WAIT WAIT WAIT, I JUST REALIZED THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. Spoiler: MTMTE 53 Dominus being the Pet was foreshadowed by the Functionalist timeline. What did they do to him in that timeline? They took his face. They took his voice. And then they took his words. What happened to him in the main timeline? They took his form. They took his voice. And then they took his words, his internal words that helped him form coherent thoughts. Presumably Functionalist Dominus was double-altered, his core body and his armor.
Spoiler: MTMTE 53 Also, I interpreted Dominus as coming from a position of high privilege, but him being a beastformer throws that majorly into question. Presumably he didn't wear the armor 24-7 just because he was insecure about his height. Revealing himself as a beastformer would dramatically change how people treated him. With this in mind, it's possible he didn't hide his true body from Rewind because he wanted to. I think Dominus was probably scared. He knew Rewind, the disposable, would likely not treat him differently, but... it's still scary.
LOUD YELLING Spoiler: mtmte 53 that cover is not very reassuring RATCHET ILU BUT PLEASE CONCENTRATE ON WHAT YOU ARE DOING WITH MEGS instead of reading something on a datapad and snarking at lottie i fucking love velocity so much this is all very interesting and all but the words "Is Tailgate at risk?" are banned forever fuq all of u i love u rodimus, don't call tailgate "slugger" tailgate punches buildings down. He's liek tiny hulk... uh... who is also bigger than the hulk probably. AWW SKIDS AND SWERVE <333 but also i love all these hypercompetent badasses still being totally okay with one of them having to take a timeout because panic attack. Lottie QnQ "Maybe he still can" DOMEY GO ABCK TO SLEEP awww nightbeat also wtf are you measuring mims for brainstorm. what are u planning u mad genius awww Rung'S FACE HE LOOKS SO UNHAPPY NAUTICA my love how are you still cute with half ur face missing? OH OH MY FUCKING GOD??? NAUTS DARLING ALL OF THEM? I AM CRYING ACTUAL TEARS OH MY GOSH THIS SI ROMANTIC AS FUCK HOLY SHIIIIIT oh noooo skidsy bby "Are you okay, should I get Rewind?" domey stop ruining your own health like the dumbass you are oh fuck rewind D: Brainstorm u mad genius. pls make mims the buffest most dangerous fucker around OHHHHH so Dom was/is a loadbearer AND mims is better at it? omfg rewind didn'T KNOW? oh god the pet IS an actual person holy fucking shit holy shit holy shit holy shit ahhhhhhh (more plotthreads crossing over with the scavengers, INTERESTING) ohhhh domey cares D: Rewind is PISSED OFF I DID NOT EXPECT THIS AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH????????????????????????????????ßß FUCK FUCKHOLYSHIT and domey is cryig wtf IS THIS HOLY SHIT HOLY FUCK he just straight up FUCKING PUNCHES RODIMUS IN THE FACE I AM SO PROUD OF REWIND EVEN IF RODIMUS DOESN'T REALLY DESERVE IT "You're an enabler" yes he is hE WAS AGENT 113 HOL Y SHIT NO CHROMEDOEM DON'T BE LIKE THSI FUCK YOU STOP IMMEDIATELY LISTEN TO YOUR SPOUSE WHO HOLY SHIT REWIND YOU ARE JUST HAVING ONE HARDCORE MOMENT AFTER THE NEXT AREN'T YOU PRIMUS THAT IS A VISUAL MIRRORING OF THAT ISSUE AND I AM UPSET THIS IS UPSETTING MEBUT ALSO HOLY FUCKING SHIT REWIND JUST CHOPPED HIS HUSBAND'S ARM OFF TO MAKE SURE HE WOULDN'T KILL HIMSELF TRYING TO SAVE HIS BELIEVED-TO-BE-DEAD-EX-HUSBAND HOLY SHIT that is a lot of bad guys WHIRL my LOVE you impatient murder child SO PRECIOUS HE ASKS THE IMPORTANT QUESTION WHAT W H A T CYCLONUS FUCK U STOP TRYING TO CHANGE THE TOPIC i love you whirl you are literally the best moirail for cyclonus ever "so why aren't you guys a couple?" "He deserves better" SHUT UP CYCLOUS "so it's not the height difference" WHIRL "it is in a way. He towers over me." SAY THESE THINGS TO HIM YOU TERRIBLE IDIOT YOU FUCKING LOVE HIM "Because I'll split this world open and tear down the sky before I allow him to come to even the slightest harm." i CANNOT BELIEVE THIS SHIT FUCKING MARRY TAILGATE OR I AM GONNA STRANGLE YOU CY ... who of you did not think this through. MEGS! also rodimus is so excited for him to be back on his feet bless roddy oh. oh honey. that is really sweet but... did you just forget about the pacifism thing? I... i don't think that's off the table yet? "I'm not strong enough" -lies down- -cries- (also laughs because all I can think of is that scene from the Incredibles and Roddy and Megs make an excellent superhero couple) "I suppose... I suppose I am afraid." "GOOD! ME TOO!" fUCK THIS ARGUMENT HURTS MY FEELINGS holy fucking shit ravage just killed me. lord almighty that is a big fucking armor "Maximus Ambus" indeed u goddamn genius brainstorm "Tasty." ilu man GROUPHUG QoQ "Thanks for travelling with me" rodimus QuQ holy shit this issue made me cry like five seperate times what the fuck
[incoherent screaming about mtmte 53] I liveblogged at the RP group, but honestly 90% of it was just various curses. Just. [SCREAMING] Spoiler: mtmte 53 That was not at all what I was expecting from the Dom Ambus reveal, and. Like. Serious props to the writing crew! Just. Fffffffffffff. Sometimes I forget Rewind also went through 4 million years of war. Boy is hardcore. Hhhhh. My favorite forever.
Spoiler: rp irc turned into screaming about this issue 12:49 PRelations i said it in tht etf thread too but consider 12:49 PRelations maximus ambus's dick is like, the size of swerve 12:49 PRelations GET IT BOI 12:49 Mirrors WHOO WHEE 12:49 Petra is everyone caught up 12:49 Mirrors biiiig ol dick 12:49 Mirrors i think so? 12:50 Petra DOMINUS AMBUS GETS HIS VOICE STOLEN IN EVERY UNIVERSE 12:50 Petra also, form altered, thoughts sealed 12:50 loq snrk 12:50 Mirrors oops 12:50 Mirrors poor dom 12:50 Petra it was LITERALLY FORESHADOWED 12:50 Petra or rather, that bit hurts even more 12:50 Petra now that we have this context 12:50 PRelations also 12:50 Mirrors rewind tho bless rewind holy shit 12:50 PRelations think about it 12:50 loq ...which is, coincidentally, a very nice foil to Rewind, who *preserves* everyone's voices in his recordings 12:50 PRelations PROWL KNEW ALL ALONG 12:50 Petra but also, did the functionalist council just 12:50 Petra double-alter him 12:50 Petra YEAH 12:50 loq Prowl is a dick forever 12:50 Petra who do you think was dom's handler 12:51 Petra probably prowl 12:51 Petra WAIT 12:51 Mirrors prowl is ALWAYS a dick tho 12:51 Petra dominus didn't WANT to leave rewind 12:51 Petra he had to because undercover 12:51 Petra do you think he like. had fantasies of the war ending and re-uniting with rewind 12:51 Petra or did he just try to push rewind aside so he could do his job 12:52 loq ...it would probably be really easy, too, to lean on Dom's apparent fears of his alt form being discovered. Because Prowl's a dick like that 12:52 PRelations oh shit 12:52 PRelations yeah 12:52 Petra do you think he kept track of rewind. 12:52 Petra read his files, his online postings 12:52 PRelations with probably a side order of "do this to keep rewind safe" 12:52 Petra looked for him to be happy 12:52 Petra what did he think of chromedome?? 12:52 PRelations do you think he knew rewind never stopped looking? 12:52 loq Dom probably, prowl probably not once it was found that Dom'd been compromised 12:52 loq fffff DON'T HURT ME LIKE THIS PR 12:53 Petra PROWL NEVER TRIED TO GET DOM HELP 12:53 Petra FUCK 12:53 Petra well 12:53 Petra i mean it's the DJD 12:53 PRelations GODDAM N PROWL 12:53 Petra but still 12:53 PRelations YOU HAVENT BEEN RELEVANT IN MONTHS AND IM MAD ALL OVER AGAIN 12:53 Petra you don't just LEAVE A SOLDIER in that position 12:53 Petra try a subtle mercy kill at the LEAST
Spoiler: MTMTE 53 Prowl knew. He had to have known. Prowl was probably dom's handler. Did Dom want to leave Rewind? Probably not! He had to go undercover, just... was he pressured into it? Did he follow Rewind's life as best as he could? Did he fantasize about the war ending and being able to reunite with Rewind, or did he try not to think about him because he had to Do His Job? I take back everything I said about Dom being an asshole, shit is more complicated than that.
Spoiler: mtmte 53 Okay but I will literally punch Ratchet or Velocity if they attached an arm that still had Mnemosurgery-needles to Chromedome.
I'm having so many emotions right now! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh Rewind ily Spoiler: mtmte 53 and NAUTICA! tho I have many questions about whether they're all amica with each other now, or just with her, and if they all live then they'll have this huge multi-faceted relationship to work out, and ahhhhhhhhh. also, obligatory cygate screaming
Spoiler: MTMTE 53 To be honest I thought the part where Nautica opened her chest to reveal a glowing light was actually the reveal of Nautica Prime. Spoiler: exRID 53 Also I kind of ship Victorion/Superion.
Spoiler: exrid 53 I love Victorion/Superion (tensome? TENSOME!) but also I kind of lowkey ship Victorion/Optimus, for extra size kink in my size kink, hahaha. Some kind of pitch/flush vacillation, because I loooooove the way they're able to separate themselves from the religion and hero worship and be critical of his actions and still be his ally. Also, Victorion is gorgeous, I need her shipped with everyone. Spoiler: mtmte 53 First little thing! Remember how on Caminus, Nautica was in danger of being socially ostracized because she hadn't made a single amica by X age, so she was clearly defective? Well just look at her now :') Alsoooooooo I'm torn on whether or not I want Prowl to have known about Dominus. Because he is the big information guy, and I love him when he's being horrible. But it seems like, say, Ultra Magnus's status as a nesting doll wasn't very widely know. Because the armor was being supplied by someone outside Prowl's control, and if Prowl did know, then it seems like he would have used that for leverage when the Lost Light crew was originally assembling. It feels like a super-huge intergalactic policeman would have been someone he wanted to keep around on the planet, and that kind of secret would have been REALLY great to use against Minimus, but it doesn't seem like he knew. I'm tornnnnn, gahhhhh, because I like him knowing secrets, but also... I like him having a giant-ass blind spot in his knowledge where it would have been really critical for manipulating Rewind, Chromedome, and everyone involved. So like... hm. I'm going to stream of consciousness, I think. I'm not locking down any solid theories or anything, but I'm going to speculate wildly. Okay, so the cybertronian population is static/shrinking right now, but during the war, you had bursts of MTOs on either side, plus allegiances that shifted at least sometimes. And before the war, you had child constructed people being made, plus at least occasional natural got spots. So until the decepticons and autobots ran out of frozen sparks, the cybertronian population was in a LOT of flux. Basically lots of words to say that up until a certain point in the war, it wouldn't be that unusual to encounter a cybertronian you'd never heard of before, without any real records you could access. So this is where I start to wobble all over the place in terms of what ideas I like best. To what extent was Dominus Ambus ashamed of his base alt mode? To what extent was he a self-loathing beastformer? How long had he been in his personal armor and how rarely did he ever take it off? Basically, no matter how much he loved Rewind, how willing was he to sacrifice himself and his identity for the sake of a cause he believes in? Because... hm. I have trouble seeing his reasoning for telling Prowl and not telling Rewind, but I'm really starting to love the idea of him making the decision solo to head out on this ridiculous identity-sacrificing, probably-life-sacrificing, semi-suicide mission. Okay, so we know that Agent 113 was in contact with the Wreckers. And it looks like Prowl was keeping a close eye on them even if he wasn't outright handling them. But the Wreckers are... very different from how Prowl works. If Prowl was his initial contact, I'm having trouble seeing how Prowl wouldn't micromanage him into oblivion and beyond, just so he could pick out all his secrets. But if he contacted the Wreckers and was like hey 'yo I'm in the DJD but I'm totally an Autobot, here's this awesome info by the way I'll send all my messages in this ridiculous way from now on,' I can see Impactor being like 'okay, sounds legit.' And with Cybertronian population in so much flux, lots of people dying, lots being born, I don't think it would be too-too hard for him to take on the identity of this one guy who was totally cold constructed for this one battle. Are the records lost? Oh well, can't be that important to track that info down, right? OH SHIT. WAIT. I said I was just going to spitball, but I just landed on the theory I liked. Awright. Lowkey self-loathing is maybe how Dominus Ambus starts the war, for the reasons people discussed above. But we see, over and over, how badly the war affected the people fighting in it. Rewind's probably one of the people who came from it the healthiest, but he's resilient as shit. Who's to say that Dominus Ambus doesn't start breaking down, just a bit? We see so many characters in this series who just... stop valuing their continued existence, and it breaks my heart. And also, the grand cybertronian taxonomy was Dominus's life'ts work, but once the war started, I think it's reasonable to guess that this is when alt modes started really going extinct. Rewind says that these alt modes were deleted from the taxonomy as they disappeared, so his life's work is being destroyed in front of his eyes, on top of, you know. the standard horrors of war. If Dominus Ambus started the war lowkey hating himself, and then can't even value himself for the things he creates (because he's watching the big thing he created slowly being erased), he decides that fuck it, his life is going to be worth something, and dives into this insane solo Agent 113 plan. I do really like it as something solo, because it's so fucking off the wall, and because any information leak at all could have... bad results. But Dominus does love Rewind. So I really like the idea that he doesn't tell one person but hide it from his husband, I really like the idea that he doesn't tell anyone period, and just counts on Rewind has the strength to carry on through (not an unreasonable assumption, given how badass rewind is). (also dominus seems primed to really devalue his own existence, so maybe he didn't even see people losing him as a proper loss) Now, given how undercover Minimus was as Ultra Magnus (and pretty much all his predecessors too) and how Rewind didn't even know Dominus was a load-bearer, it seems like this gift is either rare or subtle enough (or both) that nobody ever really thinks to go looking for it or spots it on their own. If Dominus had his people suit to wear, plus a convenient backstory to take advantage of how much flux the cybertronian population was in mid-war, I think he could integrate himself into the decepticons without too much trouble. OH! Shit, I have an even better idea. The proper decepticon brand is done using a piece of your spark casing, right? All hardcore and junk. Hard to fake if anyone checks on it. And some random newborn cybertronian without their papers who's like 'make me a decepticon! make me a decepticon!' is probably going to be kind of suspicious, right? Welllllllllllllllll. We know Minimus's people suit was made from real people. What if Dominus did that too? What if he totally harvested some giant dead decepticon's corpse and converted it into his armor? The story makes a point of how he was a renaissance mech, so maybe he had the know-how, or maybe he found a neutral engineer like Tyrest was for Ultra Magnus to do the conversion. I like that a lot, it's twisted. And building on this stupid+secret plan, so. At that point, he's nominally a decepticon. Without any autobots knowing he's there. And with uncertain amounts of history and trust to back up his new mask. I think that the lower ranking he is, the easier time he'd have integrating himself, and for higher ranks, he'd have a harder time assuming this new identity, but whatever, it's okay, he's aiming for the top. No matter where he starts, he has a long ways to climb. So okay. One of the darkest parts of this plan, no matter how it went down, is the number and scale of the atrocities he'd have to commit to even get the attention of the DJD. How is an autobot going to handle doing so, so much awful stuff to their allies? And to keep doing it for many many many years? I dunno, but I bet it helps if you've spent most of your adult life trying to disconnect yourself from your core identity and never valued Who You Are very much in the first place (also I remembered that the DJD do keep their exhaustive list of decepticons, so I like the people suit idea even better now) I think I like this idea so much, because it's such an awful plan. There are so many ways for it to go fatally wrong, and it's such a stretch imagining it will work at all, even with an unbelievably relevant skill set. So I like it best as a last-ditch, objectively stupid attempt by a desperate mech to make his life worth something. I really like the buildup of preexisting issues and shiny new trauma, plus concern for his loved ones and lack of concern for himself. I really love the idea of one stupid lone mech on his stupid lone mission wedging himself into the Decepticon special ops without much hope of success, and then having to be like 'oh. it worked? um. now what?' And I mean, just look at the Wreckers. They're exactly the kind of assholes to be on board with something this ridiculous and dangerous. Not terribly coherent, but my hands still feel like they're going to fall off from the last few days of embroidery, so I'm not going back to edit it down, sorry :V Hmmmmummmmm. I feel like there's some kind of fic in there, but it's like that Shockwave one, where I can see how to write it, but it'll be super depressing and emotionally draining to write. Or read, probably! My emotionally draining writing spoons are devoted to Whirl before I address Shockwave or Dominus, even though I want to write all of them :T And tonight is busy, because choir will be long and dancing will be stressful, but I'm hoping to convert at least some of my issue 53 emotions into fic sometime tonight.
Spoiler: MTMTE 53 I just love the idea of Dominus, the sophisticate, clambering into a giant mech suit with hooks for hands and feet. Such elegance.
Spoiler: MTMTE 53 I support and love Nautica Prime, she who blesses us with oodles of poly robot moirallegience in one fell swoop
