How I would write IDW's RiD
My friend Scott asked me as a thought experiment. Note, I in no way think I am a better writer than John Barber - after all, I only have one published poem to my name; he's a professional writer. If I was good, I'd get paid for it. However, it's fun to think about.
I would draw from Europe right after WWII, particularly the Balkans. I would also look at Europe after the fall of Communism and aftermath of the American Civil War. I am not an expert on any of these, so I would go read some books to inspire me.
When a war ends and there is no strong government there to guide the rebuilding, one tends to end up with shortages of everything everyone would ever need, violence, corruption, and power-grabbing. I would consider my major themes:
- Fuel: Dude, Ratbat and Octane. Would want to get at least one NAIL and one Autobot into this.
- Housing: Constructicons. Grapple. Hoist. A little bit of Wheeljack. Maybe Huffer? Need some NAILs here. Also, need slum lords.
- Medical care: Pincher. A bit of Hook. A little bit of Wheeljack. Opening issue would involve Wheeljack struggling with a dying patent and commenting that he's an engineer, not a medic, and reflecting on how this wouldn't have been a problem for Ratchet. The patient is going to die. Then suddenly, there's another pair of hands (the body is unseen) doing just the right thing. The patient lives. Wheeljack looks like he's seen a ghost and says, "Ratchet! I thought you left -" but it's not Ratchet. It's Minerva, a NAIL medic in the service of Metalhawk. She's young and naïve, but everyone who watches her says she has the potential to be just as good as Ratchet. Metalhawk uses her as leverage to get people to support his campaign - look, the best medic on Cybertron serves him. Prowl tries to convince Wheeljack to befriend Minerva and convince her to put on an Autobot badge, which Wheeljack attempts, with some misgivings. Over the course of a few issues, Wheeljack starts to question the friendship. Is he just doing this because Prowl wants Minerva for the Autobots for public image? Is he just doing this because he misses his buddy Ratchet and Minerva reminds him of Ratchet? Or does he actually think of Minerva as a real friend on her own merits? Wheeljack eventually realises that he considers Minerva a genuine friend and is about to tell her about Prowl's deception when Metalhawk explains to her that Prowl is just using Wheeljack to manipulate her. FRIENDSHIP SHATTERED.
- Drugs: Venom. Mixmaster. Pincher. Oil Slick - who, heck, make him a NAIL. Used to be 'con, went nonaligned because no one liked him anyway.
- Law enforcement: Prowl. Streetwise. Needlenose. NAIL Holi. Yes, Holi. If they can introduce Metalhawk, I can have Holi around. Not Stakeout, because Stakeout got eaten by the D-Void. This Holi is a Minibot, not a Micromaster, and he's mostly there to be even more rookie than Streetwise is. Also more chipper and optimistic.
- Vigilantes: Searchlight? Maybe Devcon? Carnivac?
- Gangs and organised crimes: I want Leozack, his troops, and Lyzack around as a gang, causing trouble in crowd scenes. They are NAILs, maybe ex-con.
- Violence.
- The hostile terrain.
- Power.
- Control.
- Corruption.
- Shifting alliances.
- Socioeconomic inequality: Not all the NAILs will be destitute. Some will be quite wealthy, with plans of their own.
- Immigration and emigration: Cybertron sucks. Why not leave as soon as you get there?
- Political intrigues: Prowl, Bumblebee, Starscream, Ratbat and so on. Clipper is someone's secretary. Maybe Metalhawk? Also, I want Strika and Obsidian to show up with their victorious Decepticon army that was fighting in the back end of nowhere and hasn't heard the news, WTF that the war is over, WTF that the Decepticons lost, and then for there to be tense negotiations that end in Strika and Obsidian releasing their Autobot prisoners in exchange for being allowed to occupy the territory for a new city state. Cue many worries that they're just going to see the rise of a new Decepticon force over yonder. Also want to do something with Starscream trying to recruit the Aerialbots to his campaign.
- The black market: Swindle, Swindle, Swindle. Also Long Haul and Scavenger. Some Autobots and NAILs. Complete with rampant organ-selling and organ-theft, because they are robots. You literally can give your right optic for fuel if you're hungry enough. I sort of want Lockdown involved in this mess, too.
- War crimes trials: The 'cons will be separated out into average Joes who are allowed to go about their business and those who go on trial. Some get off. Some don't. Would have executions going on in crowd scenes and when folks look at computer monitors for the news and such. Do something with Aequitas, perhaps? Maybe Tyrest, if I could use him?
I would consider religion as a minor theme. If I was writing humans, it would be more important.
I would want to touch on at least all of this briefly in the opening issue and try to show some of the major faces in each little subgroup, like a panel of Needlenose joining Prowl's crew, a panel of Grapple looking like he's dithering about the Constructicons, a panel of Bumblebee in planning meetings, and so on.
I would want to show reshuffling of alliances on all sides - Decepticon to Autobot, Decepticon to neutral, Autobot to Decepticon, Autobot to neutral, neutral to Decepticon, and neutral to Autobot. It would not always be outright. It might be as simple as a Decepticon who would previously shoot to kill any Autobot peaceably working alongside an Autobot instead.
I would introduce more women and just plain not explain them. I wouldn't be a big deal. If this really upset readers, I'd have someone just casually mention that she picked up the concept off-world. However, given that women don't seem to bother folks in the G1 Cartoon, Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Energon, Cybertron, Animated, Revenge of the Fallen, or Prime, I really doubt anyone will care. Would change what made Arcee mentally disturbed to 'Jhiaxus tortured her', instead of 'just being a woman makes you a serial killer'. Hey, IDW already retconned in Primus after insisting there was no Primus. Why not? (So I'd have Arcee: Prowl's pet assassin, Minerva: Metalhawk's medic, Clipper: someone's secretary and buddy with Holi, and Lyzack: gang member and thug. Not a hugely progressive selection, but not bad, either. Also, very Japanese, which amuses me. :v If I had a chance, I'd add in Override [and Offshoot], too, and have this plot going on with folks blowing off steam with illegal street racing and Blurr getting drawn into this mess.)
I would want to do some interwoven plots and look at scenarios from different angles.
I would want to mix shades of grey in with some genuine heroism, so it is often morally ambiguous but not always.
Some longer storyline ideas:
Official Law Enforcement
I would have Prowl and his 'apprentice' Streetwise. I'd have a few others. I'd have a NAIL: Holi. However, I would outright add Needlenose in the first issue. He'd come knocking on Prowl's door and introduce himself as, "I was in the DJD. I say, 'was,' because they're going to kill me for this, but I joined the Decepticons because of an injustice done me, and I'll join your peace-keeping force for the same reason now." (The injustice done him is that Optimus Prime and Ironhide didn't like his artwork. In some later issue, this fact will come out and people will boggle over why Needlenose thought that genocide was an appropriate response to art critique.) There will be a running theme of Needlenose attempting to use excessive amounts of force to solve cases and trying to do inhumane things, such as draining corpses for energon, sell the spare parts of the dead, leave severed heads on doorsteps 'as a warning', and so on, and the other law enforcement members trying to 'civilise' him. He will insist that this is tame compared to how the DJD handles matters! This running thread will come to a head when Needlenose does something completely egregious... and stumbles on Prowl using Arcee as his own private assassin. Needlenose will sweetly explain that, no worries, he does blackmail, too. Prowl lets the matter of Needlenose's violation drop.
Drugs
Involving Venom, a G1ified Oil Slick, Mixmaster, and Pincher, someone would be investigating a rash of drugs-related incidents. Meanwhile, one of the field hospitals is doing very well with survival rate - Pincher works there. Curiously, this hospital is rarely the target of gang violence, too. Whoever is looking into all of this ends up getting captured by Oil Slick, who drugs him up and leaves him to die. He's taken in by the hospital where Puncher works and shakily recovers. Pincher gently tries to convince him to give up his investigation, when it comes on the news that drugs are now being linked to terrorist attacks. Investigator decides more than ever to poke into stuff. He captures Oil Slick, who... turns out to have no links to the terrorist attacks at all. He's just a producer and a pusher, but he's small fry, in the grand scheme of things. Meanwhile, we see Pincher telling Mixmaster to get out of town for a bit, which the investigator walks in on. He leaps to conclusions. Pincher and Mixmaster, however, explain that it's very simple - Mixmaster is a pusher and producer, yes, but he also makes feedstock chemicals for the medicine at the hospital where Pincher works. Without Mixmaster's help, there'd be a lot more dead Transformers in the morgue. The Constructicons look after the hospital, too, ensuring that no one does anything... unwise. In return, Pincher turns a blind optic to Mixmaster's drug dealing. The investigator now has a dilemma - to arrest them both, which will inevitably lead to more patients dying and will raise the ire of the Constructicons, or to let them go and allow Mixmaster to continue his drug dealing. However, Mixmaster knows something, so they cut a deal. He points the investigator at Venom, the one behind the mind control drugs linked to the terrorist attacks... and the investigator lets Mixmaster go. I sort of want for this to be Holi. Drugging up a chipper Minibot!
Housing
Wheeljack is an engineer, but he's a weapons engineer. No one wants to live inside settlements built by Wheeljack, and anyway, he keeps getting diverted with side projects. This is the crisis being faced by Bumblebee's interim government. They are considering legitimising the Constructicons as the official governmental construction team, which would improve the standing of the government in the optics of the population, because everyone wants to live in a Constructicon-built settlement. In fact, Grapple is considering joining the Constructicons... cut to that. They tell him how he's an architect. With his help, they could make the face of the new Cybertron not just liveable but beautiful. There's Scavenger offering Grapple some neato crystals he found - unfortunately, they explode, because Cybertron hates everyone. (These exploding crystals should show up again in a later issue as a major threat.) Then a cut to Streetwise, who is investigating some unexplained disappearances. No one has even found parts on the black market! Streetwise is hoping this will be a major case that will finally earn him some respect in Prowl's optics. Back to Grapple, the Constructicons are explaining how, with Scrapper's death, they need someone to replace him. They merge to form Devastator to help set a tower, but the Scrapper-leg being dead clearly hinders them. They could do much better construction work if they were six instead of five. In the background, Long Haul and Bonecrusher are definitely looking at someone funny for trying to steal some supplies; Grapple is oblivious to this. Hoist urges caution, but Grapple has made up his choice - and so has Bumblebee. The Constructicons will be officially instated (mostly to prevent them from becoming a gang with too much clout). Streetwise, meanwhile, realises that the only pattern to the vanishing is that they were all in the vicinity of Constructicon build sites. He takes this to Prowl, who tells him to drop the Constructicon lead; it could do too much political damage. Streetwise is disheartened by the dressing down Prowl gives him. Meanwhile, Grapple finishes the preparations he'll need to merge. He merges and sees - the Constructicons entombing various robots alive. No one will find the bodies because they're built into the settlements where people live. He breaks the merge and tries to run. They grab him and merge again. He sees - the Transformers entombed were malcontents. Better off dead, perhaps. The Constructicons were just protecting those who live in their buildings and punishing thieves. Grapple protests that this is no way to handle things - they ought to report them to law enforcements! Then he sees. The combiner process has given them something of an overlapping nervous systems, like the Jumpstarters. They felt when Scrapper died. They saw how he died, too. How Spike murdered him. How the Autobots did nothing, when the mandate was capture, not kill. Now it was all swept under the rug. Does Grapple really think reporting it to the police would do any good? "I want to believe it would." "But do you?" "...no." Later, a desperate Streetwise goes to Grapple, who is no longer wearing his Autobot symbol and who is done up in green and purple like that e-Hobby repaint. He seems to be content working with the Constructicons. Streetwise pulls him aside. Grapple has merged with them - surely he'd know if the Constructicons had anything to do with the disappearances. Grapple smiles sadly and tells Streetwise that the Constructicons have done nothing wrong, and he returns to his work - which looks an awful lot like Crystal City.
Immigration and Emigration
Rodimus's exodus was just the start of it. Cybertron is trying to kill them. Many Transformers just leave Cybertron as soon as they arrive. However, some NAILs are not destitute. Some NAILs are actually wealthy and powerful, having made their profits off-world while everyone else was trying to kill each other, and view Cybertron as a blank canvas for their ambitions and a cheap source of expendable labour to take back to their off-world holdings. Mirage and Bluestreak, who both have backgrounds involving wealth and merchants, would investigate one of these scams, wherein a wealthy NAIL offers someone off-world work in exchange for indentured servitude. It turns out they aren't sending the volunteers anywhere, they're just chopping them up for parts. There are running tension in this story between Mirage, who is upper class, Bluestreak, who is middle class, and the largely lower class NAILs who are interested in going back off-world to new jobs. There is a fake-out wherein we think Mirage has sacrificed himself to save everyone (which he was going to do in AHM), but he turns out to be okay, thanks to his holograms. Genuine heroism!
I could probably keep rambling about this all day, but I think I'll leave it on that.
However, name up to three characters who could potentially be in this, and I will give you at least sentence on what s/he is doing.
Edit: Oh, dang. I totally need to play with the theme of, "What do soldiers do after the war is over?" Sandstorm would be ideal for this. "Always willing to take the most death-defying risks, Sandstorm likes to get close enough to the enemy during his patrols so he can count the number of bolts in a Decepticon's armor plate. Only by being so daring, by getting his fuel pumping so strongly that he feels his internal circulatory hoses about to burst, does Sandstorm truly feel functional. He likes to live on the edge. Anything less than dangerous he finds boring, and when he's bored he's more likely to be in danger since his concentration lapses. Sandstorm fears only one thing: an end to the war. With no enemy to spy upon, he worries he will have no further useful purpose." I would have a scene wherein an Autobot soldier hits someone, not hard enough to seriously injure him, but hard enough to dent, and a NAIL looks utterly horrified by this. A Decepticon asks what the big deal was - he would have torn the guy's arm off and hit him with that. The Autobot is horrified to realise that he agrees more with the Decepticon, that it wasn't a big deal, than with the NAIL.
I would draw from Europe right after WWII, particularly the Balkans. I would also look at Europe after the fall of Communism and aftermath of the American Civil War. I am not an expert on any of these, so I would go read some books to inspire me.
When a war ends and there is no strong government there to guide the rebuilding, one tends to end up with shortages of everything everyone would ever need, violence, corruption, and power-grabbing. I would consider my major themes:
- Fuel: Dude, Ratbat and Octane. Would want to get at least one NAIL and one Autobot into this.
- Housing: Constructicons. Grapple. Hoist. A little bit of Wheeljack. Maybe Huffer? Need some NAILs here. Also, need slum lords.
- Medical care: Pincher. A bit of Hook. A little bit of Wheeljack. Opening issue would involve Wheeljack struggling with a dying patent and commenting that he's an engineer, not a medic, and reflecting on how this wouldn't have been a problem for Ratchet. The patient is going to die. Then suddenly, there's another pair of hands (the body is unseen) doing just the right thing. The patient lives. Wheeljack looks like he's seen a ghost and says, "Ratchet! I thought you left -" but it's not Ratchet. It's Minerva, a NAIL medic in the service of Metalhawk. She's young and naïve, but everyone who watches her says she has the potential to be just as good as Ratchet. Metalhawk uses her as leverage to get people to support his campaign - look, the best medic on Cybertron serves him. Prowl tries to convince Wheeljack to befriend Minerva and convince her to put on an Autobot badge, which Wheeljack attempts, with some misgivings. Over the course of a few issues, Wheeljack starts to question the friendship. Is he just doing this because Prowl wants Minerva for the Autobots for public image? Is he just doing this because he misses his buddy Ratchet and Minerva reminds him of Ratchet? Or does he actually think of Minerva as a real friend on her own merits? Wheeljack eventually realises that he considers Minerva a genuine friend and is about to tell her about Prowl's deception when Metalhawk explains to her that Prowl is just using Wheeljack to manipulate her. FRIENDSHIP SHATTERED.
- Drugs: Venom. Mixmaster. Pincher. Oil Slick - who, heck, make him a NAIL. Used to be 'con, went nonaligned because no one liked him anyway.
- Law enforcement: Prowl. Streetwise. Needlenose. NAIL Holi. Yes, Holi. If they can introduce Metalhawk, I can have Holi around. Not Stakeout, because Stakeout got eaten by the D-Void. This Holi is a Minibot, not a Micromaster, and he's mostly there to be even more rookie than Streetwise is. Also more chipper and optimistic.
- Vigilantes: Searchlight? Maybe Devcon? Carnivac?
- Gangs and organised crimes: I want Leozack, his troops, and Lyzack around as a gang, causing trouble in crowd scenes. They are NAILs, maybe ex-con.
- Violence.
- The hostile terrain.
- Power.
- Control.
- Corruption.
- Shifting alliances.
- Socioeconomic inequality: Not all the NAILs will be destitute. Some will be quite wealthy, with plans of their own.
- Immigration and emigration: Cybertron sucks. Why not leave as soon as you get there?
- Political intrigues: Prowl, Bumblebee, Starscream, Ratbat and so on. Clipper is someone's secretary. Maybe Metalhawk? Also, I want Strika and Obsidian to show up with their victorious Decepticon army that was fighting in the back end of nowhere and hasn't heard the news, WTF that the war is over, WTF that the Decepticons lost, and then for there to be tense negotiations that end in Strika and Obsidian releasing their Autobot prisoners in exchange for being allowed to occupy the territory for a new city state. Cue many worries that they're just going to see the rise of a new Decepticon force over yonder. Also want to do something with Starscream trying to recruit the Aerialbots to his campaign.
- The black market: Swindle, Swindle, Swindle. Also Long Haul and Scavenger. Some Autobots and NAILs. Complete with rampant organ-selling and organ-theft, because they are robots. You literally can give your right optic for fuel if you're hungry enough. I sort of want Lockdown involved in this mess, too.
- War crimes trials: The 'cons will be separated out into average Joes who are allowed to go about their business and those who go on trial. Some get off. Some don't. Would have executions going on in crowd scenes and when folks look at computer monitors for the news and such. Do something with Aequitas, perhaps? Maybe Tyrest, if I could use him?
I would consider religion as a minor theme. If I was writing humans, it would be more important.
I would want to touch on at least all of this briefly in the opening issue and try to show some of the major faces in each little subgroup, like a panel of Needlenose joining Prowl's crew, a panel of Grapple looking like he's dithering about the Constructicons, a panel of Bumblebee in planning meetings, and so on.
I would want to show reshuffling of alliances on all sides - Decepticon to Autobot, Decepticon to neutral, Autobot to Decepticon, Autobot to neutral, neutral to Decepticon, and neutral to Autobot. It would not always be outright. It might be as simple as a Decepticon who would previously shoot to kill any Autobot peaceably working alongside an Autobot instead.
I would introduce more women and just plain not explain them. I wouldn't be a big deal. If this really upset readers, I'd have someone just casually mention that she picked up the concept off-world. However, given that women don't seem to bother folks in the G1 Cartoon, Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Energon, Cybertron, Animated, Revenge of the Fallen, or Prime, I really doubt anyone will care. Would change what made Arcee mentally disturbed to 'Jhiaxus tortured her', instead of 'just being a woman makes you a serial killer'. Hey, IDW already retconned in Primus after insisting there was no Primus. Why not? (So I'd have Arcee: Prowl's pet assassin, Minerva: Metalhawk's medic, Clipper: someone's secretary and buddy with Holi, and Lyzack: gang member and thug. Not a hugely progressive selection, but not bad, either. Also, very Japanese, which amuses me. :v If I had a chance, I'd add in Override [and Offshoot], too, and have this plot going on with folks blowing off steam with illegal street racing and Blurr getting drawn into this mess.)
I would want to do some interwoven plots and look at scenarios from different angles.
I would want to mix shades of grey in with some genuine heroism, so it is often morally ambiguous but not always.
Some longer storyline ideas:
Official Law Enforcement
I would have Prowl and his 'apprentice' Streetwise. I'd have a few others. I'd have a NAIL: Holi. However, I would outright add Needlenose in the first issue. He'd come knocking on Prowl's door and introduce himself as, "I was in the DJD. I say, 'was,' because they're going to kill me for this, but I joined the Decepticons because of an injustice done me, and I'll join your peace-keeping force for the same reason now." (The injustice done him is that Optimus Prime and Ironhide didn't like his artwork. In some later issue, this fact will come out and people will boggle over why Needlenose thought that genocide was an appropriate response to art critique.) There will be a running theme of Needlenose attempting to use excessive amounts of force to solve cases and trying to do inhumane things, such as draining corpses for energon, sell the spare parts of the dead, leave severed heads on doorsteps 'as a warning', and so on, and the other law enforcement members trying to 'civilise' him. He will insist that this is tame compared to how the DJD handles matters! This running thread will come to a head when Needlenose does something completely egregious... and stumbles on Prowl using Arcee as his own private assassin. Needlenose will sweetly explain that, no worries, he does blackmail, too. Prowl lets the matter of Needlenose's violation drop.
Drugs
Involving Venom, a G1ified Oil Slick, Mixmaster, and Pincher, someone would be investigating a rash of drugs-related incidents. Meanwhile, one of the field hospitals is doing very well with survival rate - Pincher works there. Curiously, this hospital is rarely the target of gang violence, too. Whoever is looking into all of this ends up getting captured by Oil Slick, who drugs him up and leaves him to die. He's taken in by the hospital where Puncher works and shakily recovers. Pincher gently tries to convince him to give up his investigation, when it comes on the news that drugs are now being linked to terrorist attacks. Investigator decides more than ever to poke into stuff. He captures Oil Slick, who... turns out to have no links to the terrorist attacks at all. He's just a producer and a pusher, but he's small fry, in the grand scheme of things. Meanwhile, we see Pincher telling Mixmaster to get out of town for a bit, which the investigator walks in on. He leaps to conclusions. Pincher and Mixmaster, however, explain that it's very simple - Mixmaster is a pusher and producer, yes, but he also makes feedstock chemicals for the medicine at the hospital where Pincher works. Without Mixmaster's help, there'd be a lot more dead Transformers in the morgue. The Constructicons look after the hospital, too, ensuring that no one does anything... unwise. In return, Pincher turns a blind optic to Mixmaster's drug dealing. The investigator now has a dilemma - to arrest them both, which will inevitably lead to more patients dying and will raise the ire of the Constructicons, or to let them go and allow Mixmaster to continue his drug dealing. However, Mixmaster knows something, so they cut a deal. He points the investigator at Venom, the one behind the mind control drugs linked to the terrorist attacks... and the investigator lets Mixmaster go. I sort of want for this to be Holi. Drugging up a chipper Minibot!
Housing
Wheeljack is an engineer, but he's a weapons engineer. No one wants to live inside settlements built by Wheeljack, and anyway, he keeps getting diverted with side projects. This is the crisis being faced by Bumblebee's interim government. They are considering legitimising the Constructicons as the official governmental construction team, which would improve the standing of the government in the optics of the population, because everyone wants to live in a Constructicon-built settlement. In fact, Grapple is considering joining the Constructicons... cut to that. They tell him how he's an architect. With his help, they could make the face of the new Cybertron not just liveable but beautiful. There's Scavenger offering Grapple some neato crystals he found - unfortunately, they explode, because Cybertron hates everyone. (These exploding crystals should show up again in a later issue as a major threat.) Then a cut to Streetwise, who is investigating some unexplained disappearances. No one has even found parts on the black market! Streetwise is hoping this will be a major case that will finally earn him some respect in Prowl's optics. Back to Grapple, the Constructicons are explaining how, with Scrapper's death, they need someone to replace him. They merge to form Devastator to help set a tower, but the Scrapper-leg being dead clearly hinders them. They could do much better construction work if they were six instead of five. In the background, Long Haul and Bonecrusher are definitely looking at someone funny for trying to steal some supplies; Grapple is oblivious to this. Hoist urges caution, but Grapple has made up his choice - and so has Bumblebee. The Constructicons will be officially instated (mostly to prevent them from becoming a gang with too much clout). Streetwise, meanwhile, realises that the only pattern to the vanishing is that they were all in the vicinity of Constructicon build sites. He takes this to Prowl, who tells him to drop the Constructicon lead; it could do too much political damage. Streetwise is disheartened by the dressing down Prowl gives him. Meanwhile, Grapple finishes the preparations he'll need to merge. He merges and sees - the Constructicons entombing various robots alive. No one will find the bodies because they're built into the settlements where people live. He breaks the merge and tries to run. They grab him and merge again. He sees - the Transformers entombed were malcontents. Better off dead, perhaps. The Constructicons were just protecting those who live in their buildings and punishing thieves. Grapple protests that this is no way to handle things - they ought to report them to law enforcements! Then he sees. The combiner process has given them something of an overlapping nervous systems, like the Jumpstarters. They felt when Scrapper died. They saw how he died, too. How Spike murdered him. How the Autobots did nothing, when the mandate was capture, not kill. Now it was all swept under the rug. Does Grapple really think reporting it to the police would do any good? "I want to believe it would." "But do you?" "...no." Later, a desperate Streetwise goes to Grapple, who is no longer wearing his Autobot symbol and who is done up in green and purple like that e-Hobby repaint. He seems to be content working with the Constructicons. Streetwise pulls him aside. Grapple has merged with them - surely he'd know if the Constructicons had anything to do with the disappearances. Grapple smiles sadly and tells Streetwise that the Constructicons have done nothing wrong, and he returns to his work - which looks an awful lot like Crystal City.
Immigration and Emigration
Rodimus's exodus was just the start of it. Cybertron is trying to kill them. Many Transformers just leave Cybertron as soon as they arrive. However, some NAILs are not destitute. Some NAILs are actually wealthy and powerful, having made their profits off-world while everyone else was trying to kill each other, and view Cybertron as a blank canvas for their ambitions and a cheap source of expendable labour to take back to their off-world holdings. Mirage and Bluestreak, who both have backgrounds involving wealth and merchants, would investigate one of these scams, wherein a wealthy NAIL offers someone off-world work in exchange for indentured servitude. It turns out they aren't sending the volunteers anywhere, they're just chopping them up for parts. There are running tension in this story between Mirage, who is upper class, Bluestreak, who is middle class, and the largely lower class NAILs who are interested in going back off-world to new jobs. There is a fake-out wherein we think Mirage has sacrificed himself to save everyone (which he was going to do in AHM), but he turns out to be okay, thanks to his holograms. Genuine heroism!
I could probably keep rambling about this all day, but I think I'll leave it on that.
However, name up to three characters who could potentially be in this, and I will give you at least sentence on what s/he is doing.
Edit: Oh, dang. I totally need to play with the theme of, "What do soldiers do after the war is over?" Sandstorm would be ideal for this. "Always willing to take the most death-defying risks, Sandstorm likes to get close enough to the enemy during his patrols so he can count the number of bolts in a Decepticon's armor plate. Only by being so daring, by getting his fuel pumping so strongly that he feels his internal circulatory hoses about to burst, does Sandstorm truly feel functional. He likes to live on the edge. Anything less than dangerous he finds boring, and when he's bored he's more likely to be in danger since his concentration lapses. Sandstorm fears only one thing: an end to the war. With no enemy to spy upon, he worries he will have no further useful purpose." I would have a scene wherein an Autobot soldier hits someone, not hard enough to seriously injure him, but hard enough to dent, and a NAIL looks utterly horrified by this. A Decepticon asks what the big deal was - he would have torn the guy's arm off and hit him with that. The Autobot is horrified to realise that he agrees more with the Decepticon, that it wasn't a big deal, than with the NAIL.