase it. Just. Do. It"

Your pretty much exasperated and awkward son.

Many in the ship have know the young bot since his protoform days, most of those days were mostly centered in not squishing the mother and sparkling duo that were as tiny as, well, organics.

Blacksun was white and gray then, fresh from the hot spot, optics and face plate recently molded, emitting beeping sounds now and then to get attention from any bot around, he was such a cute little thing.

Now that little thing was trying with all his might to get Chromedome's mnemosurgery needles out of his digits and put it in his helm.

"Wait a second! Blacksun stop right this minute!" Rewind arrived minutes later, also trying to stop the young bot that was so desperate to have his memory data erased that even tears were dropping from his optics, even Rodimus appearing in the scene.

"I beg you, please erase my memory!"

"Sunny, wait a second I just said-!"

"Stay away from me you old bot!"

Funny how a few words could be the detonator to such a response, to give it more sense the ship was now in Earth, after the discovery of a new orb, just to get some samples back to Cybertron and see if a new commerce product could be available since they were already near, it was the very first time since he was a sparkling that he put his pedes in the planet's surface, feeling how it resisted his weight, it was kind of strange as what was called grass also got under him, maybe he would need to clean it later.

Then, they were there, humans, a lot of them, many other mechs were almost running to meet certain humans that they already knew, everyone was chatting or interacting in some way, even Megatron was there talking to humans, it was endearing in some way.

"Glad to see that things are more natural between us" he already heard the sound of his creator approaching, placing a servo over his shoulder pad, yes, it was good, he wasn't online during the great war or many of the other incidents, he was merely a protoform for most of the late conflicts.

Humans were looking at them, curious little creatures but still keeping boundaries, they knew what he was, and even when another techno-organic was already roaming around here on earth seeing one close up was already a big thing.

Rodimus noticed his sparkling looking at the humans around and smiled, it has been a while, and exactly because of that he wanted to talk to his kid now.

"I guess that is really time to talk to you about engines and flowers"

...

"... Excuse me?"

"Well, now that you've seen an actual human after so long, you may have a few questions of how you were conceived"

How was Rodimus supposed to know that his dear sparkling already learned about human "culture and costumes" in order to prevent any misunderstanding in this journey? Funny that now Blacksun had quite the expression on his face plate, both servos near his neck as he was just so close to strangle him, because when he heard the word "conceived" the mental image was instantaneous.

"It's a joke, It's only a joke I swear! You know very well that you came from the hot spot in Automica!"

Too late, Blacksun was already on the run and he heard shouting from Chromedome and Rewind's hab suit.

Yeah, Rodimus just wanted to play a little with Blacksun and the, supposedly, little information that he had about organics, it never passed his processor that, just like his other creator, he could've quite the imagination especially if there was already some know data about it.

Ratchet called it "volatile imagination", apparently it was common among humans.

Blacksun didn't get his memory data erased, so the mental image was still in his archives since it would be even more horrible to have someone that he knew to see such an embarrassing thing, so he only could thing of many other ideas.

Meteor surfing.

Movie nights.

Yes, um, a fresh hamburger, with fries or some bacon-

"Hey Sunny, you okay now?"

"Stay away from me, I'm warning you"

Okay, this was going to take a while before he experienced something worst that could out win such mental image of his creators all "passionate" like the human media that he saw before that involved reproduction.