Inspired by the amazing AUs I’ve seen from @keferon, here’s one of my own!!!
Jazz is a Prince in the kingdom of Polyhex, a smaller kingdom on Cybertron, compared to the larger kingdoms like Iacon and Kaon. He prefers traveling as more of a Bard to being a prince, however.
Prowl is a cop, a detective, from the kingdom of Praxus. He’s tasked with finding a traitor to the crown of Polyhex- Praxus’ most recent alliance. All clues point to the only other surviving member of the Polyhexian royal family- Jazz.
This is…
Sacred Scales
(More below the cut.)
Jazz walked through the ruins of a Polyhexian city. He mourned still the loss of his father’s kingdom to the Cyberplague that had ravaged Cybertron only fifteen years ago. As the youngest of the King’s sons, he really held no importance in the family hierarchy, but he didn’t mind that. He preferred it, actually. It was quieter, less formal- he couldn’t stand politics. Not his thing. Jazz loved music, traveling, and meeting new dragons. It was how he survived the plague that had destroyed Polyhex. He hadn’t been there at the time. It hurt, knowing that he was one of under 200 Polyhexians who had survived. His older brother, Ricochet, had also survived, and now ruled over the small city that they had rebuilt.
But Ricochet had decided Jazz was a threat to the crown, and banished him from the city- from the little territory he controlled.
Jazz didn’t mind, not that much. There wasn’t anyone left for him. Their parents were dead, along with all his friends. So, he went back to traveling. Looking for any other survivors of Polyhex. He earned as much Shanix as he could from playing music at the towns he stopped at, using… rather creatively made instruments. He didn’t sing, though, which didn’t really help his ‘career’. He never sang, not anymore.
Not since the Fall of Polyhex.
Never again did he want to sing, and be reminded of those he lost
Prowl was tasked with finding a Traitor. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. Praxus and Polyhex had only just become allies, after all. But the new King of Polyhex had said this would secure the alliance for hundreds of years to come, and Praxus’ own Ruler had agreed to help.
Prowl didn’t understand why, exactly, that his ruler was so desperate for the alliance. Polyhex was weak, a fraction of what it had been before the Cyberplague. But he had his orders, and he was going to complete them. He always had, and he always will. It was his job. What he was born for.
He liked his job.
He felt useful.
He didn’t question why he was sent to track down and investigate the remaining Polyhexian Prince. Just went.
He was loyal. All calculations pointed to being promoted exponentially when he completed this assignment— and his calculations were never wrong. His TacNet assured that.
cw: Body horror, hurt no comfort, plague angst plague angst plague angst.
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━༻☾⚝☽༺━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
ㅤ ☾⚝ Ad Extra ⚝☽
━━━━━━━ ˖ ݁𖥔 ݁˖ ֶָ֢☾⚝☽ֶָ֢ ˖ ݁𖥔 ݁˖ ━━━━━━━━
After some agonizing seconds, the body that had been lying still, lifeless for months, finally twitched— a breath. Asra felt a wave of relief washing over him, and in less than a second, his face filled with joy– so much that he had to force himself to remain still. He watched as she opened her eyes. She was struggling to move, so he urged her up with excitement.
He looked at her body, anguish painted all over his expression as they waited for any sign of life.
He didn’t know what to say. What should he say in this situation? “Hello”? “Sorry”? Maybe he should confess all the things he hadn’t managed to say. Perhaps they should have explained everything first or tried to express all his guilt. The turmoil of emotions in his chest was almost too much to bear. Tears of joy filled his eyes, or maybe shame and grief.
After a moment of frantic thoughts, he finally managed to speak. “Rem…” His voice was a bit shaky; he couldn’t seem to finish his train of thought before another one took its place.
“I’ve missed you so much.” Tears started to run down his cheeks, and before he could control himself, he hunched down and began to cry on Rem’s chest. Finally, his hands grasped their flesh and bone, not ashes and sand. He could feel the warmth of her body and not her gelid dead skin. They weren’t pale and he could feel her breathing and heartbeat against his face.
He had done it. He had saved her. She was there. All the months spent looking at her corpse as his magic preserved it, all the days spent going through her diary, all the work he had done to bring back what was lost had paid off. He would have given her all his heart if that meant having her back in his life if he needed to. He missed them so much.
But she wasn’t moving.
He clung to her, sobbing out his remaining half-heart, but she didn’t do anything other than breathe.
Asra managed to control himself a little and gradually slowed down his crying. He pulled away, wiping away his remaining tears to look at Rem.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice breaking before their vision could clear out and focus on her.
She was… staring? She was still, not moving. Asra was looking at Rem, and she was staring at nothing. They were catatonic. Yes, she was alive, but more like a vegetable.
Dread filled Asra. This wasn’t what he wanted. It wasn’t what he meant.
His heart raced, and he began to nudge her gently, hoping she would awaken from the trance.
“Rem? Rem! Wake up!”
He waited. He couldn’t give in. He hadn’t given up all this time. This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t be.
He looked at his shaky hands. There had to be something he could do– a spell to fix this. Had something gone wrong? Was this a better fate than dying?
His vision grew clouded with tears again. The person who once brought such light into his life was now reduced to a hollow shell because of him.
“Rem, it’s me!” he started again, desperate. “It’s Asra!” He tried taking her hands, tears persisting to fall from his eyes. “You know me. You’ve known me for years. I couldn’t let you die.” He paused to look at her. No reply. His desperation intensified. “I kept your aunt’s shop running. I cleaned your room. I found your necklace, the one with the key. You left it on the bedside table before they took you away. Do you want it back now?”
No response. He squeezed her hands as he reached for the necklace. His sobbing didn’t stop.
“Here.” He placed the necklace inside Rem’s hand, closing it gently. “I kept it safe. I kept your body safe. I’m sorry for fighting, I’m sorry for leaving– please, answer me.”
He looked at them, and there was nothing– empty eyes, no reaction. He hunched over, crying again, his hands covering his face. Between sobs, he kept talking. “I tried, Rem. I tried. I don’t know what to do now. I couldn’t fix my mistakes. I didn’t fix anything.”
He found himself surrounded by the remnants of her life, each little piece a reminder that she wasn't there anymore. His sobbing was exhausting, and his pain unbearable. His cries echoed through the walls of the house. The soft, tight bed still bore the imprint of her presence. Across the room stood her closet, filled with all her old clothes. Every piece of furniture carried a part of her; he had kept everything untouched, holding on for when she would return.
No amount of crying could ease the pain. It felt as if he had lost her twice.
"You're just a selfish person, Asra."
Asra stopped, shocked and hurt, yet somehow hopeful. Had he imagined it? He looked up at Rem, who remained still.
Just when Asra was about to sob again, Rem continued. “That's the last thing Cin said to you before storming off.” Her mouth moved, but their body and eyes seemed vacant.
A chill ran down Asra’s spine. He gulped and opened his mouth to respond, but she uttered before him. “They're dead now.”
Silence settled around them until it was softly broken by another cold question. “Do you remember the last thing I told you before you left?”
Asra simply stared at Rem, confused. He couldn’t understand what was happening– were they catatonic and empty or truly alive?
“At least I’ll die selflessly,” she paused, her breathing slow. “And I did.”
There was a heavy silence as Asra struggled to find the courage to break it, with only their breaths filling the void.
“I tried to fix it. You can live again.”
“Why, Asra?” Rem suddenly looked at him, their gaze intense and unwavering.
“You left, and now I’m gone. I’ll never live again. And I’ll never forgive you.”
Asra felt his lips pressed tightly shut, goosebumps rising across his skin as he slightly leaned away from Rem.
“It’s all your fault...”
Rem's body began to melt right in front of him. "It's all your fault." they whispered as their form liquefied on the bed and dripped onto the floor like candle wax. Asra rushed over, desperately trying to hold them together, convinced that if he kept trying to piece them back, he could prevent them from fully disintegrating. "No, no, no! Rem, Rem! Rem, I'm sorry," he pleaded.
Their body kept melting. Finally, when they were about to disappear fully, their face began to show emotion again, like when they were alive.
They smiled at Asra. “My name is Rem Petyarus. I'm a student of the magical arts, and I...” Her voice gradually became muffled as they disappeared. “...live and train in the city of Vesuv…”
Asra was left with a pool of black liquid on the floor, begging under his breath and tearing up. He tried to catch the liquid in his hands, attempting to "rebuild" Rem, but the puddle she had left behind suddenly turned to ash. When he looked around, they were back at the lazaret. In the sand in front of him was a necklace with a key.
“No, no, no!”
They had burned corpses. He arrived too late. He never managed to save her body from the flames. He could never save her.
Now, they’re both gone. He is alone.
Asra opened his eyes, breathing heavily and sweating. Outside his door, he could hear Cin and Rem talking, probably in the kitchen.
He turned to see the empty side of the bed where Rem was lying the night before; the imprint of her head was still pressed into the pillow. There was no black puddle nor necklace on the bedside table– just sheets that had been slept in, empty and crumpled. The closest he had ever been to her and yet felt the furthest away. He was so distant that he wasn't even part of their memories, yet so near he could caress her.
He stared at the ceiling, unable to look at the door while his thoughts haunted him. He couldn't bear the thought of seeing them after this. they would leave tonight.
━━━━━━━ ˖ ݁𖥔 ݁˖ ֶָ֢☾⚝☽ֶָ֢ ˖ ݁𖥔 ݁˖ ━━━━━━━━
୨୧˚ 𝓟𝓵𝓪𝓰𝓾𝓮 ˚୨୧
HAYSYRYF8TFYFYFY9U0U
i need to thank @aceofcvps bc they helped me change some things that were a bit off. Even if she's not on tumblr anymore I'm gonna tag REM. YES. HAHSYTUGIHJHKKTWSFGKOY
I wrote this at 1 am so it's not like... the best...
@spicypepperflakesss I'm tagging you because you've been waiting and i don't want you to miss it after waiting so long HAYEYSYF
string bracelet trade off but its black paladin lance
shiro left keith the bracelet lance made him before he “died” so keith has red and black
keith’s red bracelet snaps signifying in a canon world his exit from voltron
INSTEAD
he passes the black bracelet off to lance after he’s chosen to be the black paladin and lance makes keith a new, darker red one
and lance passes his blue one off to allura obvi (he makes himself a newer darker blue one and ties it around his ankle because he’ll always be partially tied to blue)
I’m planning on getting back into Sacred Scales again yall. I’ve got two on the roster right now, but let me know any Transformers you want to see in designs and story!
Soundwave is mysterious dragon with quite the little gaggle of ‘ducklings’. Few know anything about him, or even where he’s from, but they do know of the dangers of crossing him.
Blaster is a very friendly dragon, traveling as a set of bards with his kids and playing music wherever he goes.
Blaster grinned at his new traveling companions, tail wagging. He hoped he could get the serious blue dragon to smile. Their next destination was Iacon, to his great enthusiasm. He hummed a tune as they walked along, Rewind chattering with his best friend Chromedome, while the silent purple dragon carried a sleeping white and blue one on his back. Blaster hadn’t quite caught his name, but that was ok! They had plenty of time to introduce themselves.
Soundwave was tired. And annoyed. And silently glaring at his children from behind his visor. They kept causing trouble for everyone in the group, pulling pranks constantly, and he could tell that Cyclonus was about three seconds away from biting Frenzy. And Rumble was already chewing on a very patient Blaster’s tail. Though the red Petrahexian had his own kids to deal with.
Part 4 of Sacred Scales AU! I have had these done for a while but writer’s block hit me in the face with the Brick and I haven’t been able to think of the story for them, and felt guilty for keeping it from yall. I still can’t think of it, but I’ll post that with a reblog of this when the Brick stops hitting me. Enjoy the designs in the meantime!!!!
Pt. 3 of Sacred Scales! Any suggestions on which two I should do next?
Sideswipe and Sunstreaker— a rare set of twins. Born and practically raised in the Gladiator Pits of Kaon, they later moved to Iacon, but found no work that would accept them, thus doomed to live on the streets.
(More below the cut)
The former gladiators stalked through an abandoned street. Neither had any real, legal work. No one wanted to hire ‘violent’ individuals. The best they got was being hired as temporary bodyguards. Usually by ‘upstanding citizens’— although both Sunstreaker and Sideswipe knew they were less than upstanding and more than likely to be criminals. But it was pay. And pay meant Energon. Food. Survival. It was better than stealing.
Thankfully, all they really had to do was stand and look intimidating, a last resort should the one who hired them be attacked.
Sunstreaker leapt first, clinging to the side of a building and climbing up. Sideswipe followed only a moment later. Their wings were too torn to fly, or even glide, without tearing them further, and neither Twin had the luxury of going to a specialized medical clinic to have them healed. It would cost far too much. The two finished the climb to the rooftop, where they had a temporary home, as pitiful as it was.
One day, Sunstreaker vowed to himself, setting down on the torn blanket he used as a bed, Sideswipe laying down on his own, one day we’ll be individuals again, dragons. Not just street trash and gladiators. One day we won’t have to struggle to have enough food to settle the hunger for the night. One day we’ll be free.
Blurr is a famous Racer on the continent of Velocitron. Velocitronian dragons do not have wings, and tend to be much faster on their talons than most. He is currently on tour on Cybertron
Shockwave is one of the Senators of Iacon. He enjoys his job, when the other Senators aren’t being completely brainless, stubborn afts. He is supposed to meet the famous racer to show them around Iacon. It really doesn’t go as planned
(More below the cut)
Blurr was having a splendid day. He was visiting Cybertron! The second biggest continent and the most populated! He was going to meet so many fans! The only issue he had was the really long, slightly embarrassing, and unceasingly boring ride across the sea. So boring, in fact, he’d gone for an immediate run when they touched down in Iacon, immediately forgetting that it was not his beloved homeland and that he Did Not in fact Know His Way Around.
So yeah.
He’s lost.
And hungry.
And bored again.
What’s a famous racer supposed to do?
Well. Shockwave was supposed to be meeting the famous Velocitronian racer Blurr. Except he was missing. To be fair, he had been obviously stir crazy before landing, according to the dragons who’d carried the basket he rode in like a taxi. He should’ve expected that Blurr couldn’t keep still. He just didn’t expect that said Blurr would immediately run off and vanish into Iacon.
It already was a horrible day. The Council of Senators was arguing again, and absolutely no one could agree on even what time to stop for lunch. Shockwave was just lucky he had to go greet Blurr. Which led him back to this moment.
He sighed. What a day. Time to go try to find a missing celebrity.
