With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Rebu]

"You can come back at any time you like. For now, we need to visit a creature from the darkest nightmares."

"Yeah. There's got to be an album in this."

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Do the bird boys and girls have Metal rock, or do they call it Nth Metal?

 

[Silveraith]

That's Salami Slicing.

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One of the greatest documentaries to ever air.

 

[Neruz]

One of the greatest documentaries to ever air.

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The funniest part about Yes Minister is that it has actually gotten more accurate over time.

 

[Steelplaza]

If the Dominators are indeed lurking around the Solar System doing magical research, the corpse of the Star Conquerer:

1. Is all the way out at the edge of the solar system
2. Yet has a connection to the Dream
3. And is worth studying in itself
4. Might help hide them from magical or technological scans of the system.

Anyway, you know what Mission creep is, OL? Mission Creep is when you start out by trying to track down your local Champion of the Green to get some help with the planetary biosphere and now you're flying out to the giant frozen starfish formerly known as Pluto.

 

[Neruz]

Pretty sure Mission Creep is the standard operating protocol for the Justice League, thinking about it.

 

[PDV]

Well the transformer chapter reminded me of the old story They're Made Out of Meat.

Of course franchises where on can imagine humans as being weird meat things that freak out aliens with our meatiness, Transformers would be an appropriate choice.

Click to shrink...

I highly reccommend this video adaptation:

View: https://youtu.be/T6JFTmQCFHg?feature=shared

 

[B.B. Rain]

I read 'you might want to keep it as a backup option' as 'don't give up the day job'.

I do occasionally indulge in observational humour in real life, but my hit rate is only about 30%.

Click to shrink...

...Sorry, I meant it as a compliment - preceding it that with 'If not,'.

Still, fair enough - I'm not exactly an expert judge.

 

[Prince Charon]

"You can come back at any time you like. For now, we need to visit a creature from the darkest nightmares."

"Yeah. There's got to be an album in this."

Click to shrink...

If I were a better and faster writer, I'd probably try to do an omake on that album.

Pretty sure Mission Creep is the standard operating protocol for the Justice League, thinking about it.

Click to shrink...

Probably fairly common for superheroes in general, but it is a good way to do a team book, since it justifies why all these supers are involved when it started with Green Arrow trying to find out what that strange noise was down the block (this is probably not based on any one story - unless my subconscious is pinging me about an issue I read long ago, it's just an example of how those sorts of tales begin).

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th June 2014
05:13 GMT +5:30

Clng, clng, clng…

I wake up, momentarily surprised by the still form of Slipstream's avatar lying half on and half off the right side of my body, her right arm across my chest and her faux-hair fins flattening themselves against my side. A moment to feel through our bond as my wakefulness begins to stir her alertness as her unconsciousness fills me with lassitude. Another moment and my eyes adjust to the gloom of our bedroom enough that I can see Slipstream's main body sitting next to our bed in robot mode, eyes closed.

I know that noise.

I try recovering my right arm, prompting Slipstream to squirm against me and become more aware of her environment. I don't know if Shockwave is just this good or if he put time studying humans for our benefit, but if it wasn't for the obviously unnatural colouration she could pass as human. She even breathes and has a pulse when there's absolutely no practical benefit to it, and apparently the system keeps going in her sleep.

One of her fins pops up as she turns her head to look up at me. A glance up shows that she's turned both of her heads.

"Whaaat?" / "Whaaat?"

And she's still too dopey to separate the two threads of her consciousness.

"She's up again."

Little Slipstream squirms a little more, this time… Deliberately pressing her chest into my side.

"So?" / "Uh-h."

Big Slipstream's brain module is still transforming to accept… 'Novel' stimuli, while Little Stripstream-. Little Slipstream's neural systems were designed to not be affected by her main self's confusion when it comes to instinctively mimicking human behaviour.

"So while I don't know how transformers react to extreme stress, I do know how humans react. And she's showing a lot of warning signs."

Little Slipstream is.. rubbing herself against me while Big Slipstream's right hand has drifted to her upper chassis. Which is armoured metal with no increased sensitivity at all relative to her other armour panels. Ghost sensation. Feedback from her avatar. I don't think she'd quite as awake as I thought she was. It's actually… Possible that only one of her is fully awake.

Robotics is a fascinating subject.

"Go back to sleep." I half-slide half-twist out from under her, my face passing by hers and kissing her lips as she moues disappointedly. "I'll be back shortly."

"Mmm, she's can come too."

…

I suppose that settles that question. Slipstream has rather gotten into 'human bonding', and… I suppose it's only natural that she'd start thinking about Nova Storm in those terms as well. Even if that wouldn't work because Nova Storm isn't configured to use an avatar and wouldn't trust Shockwave to do the work even if she was interested in participating, which given her somewhat uncertain reaction to me I'm not sure that she is.

And if Slipstream tries 'bonding' with her giant robot body, Nova Storm will mostly just be confused.

I get my feet on the floor and stand up, Little Slipstream falling face-first into the hole I leave in the bedding. I'm not exactly sure what her sense of smell is like, if only because she can't really describe it, so I've got no idea if she likes the smell of me or just doesn't notice it. I pick up a robe from the floor and wrap it around me, because while India is much too warm for sleeping in pyjamas I don't want to wander around naked.

I walk towards Big Slipstream, passing under her right leg and patting the featureless armour panel that makes up her crotch with my left hand. Her eyes come open again and she makes a faint hissing noise as if she were sucking in air through her teeth, thighs twitching as tries to process the tactile input. Interesting that sensation carries over like that, and… Now I'm wondering if this whole situation is giving her T-cog ideas.

Ducking under her left leg I head for the small door, exiting into the main hallway and following Nova Storm's silhouette. She's standing on the veranda, leaning a little carefully on the transformer-scale railing to watch the sunrise. Not something that she'd have seen often on Cybertron. While it did occasionally enter a star system and so have a star shine on its surface from relative close range, Cybertron never orbited anything and didn't rotate.

"Huh."

"I'm a little surprised that you're interested in this sort of thing."

She glances around and down as I approach, frowning faintly. "Oh."

"Sorry, Slipstream's still asleep." She looks away with a sigh. "Sunrises?"

She stares up at it, her posture relaxed as I come alongside her and start walking up the human scale gantry. "I never saw a star this close before."

"Then where does your name come from?"

"It comes from wanting one better than 'Static Charge Labourer Seven'." She makes a snorting noise. "One through twelve, all… Changed it, to something more exciting. And I'm probably the only one left."

"Do you want to talk about them?"

"No. Why? They were just like me. Exactly like me. It would be like talking about myself."

"Because they were an important part of your-" I reach the upper parapet and lean against the top of the railing myself, facing her. "-formative years."

"No. I just want to-. Be-. Now. I'm alive, Slippy's alive and… And we're not starving or being shot or electrocuted, and everything's good." She raises her right hand up to her face. "I don't know why I can't…"

I edge slowly closer to her, making sure not to startle her and giving her time to move away. "We humans have wars, too. Nothing like the scale of the Great War, but we don't live as long as you do anyway. It's a matter of proportion."

She sniffs. "I guess it's nice that aliens aren't any smarter than we are."

"We found that taking humans away from a combat zone and thrusting them into a peaceful civilian area is actually a really bad idea. Their brain is still prepared for combat, they're constantly on edge waiting for an attack that isn't coming, they take cover or start looking for a weapon if there's a loud noise…" I shrug. "I don't know if anyone's ever looked into post traumatic stress disorder in transformers. It could be that you don't get it. But I have been keeping tabs on your rest cycles, and you… Haven't."

Her heads doesn't turn away from the sunrise, but her eyes lock onto me. I've seen Slipstream's eyes do that, and it's usually right before she shoots something.

"You haven't had peace for a long time, and you need time to transition back to that… Heck, did you actually live through any time where you weren't a slave or a soldier?"

I hear the screech of twisting metal as her right hand clenches through the railing. For a moment she doesn't seem to notice, then she jerks her head around and stares at the mess she's made. Then she staggers back a step, dropping the twisted metal in her hand to the ground.

She stares down at it for a moment, then snorts weakly, shaking her head. "Hasn't Slippy told you?"

"She told me about her life." I nod. "But she's never really wanted to talk about her old team mates. It was painful, for obvious reasons. She missed.. all of you so much that she was desperate enough to try bonding with me. She didn't just shut down due to lack of fuel."

"I should be happy." She raises her head to look at me. "I should be happy-. This is-. I wanted to believe, you know? I wanted to think that Megatron-. That we could win, and everything would be fine." She shakes her head. "But I didn't. People died and died but what else was there? And then I wake up, and I'm here, and I couldn't ever hope that it would ever have been that good and I've been this close-" She raises her right hand, thumb and forefinger a few centimetres apart. "-to shooting my way through a wall because I thought there was something hiding in the shadows."

"I'm just impressed that you didn't."

"Didn't want to-. Give away our position."

"Nova Storm, you're not the only one who feels like this." I walk to the edge of the ripped area and try reaching out towards her, but she's too far away and I can't jump down from here to pat her foot. "I want to help. Slipstream wants to help. And if we can't, we can find people who can. You'll get better."

Her arms flop to her sides.

"I hope so."

 

[Azure Mirage]

The whole waking up scene is very slice of life with big robot waifu and little robot waifu and I love every single moment of reading that. Then we get to the PTSD segment and I am kinda feeling depressed for Nova Storm. Mood Whiplash anyone?

 

[Someguy Somewhere]

I agree there Azure, but due to the whole return to cybertronian things prompting me to take an on and off transformers wiki walk on various related subjects for far, far too long, I'm gonna say I mostly feel sleepy.

Good stuff Zoat well characterized and well written, I'd normally ramble about something here about how a Transformers related universe is one of the few fictional worlds that can and do make studies of the multiverse travel a recurring theme, but I think I'll just take a note from Slipstream and Zzzzz.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

16th June 2014
05:13 GMT +5:30

Clng, clng, clng…

I wake up, momentarily surprised by the still form of Slipstream's avatar lying half on and half off the right side of my body, her right arm across my chest and her faux-hair fins flattening themselves against my side. A moment to feel through our bond as my wakefulness begins to stir her alertness as her unconsciousness fills me with lassitude. Another moment and my eyes adjust to the gloom of our bedroom enough that I can see Slipstream's main body sitting next to our bed in robot mode, eyes closed.

Click to shrink...

So she runs more to the 'cute robot girl' end of the spectrum than 'lifelike gynoid', eh? Now I can't help but picture her like one of those super-sexy third-party versions of femmes like Arcee and Windblade. With plenty of soft, flexible panels...

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

I know that noise.

I try recovering my right arm, prompting Slipstream to squirm against me and become more aware of her environment. I don't know if Shockwave is just this good or if he put time studying humans for our benefit, but if it wasn't for the obviously unnatural colouration she could pass as human. She even breathes and has a pulse when there's absolutely no practical benefit to it, and apparently the system keeps going in her sleep.

Click to shrink...

Well, would you want her to go into a literal sleep mode when she naps with you, and end up feeling like a corpse?

One of her fins pops up as she turns her head to look up at me. A glance up shows that she's turned both of her heads.

"Whaaat?" / "Whaaat?"

Click to shrink...

Ah yes, the drawback of having both frames active at once: Multi-sensory input confusion.

And she's still too dopy to separate the two threads of her consciousness.

"She's up again."

Click to shrink...

It's understandable. She probably takes a little time to spin back up from sleep mode.

Little Slipstream squirms a little more, this time… Deliberately pressing her chest into my side.

"So?" / "Uh-h."

Click to shrink...

I'm sure she has marvellous padding.

Big Slipstream's brain module is still transforming to accept… 'Novel' stimuli, while Little Stripstream-. Little Slipstream's neural systems were designed to not be affected by her main self's confusion when it comes to instinctively mimicking human behaviour.

"So while I don't know how transformers react to extreme stress, I do know how humans react. And she's showing a lot of warning signs."

Click to shrink...

Heh. Don't think we missed that little Freudian slip there, Pull. Let me guess, her avatar's dress senses looks like extra-stripperific mecha musume?

Little Slipstream is.. rubbing herself against me while Big Slipstream's right hand has drifted to her upper chassis. Which is armoured metal with no increased sensitivity at all relative to her other armour panels. Ghost sensation. Feedback from her avatar. I don't think she'd quite as awake as I thought she was. It's actually… Possible that only one of her is fully awake.

Click to shrink...

Which raises all sorts of questions about the process involved. Dang.

Robotics is a fascinating subject.

"Go back to sleep." I half-slide half-twist out from under her, my face passing by hers and kissing her lips as she moues disappointedly. "I'll be back shortly."

Click to shrink...

Ah, yes. The eternal human challenge of disentangling from a still-sleepy partner when you need to get up.

"Mmm, she's can come too."

…

Click to shrink...

I think Nova might be a little too big for your bed.

I suppose that settles that question. Slipstream has rather gotten into 'human bonding', and… I suppose it's only natural that she'd start thinking about Nova Storm in those terms as well. Even if that wouldn't work because Nova Storm isn't configured to use an avatar and wouldn't trust Shockwave to do the work even if she was interested in participating, which given her somewhat uncertain reaction to me I'm not sure that she is.

Click to shrink...

Perhaps old one-eye would be willing to make the technology publically available for all. Sell it as an analogue to Mini-cons or holo-avatars or something.

And if Slipstream tries 'bonding' with her giant robot body, Nova Storm will mostly just be confused.

I get my feet on the floor and stand up, Little Slipstream falling face-first into the hole I leave in the bedding. I'm not exactly sure what her sense of smell is like, if only because she can't really describe it, so I've got no idea if she likes the smell of me or just doesn't notice it. I pick up a robe from the floor and wrap it around me, because while India is much too warm for sleeping in pyjamas I don't want to wander around naked.

Click to shrink...

To be fair, her even having a sense of smell would be a new and strange sensation for her... Big difference between, say, atmospheric chemical sampling sensors and organic olfactory nerves.

I walk towards Big Slipstream, passing under her right leg and patting the featureless armour panel that makes up her crotch with my left hand. Her eyes come open again and she makes a faint hissing noise as if she were sucking in air through her teeth, thighs twitching as tries to process the tactile input. Interesting that sensation carries over like that, and… Now I'm wondering if this whole situation is giving her T-cog ideas.

Click to shrink...

Filthy, filthy ideas about replicating organic anatomy, perhaps?

Ducking under her left leg I head for the small door, exiting into the main hallway and following Nova Storm's silhouette. She's standing on the veranda, leaning a little carefully on the transformer-scale railing to watch the sunrise. Not something that she'd have seen often on Cybertron. While it did occasionally enter a star system and so have a star shine on its surface from relative close range, Cybertron never orbited anything and didn't rotate.

Click to shrink...

Because a jet-former is no light-weight, no matter how hollow her frame might be under the armour. Just the thruster systems alone would be a few tonnes of mass...

"Huh."

"I'm a little surprised that you're interested in this sort of thing."

Click to shrink...

Don't have to be a nature-lover to appreciate a nice sunrise.

She glances around and down as I approach, frowning faintly. "Oh."

"Sorry, Slipstream's still asleep." She looks away with a sigh. "Sunrises?"

Click to shrink...

Heh. Chatting with your girlfriend's friends without her around is always awkward, isn't it?

She stares up at it, her posture relaxed as I come alongside her and start walking up the human scale gantry. "I never saw a star this close before."

"Then where does your name come from?"

Click to shrink...

Who know, maybe 'nova' is a slang term on Cybertron.

"It comes from wanting one better than 'Static Charge Labourer Seven'." She makes a snorting noise. "One through twelve, all… Changed it, to something more exciting. And I'm probably the only one left."

"Do you want to talk about them?"

Click to shrink...

Man, eleven 'sisters', all of them gone. That must be a terrible feeling. I wonder is she feels a duty to remember them, their dreams, their wishes...

"No. Why? They were just like me. Exactly like me. It would be like talking about myself."

"Because they were an important part of your-" I reach the upper parapet and lean against the top of the railing myself, facing her. "-formative years."

Click to shrink...

And just because you're sparked as one, doesn't mean you're all the same. That's not how sparks work.

"No. I just want to-. Be-. Now. I'm alive, Slippy's alive and… And we're not starving or being shot or electrocuted, and everything's good." She raises her right hand up to her face. "I don't know why I can't…"

I edge slowly closer to her, making sure not to startle her and giving her time to move away. "We humans have wars, too. Nothing like the scale of the Great War, but we don't live as long as you do anyway. It's a matter of proportion."

She sniffs. "I guess it's nice that aliens aren't any smarter than we are."

Click to shrink...

Humans and Cybertronians are surprisingly alike in that respect...

"We found that taking humans away from a combat zone and thrusting them into a peaceful civilian area is actually a really bad idea. Their brain is still prepared for combat, they're constantly on edge waiting for an attack that isn't coming, they take cover or start looking for a weapon if there's a loud noise…" I shrug. "I don't know if anyone's ever looked into post traumatic stress disorder in transformers. It could be that you don't get it. But I have been keeping tabs on your rest cycles, and you… Haven't."

Click to shrink...

PTSD is a right pain. The drawback of human adaptability.

Her heads doesn't turn away from the sunrise, but her eyes lock onto me. I've seen Slipstream's eyes do that, and it's usually right before she shoots something.

"You haven't had peace for a long time, and you need time to transition back to that… Heck, did you actually live through any time where you weren't a slave or a soldier?"

Click to shrink...

Well, a crude way to put it, but accurate.

I hear the screech of twisting metal as her right hand clenches through the railing. For a moment she doesn't seem to notice, then she jerks her head around and stares at he mess she's made. Then she staggers back a step, dropping the twisted metal in her hand to the ground.

Click to shrink...

I suppose the gantry is built in easily-replaced sections.

She stares down at it for a moment, then snorts weakly, shaking her head. "Hasn't Slippy told you?"

"She told me about her life." I nod. "But she's never really wanted to talk about her old team mates. It was painful, for obvious reasons. She missed.. all of you so much that she was desperate enough to try bonding with me. She didn't just shut down due to lack of fuel."

Click to shrink...

Grim. I doubt she appreciated being woken up at first, then, even with that desire for partnership. Those early days must have been tense.

"I should be happy." She raises her head to look at me. "I should be happy-. This is-. I wanted to believe, you know? I wanted to think that Megatron-. That we could win, and everything would be fine." She shakes her head. "But I didn't. People died and died but what else was there? And then I wake up, and I'm here, and I couldn't ever hope that it would ever have been that good and I've been this close-" She raises her right hand, thumb and forefinger a few centimetres apart. "-to shooting my way through a wall because I thought there was something hiding in the shadows."

Click to shrink...

Hopefully she's been keeping her safeties on in the house. I doubt the locals would appreciate the noise.

"I'm just impressed that you didn't."

"Didn't want to-. Give away our position."

Click to shrink...

Old instincts die hard, after all.

"Nova Storm, you're not the only one who feels like this." I walk to the edge of the ripped area and try reaching out towards her, but she's too far away and I can't jump down from here to pat her foot. "I want to help. Slipstream wants to help. And if we can't, we can find people who can. You'll get better."

Click to shrink...

And I wonder how many other revived bots have been having trouble settling into a peaceful Cybertron...

Her arms flop to her sides.

"I hope so."

Click to shrink...

Man, you just want to hug her, don't you?

A nice little moment of interaction with a new friend. And a glimpse into just how deep some scars can run, especially ones etched into the Spark. Most of Cybertron's population likely have such scars burnt into them... Hopefully the post-war period doesn't end up collapsing back into conflict. After all, not every Decepticon leader would want to give up what they've carved out for themself.

---

And she's still too dopy to separate the two threads of her consciousness.

Click to shrink...

And she's still too dopey to separate the two threads of her consciousness.

...stares at he mess she's made.

Click to shrink...

...stares at the mess she's made.

 

[Fellow]

I love it when you write stuff like this. I'm a sucker for do-good/feel-good things.

 

[Lord Ernest]

This one was really good. I concur with others before me, the beginning was wholesome, waking up besides his waifu and appreciating all the work Shockwave did to make them that close; the second part then was heartbreaking, seeing Nova Storm not know how to deal with herself.

Hope between Pull and Slipstream they help or get her the help she needs.

Actually, they might need to bring this to those currently in charge in Cybertron. They're reviving a bunch of Transformers that are in situations pretty similar to Nova, I imagine, and they might not even know it. Not only that, some of those recently revived may end up interacting with former enemies, even their own killers or their killers' teammates. That sounds like a bad incident waiting to happen.

Edit:

Now I can't help but picture her like one of those super-sexy third-party versions of femmes like Arcee and Windblade.

Click to shrink...

Personally, Little Slipstream makes me think about the Twins from Atomic Heart, with the necessary additional details, of course, i.e. colors more in line with Slipstream's main body, humanoid face and the necessary human anatomical parts for "bonding".

 

[Mr Zoat]

So she runs more to the 'cute robot girl' end of the spectrum than 'lifelike gynoid', eh? Now I can't help but picture her like one of those super-sexy third-party versions of femmes like Arcee and Windblade. With plenty of soft, flexible panels...

Click to shrink...

No, lifelike gynoid. The hair fins are so ensure that there's a clear visual link between the two bodies.

Perhaps old one-eye would be willing to make the technology publically available for all. Sell it as an analogue to Mini-cons or holo-avatars or something.

Click to shrink...

His reputation is bad enough without adding 'sexual degenerate' to the list of charges. Especially considering that transformers don't have words for those things.

And she's still too dopey to separate the two threads of her consciousness.
...stares at the mess she's made.

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

 

[BrotherofaStudio]

I must say that the way you are tackling the issue of Transformers having PTSD as well after the war is a good idea since as I recall IDW didn't do it for their post war Transformers. I actually missed Meet the Eye part 2 so I'll be covering my thoughts about it here along with part 3. I don't recall if Paul and Slipstream mentioned if they were staying in India before but it certainly is interesting, Nova Storm clearly needs to adjust to the new reality of things, not only with the war being over but how everyone is living new lives.
Slipstream evidently has a smaller body which allows her to be intimate with Paul and clearly enjoys it, but I'm having trouble visualizing what she looks like. Apparently she has purple skin and wears a grey suit? Could you provide a better description or maybe a picture that her appearance is based on?

 

[Mr Zoat]

I must say that the way you are tackling the issue of Transformers having PTSD as well after the war is a good idea since as I recall IDW didn't do it for their post war Transformers. I actually missed Meet the Eye part 2 so I'll be covering my thoughts about it here along with part 3. I don't recall if Paul and Slipstream mentioned if they were staying in India before but it certainly is interesting, Nova Storm clearly needs to adjust to the new reality of things, not only with the war being over but how everyone is living new lives.

Click to shrink...

They mentioned that they were selling a thorium reactor design to India. Generally, they find the Indian government a lot more accomodating than the alternatives.

Slipstream evidently has a smaller body which allows her to be intimate with Paul and clearly enjoys it, but I'm having trouble visualizing what she looks like. Apparently she has purple skin and wears a grey suit? Could you provide a better description or maybe a picture that her appearance is based on?

Click to shrink...

I-.

[Remembers that he's at work]

Um, sort of? Her outline is that of a generically attractive human woman. The only outstanding things are the colour of her skin and her hair. There are fanart depictions of Sadie that demonstrate what I was going for with the hair fairly well. The below image is as much as I felt same looking for while at work.

 

[BrotherofaStudio]

I-.
[Remembers that he's at work]
Um, sort of? Her outline is that of a generically attractive human woman. The only outstanding things are the colour of her skin and her hair. There are fanart depictions of Sadie that demonstrate what I was going for with the hair fairly well. The below image is as much as I felt same looking for while at work.

Click to shrink...

Thank you. One other thing, in IDW's 2019 reboot series Transformers were raised by a Mentor and some would take on a Mentee. If Paul had a Transformer Mentor in that manner, who would it be and what role would Paul/Pull would have had were he a real Transformer on Pre-War Cybertron? And do you think he and Slipstream might consider taking on a Mentee as joint Mentors like Arcee and Greenlight for Gauge?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Thank you. One other thing, in IDW's 2019 reboot series Transformers were raised by a Mentor and some would take on a Mentee. If Paul had a Transformer Mentor in that manner, who would it be and what role would Paul/Pull would have had were he a real Transformer on Pre-War Cybertron? And do you think he and Slipstream might consider taking on a Mentee as joint Mentors like Arcee and Greenlight for Gauge?

Click to shrink...

I don't think that's a thing in Prime. Bumblebee was from the last generation of sparklings before Optimus fired the All-Spark into space, isn't considered fully adult in Prime and no mention is made of any mentor-parents. Similarly, Predacons didn't really need mentoring and were ready to go from the start.

Given that he's keeping the fact that he's a human transtector a secret, claiming that Slipstream was Pull's mentor would probably be simplest. Anything else would run the risk of someone the transformer he named knew calling him out on it.

There hasn't been a new generation spawned yet, and I doubt that the Autobots who are very firmly in control of the Well of Sparks would even consider giving any to a Decepticon.

 

[BrotherofaStudio]

I don't think that's a thing in Prime.

Click to shrink...

True but you have included some things that aren't from Prime like how Shockwave was a Senator, the senate doesn't even exist in the Aligned Continuity, and that Shockwave lost his emotions. Not to mention the existence of The Last Autobot. Also it's a just a what if Paul really had been a real Transformer before the war.

Given that he's keeping the fact that he's a human transtector a secret, claiming that Slipstream was Pull's mentor would probably be simplest. Anything else would run the risk of someone the transformer he named knew calling him out on it.

Click to shrink...

Given that the role of Mentors are supposed to be the equivalent of parents and Paul forms a romantic relationship with Slipstream I'll admit that it makes me feel a touch uncomfortable even if it's just to keep up the secret. Why not get Shockwave to say he was Paul'Pull's mentor before the war?

There hasn't been a new generation spawned yet, and I doubt that the Autobots who are very firmly in control of the Well of Sparks would even consider giving any to a Decepticon.

Click to shrink...

While Paul is actually neutral I do see your point though I do believe the Autobots will have to eventually allow some Decepticons to fulfill such a role if they want to avoid increasing tensions between the two factions.

 

[Mr Zoat]

True but you have included some things that aren't from Prime like how Shockwave was a Senator, the senate doesn't even exist in the Aligned Continuity, and that Shockwave lost his emotions.

Click to shrink...

Someone made Orin Pax a Prime.

Not to mention the existence of The Last Autobot. Also it's a just a what if Paul really had been a real Transformer before the war.

Click to shrink...

Then... His life would be completely different. I wasn't even thirty when I started writing this. Transformers live for millions of years unless someone kills them. The part of me that is me would be insignificant.

Given that the role of Mentors are supposed to be the equivalent of parents and Paul forms a romantic relationship with Slipstream I'll admit that it makes me feel a touch uncomfortable even if it's just to keep up the secret. Why not get Shockwave to say he was Paul'Pull's mentor before the war?

Click to shrink...

The small organic Paul is. Pull is just some guy. It's not like he actually needs a mentor, just someone he can say is his mentor if asked.

While Paul is actually neutral I do see your point though I do believe the Autobots will have to eventually allow some Decepticons to fulfill such a role if they want to avoid increasing tensions between the two factions.

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Yes, but if one faction isn't breeding and the other is, the unbreeding faction steadily loses relevance.

 

[BrotherofaStudio]

Someone made Orin Pax a Prime.

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When said Prime I meant the show not an individual. And like I said Shockwave being a senator, once having had emotions, the senate even existing, were things not from the Aligned continuity that you included here.

Then... His life would be completely different. I wasn't even thirty when I started writing this. Transformers live for millions of years unless someone kills them. The part of me that is me would be insignificant.

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Fair enough but it's just a hypothetical question.

The small organic Paul is. Pull is just some guy. It's not like he actually needs a mentor, just someone he can say is his mentor if asked.

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I'm just saying that it seems a bit iffy that even if it's just for a cover, it brings quite a few concerns having one's mentor, the Cybertronian equivalent of parent, also be one's Conjux Endura, the Transformers version of Spouse. I get that Transformers have different values in certain areas and that once again it's just a cover but it still seems a matter of concern to me.

Yes, but if one faction isn't breeding and the other is, the unbreeding faction steadily loses relevance.

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And you don't think that the Decepticons would do something to try and prevent that before it got to that point?

 

[Mr Zoat]

When said Prime I meant the show not an individual. And like I said Shockwave being a senator, once having had emotions, the senate even existing, were things not from the Aligned continuity that you included here.

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Well..


View: https://youtu.be/FTYx7Sm5Ao4?si=CWOQySwM9jRQju_q&t=85

Okay, they're probably called 'Councillors', but that scene is far later in the war.

I'm just saying that it seems a bit iffy that even if it's just for a cover, it brings quite a few concerns having one's mentor, the Cybertronian equivalent of parent, also be one's Conjux Endura, the Transformers version of Spouse. I get that Transformers have different values in certain areas and that once again it's just a cover but it still seems a matter of concern to me.

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No, I was talking about what the Pull in this story would say. Some hypothetical 'real' Pull wouldn't have a mentor at all. He'd be some cold cast nobody who'd spent his entire life in a shunting yard with a dozen or so perfect copies of himself, getting exactly enough energon to do the same tomorrow if he worked hard and a lash from an electowhip if his overseer thought that he was slacking. In all likelihood he'd be dead long before 'now'.

And you don't think that the Decepticons would do something to try and prevent that before it got to that point?

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Honestly..? No.

Decepticons are majority cold casts, with no tradition of mentorship. If they got organised enough, they'd probably just start building better vehicons.

 

[BrotherofaStudio]

Well..


View: https://youtu.be/FTYx7Sm5Ao4?si=CWOQySwM9jRQju_q&t=85

Okay, they're probably called 'Councillors', but that scene is far later in the war.

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They most certainly were called the High Council and in the novels the total number was 13, including the ruling Prime, so it seems to me like small number to be called a senate, if that's not the case I apologize I am not an expert on the government. And it is also confirmed that in the Aligned continuity that Shockwave never took a position in the government unlike in IDW. I'm not complaining about you using that backstory here but I just want to set the record straight on what you are using from Aligned, what you are using from other Transformer universes and what is your own invention.

No, I was talking about what the Pull in this story would say. Some hypothetical 'real' Pull wouldn't have a mentor at all. He'd be some cold cast nobody who'd spent his entire life in a shunting yard with a dozen or so perfect copies of himself, getting exactly enough energon to do the same tomorrow if he worked hard and a lash from an electowhip if his overseer thought that he was slacking. In all likelihood he'd be dead long before 'now'.

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A depressing notion that I suppose has a lot of merit in the Aligned continuity, IDW and any other Cybertron that was run by a Functionist Caste System. I suppose there isn't much point asking what a hypothetical Pull would have done on a different Cybertron like the 2019 IDW.

Honestly..? No.

Decepticons are majority cold casts, with no tradition of mentorship. If they got organised enough, they'd probably just start building better vehicons.

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I'll admit I'm a bit skeptical at the notion that they wouldn't at least try something, if only because they need a new purpose for the faction and some would want to be remembered as more than just what the Decepticons became.

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th April 2013
02:43 GMT -5

"This ship doesn't have a head, you know."

For a moment I'm frowning before I remember that 'head' in this context means 'toilet'.

"Ah, if you require one, my ring has a waste management facility."

"No, it's just-. We're going so slow, you know? You told me there was a giant super-monster and then we start crawling across the system like we're a pre-F.T.L. cargo tug."

"Yes, because I don't know what sort of detection equipment they might have set up."

Though I can obviously narrow it down to things that I can't detect. I do full active scans of the system a couple of times a day and I haven't detected anything, and that's ignoring things that I would pick up by default the moment they happened. Normally that would suggest they were limited to passive monitoring, or… Putting monitoring equipment physically on our satellites and using a bleed fracture pulse system..?

Would I..?

No, no, that would actually work, and I can't check for it now because that might alert whoever this is that I'm onto them.

I'll mention it to Batman when I get back.

"What are you afraid of a dead giant starfish detecting?"

"I'm afraid of the starfish detecting anything because we got very lucky when it broke out, and if it can still detect things then either it wasn't as dead as I thought it was or it has somehow become undead and I didn't notice."

"What's 'undead'?"

Huh-? … Oh, right. 99% of the universe doesn't have undead. Amazing what a narrow perspective you get…

"That's where a thing-. An organic being loses all vitality but keeps going anyway, usually by using magic. At a basic level there are spells to pull someone's soul back to the material world as a ghost, or animate a corpse in a controlled way. At the top end you get things like liches who bind their soul to an object and animate their own corpse, or vampires who sustain their existence by leaching vital energies from living things."

"Does Earth have those?"

"Vampires? Yes. It can be passed like a blood-borne infection, so it's actually quite hard to eliminate them completely. Though the ones who last any length of time tend to be intelligent enough to moderate their feeding and avoid reproducing too much. Liches…" I smile inside my armour. "Not any more."

But speaking of the Mother Star, we're only a light minute away. I asked Bleez to stick to passive sensors, but while Thanagarian sensors are good, they're not power ring-good.

Give me a better look.

Compliance.

And there it is. A giant starfish, one eye… One the far side, from our current angle of approach. Instead, we get a nice view of its vestigial mouth and… The lines of orifices from which it deployed the smaller types of star conqueror. I see a few… Tears and craters, presumably from where the rocky remains of the plutonian crust crashed back into it. No ships or structure and no signs of life.

Or… Unlife.

"Seems to be more or less the same as I left it."

I'd take a look with empathic vision, but Kent Nelson showed me how easy that was to detect for a magic user back when I was first starting out. And everything I've learned about magic since has confirmed that. My soul should be more strongly anchored to my body than Swamp Thing's was, but that's not something I feel like testing.

"Has that just been floating in your system?"

"Yes. For longer than my species has, actually."

Okay, as far as passive sensors go, my rune stone… We're a long way away, but in a thaumically inert environment…

I pick the stone out of an equipment pouch and hold it out.

Ah, I think that's a response, but I suppose that with my tattoos I'm fairly thaumically active. Oh well.

Heh. Part of me wants to just jump in and scan at full intensity, on the assumption that my fully accelerated decision-making processes are going to be faster than anything I could encounter. Stealth is all very well and good, but it's difficult to sneak up on something in space. Even something simple like infrared means that I'm having to have my rings absorb my heat, though the files Dox gave me seemed to indicate that some very sophisticated species sometimes forget about simple things at critical junctures; someone once nearly killed one of his father's avatars with a clay-covered explosive fired from a trebuchet.

But I don't want to risk Death Number Three, especially not knowing where my last clone ended up. Which means that a full visual inspection is the.. next…

"Is that thing turning around?"

Either that, or there's a surprisingly prescient black hole around and I didn't detect a change in local gravity fields.

"Nth metal isolates you from telepathic effects, right?"

"Up to a point!"

Yeah, I don't think my telepath baffles are rated to stop something like that, either. To say nothing of its telekinesis, though it's possible that it can't focus on something as small as me.

How long would it take me to generate enough neural chaff to affect-? Hah, no. The very structure of its decentralised neural network would make that… Impractical, particularly when its telekinesis could destroy the construct fairly instinctively so scrambling its thought processes wouldn't do much.

Does the fact its moving mean that it's spotted us?

Ah…

How is it moving? It'll be a few seconds until I can passively detect heat from a thruster. The only way to easily detect telekinesis would be to monitor it's brain. Thanks to our rapprochement with the Green Lantern Corps I do know what a Mother Star's brain looks like when it uses its various abilities, but that still requires active sensors or something implanted into its flesh.

One enterprising Green Lantern managed that with microbots, once. Exactly once.

Gas thrusters? In theory it could harvest ice and turn it into gas, but I'm reasonably confident that someone would have noticed that by now if it was sending smaller star conquerors outside of itself. No, by the time I would see it moving I'd see the plume as well, that's-.

It's… Side-on to me now, and… That's not the right shape. The faintly scaled upper surface leading to the raised section containing the eye is…

It's..? Missing? And there's..? Some sort of plant-machinery? I'm seeing vines and… Glass? And tendrils of some sort and I can't tell whether they're plant vines or animal tissue. It doesn't look like anything that J or Alstair would make, or like what little I know of Dominion plant technology. And it's almost like I'm… Not seeing parts of it. I can see vines that are clearly part of a complex structure start and stop without rhyme or reason. I'd guess that they're moving out of phase or something, but confirming that would require very active monitoring-.

"What is-? What is it?"

"I have not the slightest idea. But I think it's too late to get away."

 

[Ngamer11]

"Vampires? Yes. It can be passed like a blood-borne infection, so it's actually quite hard to eliminate them completely. Though the ones who last any length of time tend to be intelligent enough to moderate their feeding and avoid reproducing too much. Liches…" I smile inside my armour. "Nto any more."

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That should say 'Not'.

Heh. Part of me wants to just jump in and scan at full intensity, on the assumption that my fully accelerated decision-making processes are going to be faster than anything I could encounter. Stealth is all very well and good, but it's difficult to sneak up on something in space. Even something simple like infrared means that I'm having to have my rings absorb my heat, though the files Dox gave me seemed to indicate that some very sophisticated species sometimes forget about simple things at critical junctures; someone once nearly killed one of his father's avatars with a clay-covered explosive fired from a trebuchet.

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When did that happen to Brainiac?

 

[Whenever Possible]

Has the stargod been in the system longer than the Martian species?

Because I'd wonder if the telepathic and telekinetic alien god has something to do with the development of the telekinetic and telepathic species in the system.

 

[Darko]

Liches…" I smile inside my armour. "Nto any more."

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"Not"

And you only got rid of one, so there could be more.

anchored to my body that Swamp

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"body than"

Dox gave me seemed to indicate that some very sophisticated species sometimes forget about simple things at critical junctures; someone once nearly killed one of his father's avatars with a clay-covered explosive fired from a trebuchet.

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Guess he thought that if he was immune to things like plasma guns and gravity weapons, then he was immune to things like primitive bombs.

 

[Mr Zoat]

That should say 'Not'.

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Thank you, corrected.

When did that happen to Brainiac?

Click to shrink...

About eight years ago.

"body than"

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

 

[Vaermina]

It's..? Missing? And there's..? Some sort of plant-machinery? I'm seeing vines and… Glass? And tendrils of some sort and I can't tell whether they're plant vines or animal tissue. It doesn't look like anything that J or Alstair would make, or like what little I know of Dominion plant technology. And it's almost like I'm… Not seeing parts of it. I can see vines that are clearly part of a complex structure start and stop without rhyme or reason. I'd guess that they're moving out of phase or something, but confirming that would require very active monitoring-.

"What is-? What is it?"

"I have not the slightest idea. But I think it's too late to get away."

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Moral of this story.

Don't leave your dead enemies just lying around