#this particular idea is very much not beholden to the setting of prime- absolutely not at all

[whatudottu]

Hmm, thinking about that one forgotten au/hyperspecific scenario I had once dreamed about (and it’s not because I totally watched Death on the Nile or anything no no) and that’s the fucking 2 Lies 1 Truth ‘story’ didn’t have much of one before-

For a little context because 1) it was a hot while ago and 2) I did absolutely nothing to tag it lmao- this little idea is a little TFP based plot though it could totally be taken out and just uses the prime iterations of characters where somewhere somehow Dreadwing, Airachnd and Makeshift were in some battle, Dreadwing got hurt real bad, Makeshift just so happened to have picked a dead Skyquake disguise to use as fire power and Airachnid, seeing opportunity to reap rewards out of not one but the assumed two mecha that are honour bound to pay her back a favour. Turns out- instead of wrapping two brothers around her webbed fingers, she instead scored one honour-bound mech and a shifter that would be slagged for impersonating a dead twin.

Something about watching some good old murder mysteries just made me think about this little plot, maybe seeming to be a little more dire than simply that whole ‘the mech who’s brother you’re pretending to be owes me a favour, i can have you slain without a drop of energon on my hands’ scenario, but as some form of ‘okay, we’re currently stuck and two of us are lying scumbags’ crash land or just overall kind of fucked can’t get away so easily situation.

It’s probably why I just - upon introducing the ‘au’ - opened it up to be more than simply a Transformers Prime plot but as something in that realm of ‘let’s see what happens if an astute individual finds their way into this god awful reality tv scene and has to play a game of 2 lies 1 truth’-

This isn’t really a ‘hey i’m making an actual au for this’ post, but I’m making it now because I am just really putting Makeshift through the wringer. Like- just imagine that you’re pretending to be someone else in a scenario that will not get other folk involved, probably even knowing that that person is dead and they will not find you being them. Then, suddenly, you realise very quickly that your little disguise has a fucking twin of all things, one that’s still kind of alive but is very much on the verge. And instead of getting the chance to ensure you’re not fucking killed for being a walking talking corpse of a person they now more about than you do, swooping in to rescue them is a notoriously cunning individual who knits weaves of lies and connections as inherent skill of their functioning. Makeshift went from 0 to 100 to fucking shit real fucking quick!

Something something, enter Dreadwing who has not seen his brother in so long, yada yada, the person who he perceives of as Skyquake seems to be actively avoiding him. Perhaps alone it would be reason to suspect, but with another mech Airachnid around, Dreadwing cannot specifically pin down an idea to mark- he hasn’t seen his brother in so long and Airachnid was never especially part of the main crew often if at all, he cannot automatically assume that Skyquake and this new ‘Con aren’t connected in some way.

And technically they are connected, by a tight grasp by one little arachnicon who just so happened to see that Skyquake wasn’t here and that Makeshift stood in his place. Oh to not only have a favour owed to be later cashed in, Airachnid happened to score a long duration favour where if she just so happened to give Dreadwing just that little extra sliver of information, of a little scant ‘I’ve not known him for long, has Skyquake been acting weird?’ thrown his way, she could have Makeshift’s head free of charge.

I don’t know, I just also think the idea of what Dreadwing sees as ‘Skyquake confiding in Airachnid rather than his brother’ moments to be very sweet tense moments of ‘shit shit shit have I been caught?’ whilst master manipulator Airachnid sits with her poker face grin laced with the lies of previous acquaintance.

This is a shit post but- uh... 2 Lies 1 Truth gets a tag now lmao