I want the deep lore and inspirations from The Light Runners if you still remember! That setting and the way you built up forgotten divinity that was a literal part of the world and what prompted the characters being in it... Anything you wanna share, I love that fic so much!
eyyy hi Razz! Thanks for asking- I know you've always enjoyed that fic :D
It's been a long time haha, I'll see what I can remember. let's do bullet-esque points for brain ease
• this was a big bang fic, where writers put out their pitches and then artists picked what they wanted. I was a little nervous no one would want my idea: a genfic action adventure with rarely used side characters on an AU Cybertron. lucky for me, Yam picked my fic and drew some really cute art for it! I did the flats for the pics for them, as they were busy, but they did all the lines and rendering :) what an adorable style!
• the main characters are Jackpot and Shadow Striker... but not the Shadow Striker everyone knows. it's a curious thing that's happened several times now, but I'll write about a character or a dynamic and then they'll show up in canon. in this case, shortly after either writing or posting this story, Shadow Striker became a thing in Cyberverse. the Shadow Striker in this fic, though, was directly inspired by her Universe incarnation
Shadow Striker (Universe) - Transformers Wiki
Her frame's construction, her weapon and skills, and the whole side story about her sister were all from her canon fiction.
Jackpot's wiki says he's lucky
Jackpot (G1) - Transformers Wiki
and I think having luck as a superpower is really cool, so I made Jackpot an outlier of sorts, where he escapes big and small dangerous events, but they come at a price- he loses energon every time, and his spark chamber is damaged.
• I had the idea for a long time, but I remember seeing IDW2 artist Anna Malkova talk on twitter one time about how she always wanted to do a "journey to the center of the world" story. I always hoped Anna would see my fic xD I doubt she has, or would want to now, though. but, I think about that every once in a while
• the goals for the fic were to do: kinda enemies to kinda friends, world building with underground tunnels whose composition changes with depth, some mafia-esque shenanigans, some body horror shenanigans, using characters I was unfamiliar with (but making them sympathetic to the reader in some capacity)... lots of goals
• the light runners steal rare biolight fluid, idk exactly how I thought of it, but I have always thought biolights were so pretty and delightfully TF-y. it seemed like something that would fit into a stratified society- rare thing = rich people want it to flaunt their wealth
• Mirage and Skywarp make appearances in the beginning under their stage names from Face The Past, Mesmer and Vorp. because I love them, haha
I definitely have more things I could say... brain is pretty scattered right now. I'm literally in the corner ignoring my family right now. It's pretty great lol, but I'll stop here.
thanks for the question! I'll be sure to reblog when I get home with more info :D