Historically, Praxus has not been favored by the Primes because it's Library City (And the principal producer of storage crystals). The reason that it’s deliberately neutral is because their priority is the free preservation and transmission of information, which makes them very unpopular with the Senate and with most Primes. Except, Optimus wants their help. He wants to create a global archive systems with interarchival loans that is accessible to as many citizens as possible, as a basic mechanism right.
Because of Praxus’s poor relationship with the Primacy, they just kind of send a slate of pretty mechs who wouldn’t be straight up offensive to offer to the Prime when it comes time for him to pick a conjunx. And Optimus looked at the slate and went, “Oh, that one likes solving complex problems, I have complex problems that need solving and I need an alliance with this city.”
Prowl is entirely blindsided by being chosen because why did he even pick a Praxian? And Prowl, especially? In this setting, Prowl is sort of a dropout because his “tac net” was supposed to help him be better at sorting and analyzing data, but had the unfortunate side effect of, not the crashes, they could handle that, but of making him need to get up and do things and feed it more info to keep it busy, which in practice means feeding it non-library data that’s less predictable. So, he ended up becoming an Enforcer, and taking on Enforcer coding, which has some obedience and loyalty coding in it because the city is deeply paranoid.
Optimus: oh wonderful, a gorgeous, brilliant, dedicated problem solver with a spark for public service from the city I need an alliance with
Prowl: Why The Everliving Frag Was I Picked.
Jazz, on the other hand. Jazz has known Optimus since he was Orion, has loved him for vorns upon vorns. He was planning to conjunx Orion. Got his musician legal identity squeaky clean, just a couple of charges so it's not suspicious (drunk in public, a few fines)
And then Orion became Optimus. He has identities with the power to conjunx the Prime, and with the clean record. But none with both.
The worst part is, it’s his fault. Orion was geeking out about the historical event of the choosing of the new Prime, and wishing he could see it. Sadly, only mecha of status are allowed to purchase tickets to the event. He called in a favor from Mirage, because he was officially the mech’s music instructor, and informally taught him how to be a sneaky lil glitch. Mirage was glad to give up his Tower’s two tickets to help repay Jazz. Jazz was planning to propose to him, after. Had his proposal gift in his subspace, an obscure history datapad about energon shipping and safety regulations.
Part of the ceremony is letting the little carrying drone swoop once over the bigger crowd before going back to the actual chosen candidates.
The Matrix slags the drone at the exact right time to pick Orion.
The problem: only noble frames were supposed to be at the matrix event. Functionists argue that the purpose of a noble frame is to be a potential leader, including being the only frames that can bear the Matrix.
The broadcast to the public of the Matrix choosing was heavily edited to make it not visible or audible what frame Orion was, and to cut out all of the audible distress and confusion in the congregation.
Due to the Matrix fritzing OP out somewhat, Jazz is the only one with a full, uninterrupted, unedited memory file of the event. Jazz is the only mechanism there aside from Orion without a vested interest in maintaining the narrative of only noble frames being worthy, and someone tried to bodily drag him away from OP to "make sure that the commoner doesn't tarnish your reputation, Lord Prime."
Both Jazz and OP are lucky that even disoriented, OP knew that he didn't want Jazz to leave his side, and simply locked his servoes around Jazz's wrist and refused to let them take him. Optimus appoints Jazz as his personal aide to protect him. Jazz would normally protest that he can protect himself, but he knows that having most of the noble population baying for his energon is dangerous even for him. His proposal gift never leaves his subspace, and he’s now certain it never will.
Then, it’s time for Optimus to pick a consort, to solidify his political goals and choose a partner to assist in them. Jazz helps, smiling through the feeling of his intake being clogged. Couldn't he just have asked the question sooner? They would've had to respect even a bond just sworn, not bonded. He makes sure that the mech that they pick will be one that Optimus can also be happy with. He deserves no less from his junx.
When Optimus's junx-to-be steps out of the transport, Jazz was expecting to hate the mech. But there's something wrong with the way he's walking, the way he's talking and dipping his head. He makes Ratchet do a scan.
He's helped Ratch pull this slag out of bots' heads before, he assures Prowl. And Optimus will approve, they don't need to ask. Prowl makes them ask. Optimus says that if Prowl is comfortable, that they can, and if not, that he will use every resource to find a way to free him that is agreeable to him.
Prowl has never had so much devotion expressed to him, or had such careful, gentle tendrils of code sifting through his processor, scrambling invisible traps and chains. Soon enough, too soon, he is free, and more lost than he ever has been in his life.
Prowl is trying to figure out what his role is in this new situation but he's getting conflicting information from his new… what does he call him when his obedience coding is stripped out (Conjunx, Prowl, conjunx) and from everything he was told to expect. He has his own habsuite, and Optimus gifted him a beautiful proposal gift: one of the most dense and powerful storage crystals available even off the official markets. A very traditional, romantic gesture for a junx-to-be. But then, why has Optimus not been traditional in pressing Prowl into moving into a shared habsuite?
The three circle each other in a complex dance.
Jazz is trying to seduce both of them, but he expects to be the pretty side piece that both of them indulge in. After all, Optimus is a romantic, and he can see the threads of trust and warmth slowly blooming from Prowl towards his junx. Them loving each other is going to be good. It's going to make them happy. And he gets to frag them, too! Everything is great.
He can’t expect more than that. Not now, after he missed his chance.
Meanwhile Prowl can see that Jazz adores Optimus, and is always hanging off of his arms casually in private. They have little intimicies, jokes and words that are used in ways that only the two of them know the answers to. Both of them are happy to explain, but sometimes they're smiling at each other and Prowl feels that there is an endless expanse of space between him and them that he will never bridge. He was relieved at first by having his own hab, but it soon turns to feeling like rejection. Especially when Jazz keeps following Optimus into his hab, and Prowl doesn't have the courage to.
…which one of them is he jealous of? Why is that in question? Isn't he supposed to be trying to find his junx more tolerable, if anyone?
And Optimus, Optimus heard the outrage from the second that Jazz commed him about his junx-to-be's medical exam, all righteous and fierce in his defense. He watches them bounce off of each other, Prowl very nearly offended but never quite there, and adapting quickly to Jazz's rapidfire mind in a way that Optimus never quite was able to. They are the two most extraordinary bots that he knows, and he feels quite… plain, next to the two of them.
Someday, he expects Prowl to ask for a bigger berth in his habsuite. He does not expect to be invited.
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