i don't need to know you

There was darkness. Only darkness. Or were his optics offline? Like eyes closed to the truth. He doesn't remember what happened last, where he was. He must be safe in his berth right? A simple little courier jet, performing his assigned function like everyone else, a cog in the wheel of this once great society. He was insignificant in the grand scheme of things. The conflict these days? It was between the elite and the oppressed, he had no quarrel. Didn't he? It was someone else's fight, someone with skill and resources and connections.

The war would never touch him, that was something that happened to other people.

Didn't it?

The waking and surreal world continued to do a eerie dance as Wing faded in and out of consciousness, on the edge of stasis lock, until a blinking yellow light cames into his world. After a few seconds, his systems finally rebooted and his HUD came alive, vision filling with a spill of red errors and damage reports. That's when the pain hit him, sensornet awake and alive to agony. And then he heard someone screaming, his own voice, echoing around a small, rock strewn cave.

No...not a cave. Not rock. Plasticrete and metal. The remains of a large building, collapsed around him. Then he remembered the explosion. And the package...the one he delivered. The one with the strange manifest. The manifest he didn't have the skill to detect a forgery, the one he trusted his supervisor who said it was safe. He'd never lie to Wing....

The small space echoed then with a low moan then: despair, regret and pain mingled into one sound, hopeless, feeling not only the weight of countless tons of debris over him but countless lives as well, every spark in that building before it blew...

It's then that he relived parts of his young life: carefree, watching the starships come and go from the Ibex spaceport, dreaming; or simply carrying out his simple life without question, without acting on his doubt, his desire to do more, be more. Wing felt unworthy of it now, not opulent but still a fairer life than some had. Does he even deserve to live now? To fly again?

The light of one yellow optic guttered, illuminating the shipping bay floor beneath his cheek with dying light. And just when he was ready to pass, to give in to that grief and despair, the tick of falling dust and debris roused him again; thin slivers of light breaking through the rubble, growing larger by steps until Wing could hear voices shouting, calling to one another. And then a hand, dark gray with a bright red band, touching his wrist. And a voice from the light, a figure with white plating, brilliant against the darkness...

"Don't give up friend, we'll get you out of here. Don't give up."

OOC Information
Player Name: Sarah or ladyofdragons
Player Age: 37
Player Contact: ladyofdragons or PM this journal
Player/Character HMD: HMD is here.
Other characters in game: None.

IC Information
Character Name: Wing
Character Canon: Transformers IDW comics
Character Age/Gender: Adult, (~4.5 million years old)/hermaphrodite
Canon Point: Middle of Issue 2 of the Transformers: Drift mini-series. Wing has rescued Deadlock/Drift from the slavers, brought him to Crystal City and seen to his repairs. The Decepticon is now his charge and Wing has issued a challenge: that if he wants to return to the war, he must defeat Wing in hand-to-hand combat.
Character Canon History: Wing's TF Wiki page.
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This is headcanon I developed for the Lost Pages event at Re/Aligned back in...August 2012? Finally posting it! XD

At his core SG!Wing is a self-serving, self-centered individual. All others are simply pieces in a game, some useful to him, some not. Some good to ally with, some simply as toys for his entertainment. Other players in then game he tries to manipulate to gain control of or at least 'allegiance' with, while pawns he plays with in whatever way suits his fancy.

He really doesn't forms bonds (when he does they are NOT healthy) or appreciate people for who they are, only what they can do for him. Therefore he has no true friends to speak of. Admirers, lovers, allies, supplicants, thralls and of course enemies yes, but no friends.

( I'll hit a few of the dominating personality points below... )

This is a work-in-progress and is subject to change.

Canon makes no reference to Wing's altmode but it's fairly easy to make some logical presumptions and then extrapolate from there. Cybertronian designations are always reflective of the character in some way, so it's no surprise that Wing would be considered an airframe, and one that excels at flying. We never see him transform in canon but it's assumed that he can, and given his kibble it's also assumed he's a jet. In my personal estimation of what kind of jet he is, I could easily and concisely summarize him as the hummingbird of jets, thanks to size, speed, maneuverability and ability to withstand heavy g-forces.

Size

Given that Wing is the same size as Drift in root mode, he's small for a jet, about 2/3s the size of the average seeker like Starscream. This affords him several advantages (smaller target, lighter/faster, easier to maneuver) at the cost of some disadvantages, (small payload/cockpit, less armaments, turbulence prone).

Speed

In canon, Starscream proclaims he and the other seekers can do mach 3, (Megatron Origon #3). Given the size of Wing's engine nacelles in relation to his overall mass, particularly compared to bigger, bulkier seekers with equal or smaller engine mass, he must be capable of equal or even greater speeds. (Granted tech level and engineering might make a difference, but we know that Crystal City is comparable--if different--to mainstream Cybertronian tech thanks to Perceptor's assessment in the Drift Spotlight.)

Wing is likely only moderately armored, a compromise between being a melee fighter who needs the protection and an airframe who needs less weight. Wing also has no ranged weaponry thanks to firearms being forbidden among the Circle's Knights. (He possibly had light weaponry before joining, since it seems to be a thing that comes standard for many Cybertronian vehicle modes? Undecided on this though.) Lack of weapons also makes for a speed advantage due to less weight compared to fliers with weapons systems. Wing tends not to advertise this fact as most other fliers would consider it a deficiency, (he'd rather not be seen as an easy target).

Maneuvering and Aerial Combat

What he gives up in firepower and armor he makes up for in maneuverability. Similar to his melee fighting style, evasion and tactical maneuvering are his key defensive strategies when fighting in the air. He is quick and agile, able to cut turns, bank sharply and perform double-backs far better than larger, heavier aircraft. He frequently enjoys stunt flying and aerial acrobatics.

His transformation is quick, allowing him to shift to root mode and attack opponents in mid-air with his energy blades, leaping short distances between them, and returning to altmode when needed. This gives him the flexibility to bring a variety of tactics to bear when engaging in mid-air combat--including using gravity and jet-born momentum to his advantage--even if he cannot engage in classic dogfights. (This is one of several types of martial combat he received training in from the Circle.)

In canon we see him extend his wings and use small thrusters on his back while in root mode, so it's a safe assumption that he has flight capability in root mode, though limited compared to his altmode. I believe the pinions on his shoulder nacelles help with maneuverability in root mode, same as the blades on his arms and knees. The audial flares on his helm carry the same sensor suite as his wings do, and are better situated to collect data when flying in root mode.


Frame Design (Now we get into the pure headcanon parts.)

Wing likely has grav thrusters on his belly for take off and landing, similar to those seen on Cybertronian hover cars. His nacelles provide forward power and he uses a vectored thrust system to maneuver. In tight spaces he has secondary thrusters that aid in maneuvering, (We know he has at least two in root, it makes sense they be useful in alt as well). He has simple landing struts for when he needs to be stationary on the ground in altmode. He never had need for a true cockpit, but he did have a small amount of storage/cargo space instead. (more on this later in his pre-war history as a courier.)

I also like to think he has variable wing design, effectively giving his altmode a configuration that has good stability and maneuvering at slower speeds but a more swept configuration for high speed travel. I imagine the shift being most effective at supersonic speeds (Mach 1+). (The seekers in WoC have something similar to this, except that they shift between a hover mode and a flight mode.) Wing can hover and has general VTOL capabilities (which seems fairly common for Cybertronian jets), but it's inferior to a rotary's (not fuel efficient nor as precise).

He's the only flier we see in all of IDW with a complex folded wing design in root mode, so I suspect this is either a very old or very new engineering development, possibly one of the advancements made by Crystal City frame engineers. In an underground city where space is likely at a premium and quarters might be tight, folded panels would be a reasonable and beneficial development. This does mean his pre-war root mode would not have had folded wing panels though, so I'm still deciding on if I want to 'officially' adopt this as headcanon because it's hard to imagine him without them!


Notes

Thanks to Hellkitty (HK) for the aerial melee idea and to Re/Aligned for putting Wing in a situation where I had to think about it!

I've attempted to base this as strongly off canon as I can (where possible) and real world aeronautics/physics/science to a degree (we all know how much Transformers complies to the laws of physics, LOLWHUT) though I'm sure there things I've missed. Feedback, constructively stated, is welcome. ^_^

Player Information
*Name/Alias: Sarah/ladyofdragons
*Age: 37
*Characters already in the game:N/A

Character Information
*Character Name: Wing
*Character Canon: Transformers IDW
*Age: Adult, (~4 million years old?)
*Race: Cybertronian
*Timeline/Pull Point: Drift mini-series, issue 4, at the moment of Braid's death strike. I'd like the timing to be such that his spark chamber is ruptured but he falls through the Lambda before the strike can fully destroy it. Since the Lambda repairs all injuries this saves it from being fatal. Essentially I'd like to give the character as close to a near death experience as possible, something he can reflect on later.

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