Give us some Mirage and/or Skywarp headcanon you have that hasn't made it into a fic yet. :3
ooohhh... a very indulgent ask! thank you! :D
I don't think I have any hc points that haven't made their way into fic yet, regarding them individually or together 🤔 I've always thought it made the most sense for their relationship to have started before the war, that Skywarp could see Mirage when Mirage is invisible, that if they activate their powers at the same time it causes physical harm, that their relationship suffers from lots of things (war, class issues, brain intrusions, etc) but it's characterized by a strong, unwavering, intense love. Mirage has a face made of something other than metal. Skywarp is an angry boy.
You see those points in most of my fics about them, give or take :D
I doooo haaaaaaaaave some info I can share about TEG Mirage/Skywarp, which wasn't delved into in TEG itself.
In TEG, Mirage says this:
"He [Skywarp] recognized the benefits to himself of pairing with me. Though he was not taken by firelove, it did not take him long to love me"
I know exactly when Skywarp felt safe enough to love Mirage :D
So going back to 2938 Cybertron, it's a society deeply divided by class. The upper class live in the underground caves and the lower class does the mining/labor and lives above ground. The class lines can generally be drawn across alt modes, with fliers preferring to be above ground for obvious reasons.
Mirage is, as based in his traditional characterization throughout the franchise, upper class. Skywarp is not.
The concept of firelove is known and understood throughout society. Firelove strikes regardless of class, so it's not unheard of that an upper class mech would fall for someone below their station, or vice versa. But it's also the case that lower class mechs could fake it - fake great and fawning love - for an upper class mech to improve their own status. AND it's the case that upper class mechs of particularly cruel tendencies do the opposite: pretend to love someone lower than them, so that when they reveal it was all a lie, they can laugh and lord over the pain they've caused.
Both of these 'false firelove' situations are well known in society. They're explored in stories/plays/general societal awareness, and they do sometimes actually happen.
So when Skywarp asks Mirage if he's taken by firelove, he's initially very pleased to hear that. He knows that being fiercely loved and wanted by someone with more money/resources means good things for himself.
But then he thinks about the cruelty of false firelove.
And he has a friend who was fooled by an upper class mech, who suffered very greatly emotionally.
So Skywarp has no idea if Mirage actually loves him or not until they get close enough to have physical relations. He's afraid to feel anything for Mirage. He goes along with courting, because hey, why not, but he's reticent to fall in love. As it goes along, though, well, it's hard not to. But he's afraid. Until things finally build up to Finding Out For Sure.
Since this is tumblr and it's also like 6am, I'll spare the details 😄 but there's a point in their style of interface (basically spike-valve) where the valve mech can dictate whether to complete a connection, or not. Refusing to complete the connection is a rejection of sharing yourself wholly with another - and also denies the other a great deal of pleasure. This is the place where an upper class mech reveals they do not have good intentions. It's instantly apparent that the firelove was a lie, and all the feelings and hope the other mech had are rejected cruelly and outright.
So when Mirage completes this connection and Skywarp is flooded with the overwhelming and whole love Mirage has for him, he knows it's the real deal, and he's not afraid to fall in love with him.
I think this would make for a good and entertaining fic. I'm not opposed to writing it someday, but it needs some framework around that central question [is the firelove real?], and I don't have the brain for it at the moment. But I always have this tidbit hanging around the back of my head.
With the caveat that I haven't even been able to bring myself to reread the fic yet, Prowl/Jazz/Soundwave for the Big Bang!
19. What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?
@eatyoursparkout got me to play dgs so I want to write either a van zieks/herlock or van zieks/ryuunosuke fic! In terms of transformers, I would like to pivot from a jazzwave enjoyer to a jazzwave writer
I know it's still early on, and a few of the initial descriptions of him were very much the "har har Prowl has a huge stick up his ass" sort of thing, but I kind of (tentatively?) like what they're doing with Prowl in IDW2. He has friends, he has a PET, and it's been shown he has emotions and cares. Stick up ass, yes, but he has a softer side too. 💗
Oooo yes I do love all those things... I love the pet especially. I just wish they wouldn't give up on the mess they left him in in IDW1. IDW2, from what I understand, gives us a Prowl before the war. I'd like to see someone pick up the pieces that are left after it.
re: fantasy AU: I LOVE that comic sketch. I can *almost* hear Prowl's insistent nagging about whatever. XD And hmm, I already asked you about Bluestreak and Hound, so... what species would Mirage, and/or the Constructicons be? Aside: I adore fantasy AUs; I've written my own (where they're all still robots & the world is just filled with magic) but I am really digging the designs you're doing here. <3
Heheheh thank you~!!!
For Mirage I’m uncertain... honestly probably just a very aristocratic high elf - or maybe even fae royalty. I have yet to introduce any fae though, and when I do them they tend to be very... eldritchy lol
As for the constructicons, i was talking with shapeofmetal about the AU at some point and she mentioned smthn about them being golems?? Or well, it was SOMEONE in the group chat and honestly the idea has stuck with me lol, so probably golems.
15. What's your favourite plotless fic you have written?
31. What was the most difficult fic for you to write (but in the end you made it)?
Hello!
7. Your favourite ao3 tag.
To use? Would probably be the "canon-typical violence" tag lol, cuz I love to have some blood/gore/medical stuff going on. To read? Hmm. I don't read a lot of fic, to be honest. umm UMMM I don't know :'D
15. What's your favourite plotless fic you have written?
ooh that's a hard one. most of my plotless fics are explicit and hidden. for a non hidden, very very short one, "Auras and Fields" is a sweet one :) driftrod, sensual
31. What was the most difficult fic for you to write (but in the end you made it)?
The latter part of the question implies that the answer must be a FINISHED fic so I probably gotta go with TEG haha. It was really really difficult in parts and it took 4 years to finish. Off the top of my head, two really hard parts were:
-picking up after the Ch 10 cliffhanger (after SW bluescreens after trying to take over the LL)
-the timeline for the Irradion arc, with Aquafend and Stardrive
And then Generally Hard Parts were:
-anything with Megatron
-anytime I felt a lot of pressure to get it right and not fuck up, which tended to be the last 2 years
Other fics have been challenging (The Angel Breaker was still being written on the days it was due!! :'D) but TEG was the hardest of the finished fics.
In terms of unfinished fics... The Last Ferrymech is really kicking my cerebellum's ass. This summer will be two years. TWO YEARS that I've been trying to untangle it. I don't want to give up on it though.
28. Is there a character you have several ships for?
12- my brain literally threw a non-canon rarepair* out there and it took me a second to be like NO! haha. hmmmmmm... I was def rooting for cygate during MTMTE's release :) can't think of another canon ship that I'm super duper into atm. most of them fall under "generally 👍 but I'm just not interested in doing anything with them"
*I wrote it rairpare at first, then rairpair, then rarepair... my brain is so fog today, haha, I had trouble with this one xD
17- I like ships where people are nice to each other ;A; I don't understand things like hate sex or how being mortal enemies who really want to kill each other = actually lovers. like, they just don't compute in my head at all. they don't register as romantic for me. so, yeah, even if there's a big character arc where one character goes from "fuck you" to "oh" to big shiny eyes of love, that essence of kindness is still (eventually) there, so that works for me
28- Rodimus xD I know I'm not alone in this, haha. have seen the sentiment around. for me, so far, I've written:
Rodimus/Soundwave
Rodimus/Mirage
Rodimus/Skywarp
I don't think I've written Rodimus/Drift but I really like it
ETA: wait, yes I did! a really short fic, Auras and Fields
it took a long time but I kinda get Rodimus/Megatron now, so I might read that if it comes up.
basically I'm down for thinking about Rodimus with any character except the characters I prefer not to ship at all
18) The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?
A character in my secret solenoid fic :D I'm afraid I can't share that info yet, hehehe. but soon!
19) What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?
Ferrymech AU Rodimus/Soundwave xD seriously I gotta get that fic done!!! Dx Dx Dx
ummmmmmmm other than thaaaaaaaaat... hmm. I don't have any fic goals for next year except The Last Ferrymech. more spywarp is never out of the picture :D
*looks at list of rarepairs* the only one I haven't done anything for that's grabbing me at the moment is Skywarp/Prowl. so maybe that!
