Camaraderie: The Secret-Keeper: 1/4

[gilded_orchid]

Title: Camaraderie: The Secret-Keeper: Part 1/4
Universe: Alignment/IDW AU, Camaraderie/Trinkets 'verse
Rating: PG-13, to be on the safe side
Characters: Jazz, Prowl, various Autobot Officers, Megatron.
Prompt: Red glow reflected in your eyes
Warning: woefully unbeta'd mentions of violence (semi-graphic), mentions of death, angst, bad bots doing bad

Comments

[silberstreif]

Wonderful story and I loved how you showed the consequences of each step and that Prowl knew how it would end. Jazz obviously knew too. But I wonder if the other Autobots were aware of the consequences of all of their small decisions...
I can so understand Prowl's rage. He was just powerless to stop it.

[gilded_orchid]

I'm glad you enjoyed the story!

You hit on one of the main dilemmas I wanted to create with this: Praxus could have been saved, but only if Prowl and the other Autobots were willing to sacrifice what they stood for.

I'm playing with the idea of a smarter, more sinister Megatron who's deliberately pulling forces away by staging these atrocities elsewhere; he's either going to have a tactical victory or a "moral" victory by dragging the Autobots down to his level by allowing atrocities elsewhere on the off-chance of protecting one city; either way he wins.

Prowl's powerlessness is a major theme of this story: he can only win by losing what makes him an Autobot, and Optimus would never stand for it if he tried. It's like seeing an oncoming train and realizing you've got your foot stuck in the rails.

THanks so much for the review!

[silberstreif]

Its a horrible moral dilemma which you showed very well.

And I love that you show Megatron as the dangerous ruthless and just plain scary leader he is (at least in my mind).
Megatron just takes away one possibility after another until Praxus has to fall. The resources Megatron put into that single one goal have to be amazing...
That picture with the train, yeah, that feeling is it what gives hte story the deep impact.

I do wonder if Prowl will not turn around the tables now on Megatron somehow...

[pjlover666]

Oh this was.... this was incredible! Words fail me to say how epic this story was. The slow build up.... the way you showed how Praxus, surely but inevitably was going streight to his doom... it HURT to read. Because the reader, along with Prowl, knows what`s to come and it made it just that more painful because there was nothing you could do about it!!! Megatron showed truly amaying tactical skills here, forcing Praxus to be open and undefended like that. Just...
I absalutely ADORED how suppourtive Jazz was here for Prowl. Even in Prowl´s darkest hours Jazz stayed next to him, never leaving his side (especially the moments where Prowl was filled with rage and that rage was directed at him, Jazz STILL stayed!) BRAVO!!!!
I love it and I truly hope there`s more!

[gilded_orchid]

Thank you!! ^____

[camfield]

Man. The depth of Prowl's emotions here is spectacular. Awesome job with the prompt.

[gilded_orchid]

Thank you!

I see Prowl as one of those characters that's emotionally quiet/has an impressive poker face, but has a ton of stuff going on underneath the surface.

I notice in a lot of the 'verses he's a lot more...open, I'll say, when we're dealing with Prowl before the war/during the early stages of it. It's in the later stages that he's Prowl, Chief Tactician and Second in Command of the Autobots, Keeper of the Platinum Aft Rod and Exemplar or Pricks. *Something* had to cause that.

I'm glad you like what I did with the prompt! ^___^

[renegadewriter8]

Oh this was so POWERFUL! Loved it so much, can't wait for the rest! Poor Prowl, this seriously is incredible writing love love love! ^^

[gilded_orchid]

Thank you! I'm glad it impacted so well!

I'd actually intended to go with a humor piece, or a light bayverse Prowl is/used to be Barricade thing. My muse had other things to say, however, so I finally just gave up fighting the bunny and let it chow down. It was harder to write, but totally worth it.

Thanks again!!

[fianna9]

Extremely powerful. Reading about Prowl's plans, his reactions as they crumble away and the inevitiable happens in a way more horrifying than he had predicted...poor Prowl. I'm glad he has Jazz there, and I believe that the Decepticons deserve everything Prowl is going to do to them because of this.

Side note, I really love the line about Grimlock and Optimus arguing about punching Megatron. I have image in my head of that discussion now.