Flaw In Every Crystal Chapter 3

Flaw in Every Crystal Chapter 3

'Welcome to Praxus' Part 3

aka Welcome to the Hotel California

So, Jazz is finally starting to catch on to the fact that something is rotten in Denmark. Kinda cool getting the feed back and now being able to read this chapter knowing without a doubt that Jazz was never going to be able to get on that transport, Prowl or no Prowl. 

Odd that Prowl notices things out of place as in having already considered all of Jazz belongs to be “theirs” and therefore belonging in the home. I wonder if there is anything then that Prowl doesn’t approve of that was “misplaced” by Jazz at some point? I also wonder if they have been going dutch on all meals, Jazz was going to leave some credits to pay his way, or if he just let Prowl get the bills? 

It really shows Jazz’s now unease with Prowl after Prowl had shown just how cold and accepting of Praxus justice he could be in how Jazz tries to leave before Prowl can even get home. We also see this in how Jazz reacts by not telling Prowl that he wishes to go home but rather make an excuse about how he has to leave. It rather reminds me of stories of girls being afraid to say no to a creepy guy and inside coming up with an excuse to avoid him.

I still have a hard time telling if Prowl is messing with Jazz, not getting how it isn’t obvious that Jazz is staying there now, or still trying to avoid the confrontation with Jazz about what is going on. He still speaks rather vaguely saying how unfortunate it is that Jazz is being called away, meaning Jazz is losing his job, not that Jazz has to go. He finally lays it out at the very end of the conversation: that Jazz isn’t going anywhere.

Sidenote: Is part of the research going into approving a mate seeing if they have any family or other lovers before taking them? I can’t imagine the city being happy if someone’s family/mate from another city comes looking for them and finds out what is going on. 

I assume that since Prowl is the “dominate” mate, he gets all the paperwork and therefore make it so that Jazz never had to appear in front of any council to get approved, but other pairs (raised in Praxus) go together like how people get a marriage certificate together nowadays? If/when someone is “trained”/properly mated, is there like a party? Marriage, thing?

Odd how Prowl was trying to avoid telling Jazz what was going on all this time, but now is like “but you’re a citizen that can go anywhere now, isn’t this what you wanted?” Kinda glad that I’m getting to reread this after reading “These shackles you forged” (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7031566/chapters/15999883) (fanfic about skids/tarn, where Tarn “trains” skids. Very dark.) for the first time. Its cool seeing the parallels between Tarn and Prowl here in trying to get their victim to feel that this is the logical course of all of the choices that the victim has made rather than just them being backed into a trap. Of course Tarn’s take a much more sexual nature rather than Prowl’s physical, but then again, Tarn has “trained” Skids a lot faster than Prowl trained Jazz. Very interesting comparing the two is all I am saying.

Anyway, back to the story at hand. I am kinda disappointed that we don’t see what the datapad says since Jazz just glances at it and is otherwise preoccupied. I wonder if it would be just one of those “insert name here forms” or actually explain more about what is going on to Jazz, laying out rules and regulations expected of him now. 

We also see that Prowl doesn’t try to physically restrain Jazz from leaving at this moment. Instead he simply tells Jazz how pointless it would be to try to go. Maybe Prowl doesn’t want to see himself as so much of the bad guy yet? Or does he see Jazz as someone who has to run headfirst into the door first before being told that it’s a pull door? 

I am a bit confused still though. If Prowl didn’t arrange for Jazz’s datawork to go missing, then why would someone steal it? Jazz says they take a scan of Jazz’s frame to match against the datawork, so does that mean that only Jazz can use it or could someone with the same frame work pass himself off as Jazz in order to leave? And why does Jazz having identifying documentation now? Is it different from the other paperwork? Like his passport is gone, but he has his driver’s license? 

I wonder if they contacted Prowl, or if Prowl just guessed where Jazz would be? I assume the wait for joors that Jazz endured was deliberate by Prowl to really let lesson one sink in. Also did they scan Prowl to ensure he was Jazz’s mate, or did Prowl just have to claim so? If they just go by word of mouth I can see bots getting kidnapped that way to pay back petty grudges to the dominate mate. 

We now also see Prowl getting serious. I wonder since the paperwork was made official just today if training was going to start now anyway, or if Prowl would let Jazz stay in the dark about the whole thing a bit longer? Since Jazz forced Prowl’s hand here, but based on how Prowl acts later in the story, I could see Prowl just pretending a bit longer and letting Jazz think he could still go back if only to be able to spend more time with the Jazz who caught his optic without having to deal with any arguments. Now that could be another story, Prowl trying to train Jazz by subtly telling him about Praxian culture seeing how far into it Jazz will get before realizing the truth. I almost want to say that may be me projecting a more “okay” less physical punishment preference on Prowl that doesn’t exist.

I just can’t believe that Prowl thought Jazz would just become a perfect sub once he was told he was now a citizen, though knowing what I know happens later, maybe he did.

I wonder how long Prowl had the collar and room set up? He had to have had it before Jazz arrived, so is the secret torture room just standard in houses in Praxus? Are there homes made to include the training rooms, or did Prowl just figure he would probably prefer someone outside of Praxus? Or did Prowl have someone come in a quickly set things up while he was showing Jazz around the city?

Did Prowl have the collar or did he go out and buy one while Jazz was in transport center isolation? So creepy to think that while Jazz was sleeping, eating, or otherwise unaware, Prowl was researching his frame type. I wonder if Prowl actually asked Jazz questions about it to use against him later. 

What’s worse is seeing Prowl’s, what must seem to Jazz a 180 flip in personality, as just who Prowl is mixed with who society has raised him to be, with society coming more to the front now. 

We also see Prowl stop referring to Jazz by name now. Instead it is “sub” and “this mech”. It is like Prowl views him completely differently now, not explaining anything just demanding to be obeyed. 

So is Prowl’s seemingly preference for physical punishment, excluding the isolation of course, the norm or is that just what Prowl was taught? I think that there was a sidestory/ spin off that used a more emotional angle but I don’t know how canon that is.And the...event....coming in the far future with Prowl’s partner is...not quite physical punishment, but Barricade seemed to prefer physical punishment with his subs too from what I remember.

And so we end on Jazz taking stock as Prowl prepares for work.

Till next time!

I can believe the Prowl being sub-minded. He does seem like he just wants to follow what seem to him to be simple rules and be shown respect. This I can also see feeding into his confusion over how Jazz is having such a hard time.

And so to move up in the world, Prowl would need a mate and sparklings like some odd SIMs thing?

The Flaw in Every Crystal Chapter 5

Welcome to Praxus Arc Part 5

Aka: The hand that feeds you

Aka: Risks and Rewards

Here we see just how cold and detached Prowl can be as he takes in Jazz’s condition after six orns being left in THAT ROOM. Spoiler: it ain’t great. Jazz has pretty much no energy to fight here, instead just wondering when Prowl will finally get bored enough to end it. Or at least the bit of his mind still online in a 3/4′s starved condition. 

We also see the return of Triage to the scene to help get Jazz all the way back up from 5/8′s slagged to probably ½ to 1/3 slagged! Yay, so helpful! I wonder what they dilute the energon with that would make it safe to consume but not add anything they can use. Also if this is the kind of fic were the transformers bodies can self-cannibalize so Jazz is loosing mass to this or if its just you offline if you don’t eat.  

And oh god, Triage tries to make small talk “So….how you doing?” “I see you decorated your room in processed energon, I prefer green paint myself, but its good to take an active part in your training, accepting the room, trying to make it your own.” “How did you like the city? See any sights?” “I never thought about travel myself, so barbaric out there…” “You just gotta let yourself be happy here, and then you will be! We can even go on double dates with if they allow it! Wouldn’t that be fun!” 

So, Prowl did almost starve Jazz. “What happened to your mate that exploded a while back?” “He didn’t explode, he caused an explosion in a small space. Then he accidentally starved to death” “Ah, rookie mistake. Don’t worry, you’ll do better next time, I’m sure. Plenty of crystals in the garden and all that.”

I assume that the serious wounds Prowl needs to regularly check are from said earlier exploding incident. Is the checking that energon isn’t leaking through or that the metal isn’t coming back in all warped?

Poor Jazz mentioned caring about something, aka his visor, and now Prowl knows what he can give/take from Jazz to keep him in line. But Jazz still has his snark to him to he’s slowly coming back. Gotta love Prowl’s “if you hand’t of curled into the fetal position in a half-starved state, your neck wouldn’t hurt now. Honestly, its simple cause and effect.” 

Now we see Jazz starting to try to feel out different situations, testing how much Prowl will let him get away with. And then Jazz gets a reward for towing Prowl’s line, a blanket. One which unknown to Jazz at the moment, will one day hold him hostage. A two sided blanket if you will. Its nice to reread stories and see the first time a reoccurring object appears.

Prowl seems almost desperate now to reward Jazz for not fighting him on energon and for saying thank you for the blanket, already giving Jazz back his arm movement. Even Jazz seems confused by the sudden shower (two) good things he has back now. Maybe Jazz’s multiple brushes with death have affected Prowl more than I thought at first. Or Prowl is getting impatient and wants to get on with more of the training already.

Now checking on Jazz becomes a habit for Prowl, like me watering my flowers or feeding my fish every morning. We even see Prowl rewarding Jazz by coming in and talking to Jazz on his level rather than talk to Jazz from above him in a standing position. Jazz, having caught on to some of the game, is working on self-restraint at having Prowl so close but not being able to do anything against him. 

It just occurred to me to wonder if Prowl is coming up with rewards as he views how Jazz is or if this is a mental valuing of the different rewards Prowl can give Jazz. Is it that he saw that Jazz was uncomfortable in recharge, so the reward was a blanket, or does Prowl assign the blanket the lowest value and was therefore the first reward given like a 5-ticket prize in an arcade? Especially since he brings up the pain-blockers now once Jazz has complained about the pain, or was he holding back offering the pain blockers until Jazz had dealt with the pain at least an orn? 

Jazz also knows that anything given to him can be ripped away, so he doesn’t want to value anything since it will hurt less that way to lose it, but feels such relief with them its hard not to care. 

Maybe Prowl is pretty much showering Jazz with rewards to try to super renforce the training? Like “I can bake these cookies for 10 minutes at 420C, or for 10 seconds at 5000C!” Its “I can give Jazz one reward a day for good behavior, or give him 10 different good things for nonbad behavior!” Like some part of him does hate the punishments and so is really trying to show Jazz that they can play nice. This is confirmed even by Prowl saying to himself that he had probably been too lenient when Jazz tries to snark about being able to feed himself. 

It does sent the precedent here for later on that Prowl in the earlier days seems almost eager to over-reward Jazz.

Till next time!

I meant Romeo/Juliet in that the mate better suited to being sub is the one holding higher rank. It would be like if Derby couldn’t move up the ranks and therefore would have to sub, forcing her to chose to hold her military position, give up her job, or not bond Triage.

If I understand it correctly.

The Flaw in Every Crystal

Chapter 8

Intermission Number 1

Aka Triage’s situation

So, Triage became limited in who she could treat on a regular basis to people of her own class. Even triple-checking. I wonder if this is because the medic or the patient might lie, or both. Does this mean that a medic could have to drop a patient once they bond, but then pick that patient back up if the patient bonds as a sub?

Interesting that Prowl would have to hold a high rank to allow Triage to have an occupation, but said that Jazz could do approved work. So, is medic considered higher valued that Prowl would need to rank up to do that but most stuff Jazz could do Prowl would be high enough rank for?

Is it possible to be too low of a rank to bond someone? Derby is mentioned as having to climb up a few ranks. Has there been a Romeo/Juliet type thing ever?

Why didn’t Prowl try to trine with Derby and Triage to rank up. Was he worried Derby wouldn’t go along with the plan to get out of Praxus? Or was it the lack of feelings between them all?

Yes.

Chapter 4: Gotta Earn that T Rating

Back again with Chapter 4. Let’s get to it.

Prowl now seems more okay with keeping his distance from Jazz. Jazz at this point is just playing mirror with Prowl and wondering about who Prowl actually is. It seems that now that Jazz knows that he is safe and help is coming for him, and that Prowl is single, he is able to focus more on the current situation and a possible future with Prowl. As he is able to let his mind wonder, he begins to take in more of Prowl’s physical characteristics in a romantic light whereas before it was more based on Prowl’s actions towards him.

We also get to see more of Jazz as a character when not in survival mode. He sees Prowl as a possible romantic partner but still recognizes that he can only move forward if Prowl is in the proper frame of mind to consent. Admirable traits for our main character. We also see more evidence latter that Jazz tends to babble when distressed, from his messages to Ricochet earlier and his talking to Prowl when “captured” by him.

And then we get to see Jazz’s mating dance toward Prowl. Or in other words, we get to see Jazz further trying to slave off cabin fever by using movement and dance steps since though unable to respond verbally, Prowl is able to mimic and follow Jazz’s physical movements. We see Prowl no longer simply following along with Jazz and now reaching out to touch Jazz. It is hard to decipher Prowl’s motives for this. My theory is it is earlier a delayed reaction from when Jazz reached out to him during the dance beginning or as I jokingly stated before, it is Prowl accepting that this is Jazz’s mating dance for him.

 Then we get an odd if interesting dance/chase as Prowl tries to grab Jazz who simple is able to evade. Bit of a mistake on Jazz’s part for being the one to initiate this sequence of events. We also see the extent of Prowl’s base attraction as an “chase” and dance that in what was described as a small room couldn’t have taken more than a minute to end still got Prowl rather hot and bothered. 

We also get the same admirable trait from Prowl in that he backs off when Jazz tries to push him back, even if unhappy about what must seem as horribly mixed signals to him. Prowl may have even been worried that it was a sign of rejection as he sees Jazz then turn away from him to get food for himself rather than depending on Prowl for food. Prowl physically moves Jazz in an attempt to bring back the normalcy of their current relationship with Jazz waiting for Prowl to feed him. Prowl also then goes back to the regular sleeping habits without any of the previous touching from last time. Perhaps trying to take it a bit slower with his mate?

Chapter 1: The Wintering

(note: this isn’t so much a review or a read-along as it will be me approaching this like its a high school assignment to analyze, because I am just that lame. Will probably go in order of the story as I reread it.)

“Jazz was going to throttle Ricochet when he got back to civilization.” This is a strong opening sentence as it sets up the character name of Jazz, gives him a clear goal, and tells us where he currently is in his world. 

So now we have the word hoarfrost mentioned. This tells us that in this world the temperature still drops as it does in our world, but has a gray-ish tint to it unlike the pure white that we would expect from the snow and frost that comes with cold weather in our world. This could be symbolize of how the world we are about to enter is like our world but perhaps with more of a darkness to it, such as other great works have used the change of weather to indicate the turmoil of a setting or a character itself. In this case, our “Jazz”.

We also have weak light filtering through the crystal trees around him. This is also a symbol of the character, Jazz’s, struggle and hope of survival here. The light represents survival and the fact that it is so weak at the moment represents Jazz’s fading hope of getting out. We can further prove this by the fact that the narration seems to be in third person from Jazz’s viewpoint.

Now we get some more information about the world and therefore Jazz’s situation. The planet gets acid storms, or snow in this case. This can lead us to conclude that the temperatures can reach at least -85 C (the freezing point of HCl). This adds a further danger to Jazz as he cannot stop for too long or form a hole in the snow to hide in as we would. This also solidifies the story as the man vs nature type plot.

It also tells a lot about the character that the first phone call we see him making in story is to yell at Ricochet instead of calling for help. This can tell us how much family may mean to him that his call is to him. 

Now there is some confusion as it is clear that Ricochet could not get the energon that the family needs, so Jazz went. But from the fact that he crashed, we are forced to assume that he was not able to get the energon back to his family since we could assume then that would mean that Jazz would be back home and we would not have a story. Unless Alitex is another city Jazz was delivering to for reasons unknown to us. We know that it must have been after dropping off any supplies as later on Jazz complains of only having rations to eat.

The fact that Jazz’s ship crashed and was rendered useless by the acid storm can tell us that these acid storms are either very rare or only occur in the winter, since otherwise one would think the plane would survive.

We also get a description of how a mech would freeze to death compared to a human with the body able to reroute power to the core and how falling asleep would be dangerous. We later see how this damage is still significant as Jazz is unable to feed himself or properly stay awake at first.

His rescuer growls and seems to react negatively to Jazz trying to rev his own engine in response to the other. This reaction may be due to either worry that Jazz will tire himself more by doing this or that the rescuer thinks that Jazz is trying to pull away at this moment.

Thus we end the analysis of chapter one.