A Blast From The Past

Summary
It's about time for the traditional Winter AU, and this time, we're taking it back.

We're going back to the Second War, somewhat before Scorponok and Fortress Maximus's crews left Cybertron. Straxus is the main Decepticon leader, and Sentinel Prime is the main Autobot leader, but I'd like to encourage people to form subfactions and engage in some maneuvering and politicking, if they'd like. So for example, Impactor could have a crew of more warlike Autobots who like to play it rougher than Sentinel Prime's boys, and Fortress Maximus might have a more peaceful team (or not, considering some of the Autobot *masters). Shockwave might have a more thoughtful, scientific-oriented team than Straxus's core forces. Subfactions of the main factions might not all get along, and for example, one of Straxus's troops might not be welcome on another subfaction's base. To really get the whole faction together as a whole to accomplish an objective, diplomacy and concessions might be required.

Straxus's powerbase is Darkmount, in Polyhex, and Sentinel Prime's powerbase is in Iacon, on the Iacon Plain. Other open cities that might be good bases for subfactions are Ibex, a scientific-oriented Decepticon city, Agoraplex, a Decepticon city strategically located near Iacon, Killarn, an Autobot city with neutral and pacifistic leanings, and Retoris, an underground city near Iacon, a great place for drills to live.

If you want to lead a subfaction or have a particular city as your base, @mail me, for book-keeping purposes, so we don't end up with two different subfactions who hate each other in the same city. If you just want to be in a subfaction, just go for it. So, for example, if Shockwave wanted to lead a subfaction out of Ibex, he should give me a head's up, but if Misfire wants to be Shockwave's soldier, Misfire can just go for it.

Like with the Mirror plot, the past will have its own grid, and you'll be able to flip between the normal grid and the past grid. It'll have a board and channels, also.

It will run from December 12th (more like December 13th, but the last scene of the current plot will open the past plot) to December 31st. Some of the things set up in the past plot will lead in to later plots in the new year!

For those who aren't into the past or time travel, we do have a lot of other interesting activities going on. The Autobots are up to a flurry of building - talk to Jetfire, Crosscheck, or Impactor, if you're interested. Onslaught is running Non Compos Mentis. Boomslang is still up to no good in Senegal. The Sage still needs to be questioned. There is fallout from the Decepticons' strike on Cambria. And I am probably forgetting things!

2030
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Plot
The Decepticons were using the Dyson Ring, staggeringly large alien artifact of unknown origin, to steal planets. The Autobots decided to put a stop to that! However, in the process of breaking such a massive spacebridge, something went awry, and some Transformers were sent not through just space but also time.

Some of them seem worried about breaking the time stream. Some of them seem excited by the idea!

Meanwhile, in the past, Straxus seem keen on finding... something.

A Blast From The Past and You
So. This is the past. A lot of characters weren't alive back then. We have three ways of handling that:

1) If your character was alive back then, you can just play the past version of your character! All the *masters were around back then, handily enough, if you have ever thought about picking one up. If you are unsure if your character would have been around back then, check with a helpful Staffer, and we'll try to figure it out.

2) Play a coincidentally similar past character. It's a bit corny, but time travel stories are full of coincidences like that, where characters from the present meet characters from the past who are strangely similar to the people they already know. If you want a rename to be a past character, just as a friendly Charstaffer or Wizard for a +pastname. You don't need a formal rename, though. For example, the Dinobots haven't been built yet, but they could play superficially similar past Autobots.

3) Speaking of time travel, as with the Mirror plot, a number of normal present characters will get to the travel to the past. If you're interesting in sending your character to the past, send me an @mail with a small justification of why your character should be sent back in time and what you'd hope to accomplish. It could be as simple as, "I have always hated the Tunnel of Retoris, so I would like to destroy the city of Retoris. This is my battleplan (insert awesome battleplan here) and this is my plan to get the conflicting subfactions to work together to do it (insert awesome diplomatic plan)." People can send in requests for multiple alts, though preferences will be given to letting different players have fun with time travels. Also, requests that work within the timestream rather than changing the timestream into a spinoff will be more likely to be accepted. Staff will pick out people from the pool and notify at the open of the plot. This is an OOC goal, something that the player wants to do with the character, not per se an IC goal that the character would have. It would be a bit strange for someone randomly dumped into the past with no warning to come with a plan of what he wants to do. Characters who go back to the past will return to the present when the plot is over.

Option Three is currently closed. The time travelers are:

Good: Ultra Magnus, Grimlock, Fairway, Andi Lassiter, Patchwork

Evil: Blueshift, Harrow, Astrotrain, Catechism (tossed in to sort of even out the sides and so that a Decepticon would vanish at the opening scene)