#ptero headcanons

[writingpteropod]

when you and your friends start talking about monoformer memes and how they definitely have a million of them

[writingpteropod]

So I love Gentleman's Handbook, and I'm so drawn to how you write out the relationships Mirage has. Like the complex relationship between Jazz and Mirage as both boss/subordinate and friends and the somewhat rocky friendship between Mirage and Cliffjumper as somewhat newer friends that still have to iron differences out once in a while. Do you feel like sharing any more headcanons about Mirages friendships on base, and maybe how they differ from those in the Towers? Hope you have a Lovely day!

Two questions in one night, anon, I’m flattered! I wanted to give an image of Mirage’s life with the Autobots, so I’m glad that you enjoyed him interacting with the others on the crew.

For Mirage’s friendships... God it’s been a while since I wrote that fic specifically but I can talk in general. I think that he gets along well with Tracks, who I think showed up briefly in GH. They’re both snooty but with connections that pull them down from the sophisticated front they try to pull up and into the messy world of humans. Sunstreaker would be an acquaintance he can get along with but doesn’t necessarily hang out with because of the company he keeps. Bumblebee I think he’s surprised to like as much as he does, but after discovering that Bumblebee is sharper than he appears, I think he’d enjoy working alongside him. Borrowing from IDW, I think him and Blurr might actually get along during the ex-RiD run? This is my headcanon as to why Mirage bothered to open up Visages on the Lost Light, anyway. I’ve seen some crackships like Mirage/Wheeljack and Mirage/Bluestreak that I wouldn’t intrinsically connect him with but that I have loved seeing other people write.

I think he doesn’t have many close friends no matter where he is, but in the Autobots that’s mostly preference (depending on how securely in not-a-traitor territory he is), whereas in the Towers he maintained many acquaintances but had few if any truly close friends, and definitely didn’t have anywhere he could find a feeling of camaraderie. I think that in the Autobots he has a taste of that kind of solidarity of purpose, and while he might have a complicated relationship with it, he can’t help but want it at least a little bit.

[writingpteropod]

New bit of headcanon I want to inject into a random fic: Quickshadow from Rescue Boots as Jazz's mentor

[writingpteropod]

while I’m thinking of it: I headcanon that in addition to being divided up by their alt mode, TFs are divided by the way they transform. Knowing what mech parts are where in their alt mode seems like a very medically important fact. You don’t start wanting to root around under someone’s hood for their spark only to find out that it’s actually around their back bumper, or something.

[ptarmiganlettercarrier]

I wonder if Halloween was actually always a big deal holiday for English magical folks in the HP universe, or if it became one after Voldemort was defeated that day

[writingpteropod]

‘Formers with high-stakes jobs have a mental division program that’s called the Personal Objectivity Partition. When they “pop” emotions aren’t turned off but they’re subverted, keeping personal connections from factoring into evaluations for things like triage or battle plans. It was developed early in the war to give new tacticians/medics/fighters a tool to keep from being overwhelmed by panic or fear during their first battles. By the end of the war ‘formers like the Autobot medics and Prowl are “popping” a lot more than the program was ever meant to be used for, because it’s the only way they can still do their jobs and make the calls they have to make during high stress situations where everyone they’re dealing with is a friend.

If anything, the medics have to use it the most, but the others just don’t notice as much as they do with Prowl

[writingpteropod]

Thinking about the ways it’s possible to refer to transformers in fic, and the different structures the epithets we use place them into. I’ve probably forgotten some but these ones are the most common I’ve encountered.

Mech/Femme: Technically “mech” is just short for “mechanism”, which could be universally applied. In my experience though, mech is used in opposition to femme to place TFs into a male/female gender structure.

Cybertronian:  A good universal reference to the species except when you have colonists, in which case it becomes Cybertronian/Camien/Eukarian/Velocitronian, etc. Structures things based on origin.

‘Former: I’ve been leaning toward using this one more myself, because it comes a lot closer to organizing TFs based on the category that’s probably most important to them: their alt-mode. From there, can be broken down into monoformer/beastformer/triplechanger, or even refer to a specific altmode, like ‘tankformer’ or ‘jetformer/seeker’ or the like.

[writingpteropod]

completely random in no way supported by reality headcanon: Hound wasn’t actually green until they went to Earth. Scouting on Cybertron meant he was gray/silver and maybe a bit rust-colored to blend in. He didn’t change it until Earth, where green and brown are more common in nature