Blaster (AU)

"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness."

BLASTER is the last Voice of Cybertron, a role he takes very seriously. As regularly as he can, he broadcasts Elita One's messages of hope across the blasted remains of his homeworld. He knows that without hope, the last of the Autobots will sink down into despair and destruction. He feels this truth keenly, because for him it has already happened. The death of his tapes and the loss of his friends have left an emotional and physical hole in him that has been filled with ever-growing anger and pain. Every day it's harder for him to put on the mask his wears for the sake of morale. It is only a matter of time before fury truly consumes him and everyone in his path.

Description
Easily over thirty feet tall and sticking out like a sore-thumb where ever he goes, this is Blaster!

A solid and blocky mech, Blaster cuts a broad and powerful figure that could almost be intimidating to those that don't know him. He is cast in a vibrant shade of red, the color dominating most of his figure save for at his chest, legs, and of course his face.

His chest is mounted with a hatch of sorts hinged at the bottom, mostly cast in a sort of gold chrome and stamped with the crimson badge, this hatch also sports a sort of volume meter on half of it. His own personal tunes often causing light to pulse up the stair case like meter from the green and into the red.

The next point of interest is his legs, a sturdy, grey metal set of limbs that flow down from a slightly tapered waist. Blocky and rectangular, there is hardly a curve on this bot, seeming to be made completely of sharp angles. Upon his shins are his speakers, protected with a grid from hostilities, these speakers bust out the kickingest tunes in the galaxy!

Finally we arrive at the head, his features protected by a domed helm, horn-like, stubby antennas sprouting from the sides and crooking to the left or right rather then upwards. His facial features are cast in the expressive silverplate of most Cybertronians, his humanoid features speaking of a fun-loving spirit seemingly at odds with a battle tempered soldier. His blue optics sparkle and gleam with their inner light, often cast in idle shade by the knight-like visor that rests just above, ready to be lowered to shield them.

Canonical/Pre-MUX/Theme History:
Blaster is a fun-loving, hip and happenin' robot. Loud and energetic, he is happy to share his choice of rockin' tunes with anyone, whether they want to hear them or not.

Blaster arrived on Earth during the initial impact of the Ark into the planet. He had been present when the Ark crashed onto prehistoric Earth during the encounter wih the Nemesis, but due to being in the more heavily-damaged Ark belowdecks, he was not recovered and repaired for almost a year.

Soon after Blaster was revived, he attended Wheeljack's demonstration of the modifications he'd made to the Dinobots to improve their sense of balance and coordination. To that end, Blaster was requested to play something "nice." Due to his then-unfamiliarity with Earth, Blaster had trouble tuning into a station until Grimlock (obviously tired of this padding) blasted fire at Blaster's controls, allowing the Autobot boom box to tune into the local rock 'n' roll/big band music fusion station.

Ironhide, Trailbreaker and Sideswipe showed their appreciation for the fine selection of elevator music by jerkily dancing around and claiming their audio sensors were being fried. Blaster continued to enthrall Grimlock until Slag and Sludge bumped into their leader and totally freaked him out. At a not-so-secret EJK testing facility for the new Ultraplane, Blaster was sitting in the back of Ironhide's vehicle mode and didn't seem to notice the fact that Soundwave was sitting right next to him — at least until the Decepticon tape deck launched Ravage, whom Blaster quickly transformed to grab. The cat turned to attack the Autobot while his master escaped to report to Megatron. Blaster continued to tussle until Ironhide transformed into robot mode and threw them both out of his caboose. After being initially distracted by the Ultraplane's destruction, the Autobots returned to EJK's lab to confront the Decepticons. Blaster greatly appreciated Jazz's taste in fusion rock/big band music to confound the hapless villains.

Blaster's taste in music often got him into trouble. He attended a concert by a popular '80s rock/big band fusion hair metal band with Spike and Carly. Concerned that the other Autobots weren't enjoying the concert with them, Blaster flooded the Autobot communications channels with the music, though only Cosmos and Jazz seemed to appreciate it. Unfortunately, his taste in music also disrupted an emergency communique from the Helix Observatory, until the other Autobots told him to shut up. After the Voltronic Galaxer was stolen, Blaster was teamed up with Cosmos to search for signs of the Decepticons, but both were rather quickly captured. Blaster was welded into place to be used as a trans-scrambler for Megatron's scheme to use the voltronic galaxer to disrupt communications on Earth and then demand all the energy on the planet in exchange for normality. While Megatron ranted about his demands, Blaster secretly played his music, which served both to rally the Autobots and inform them of Megatron's location — until Megatron kicked him in the face. After foiling the Decepticon plans, Blaster was assigned to the abandoned moon base with Cosmos, but quickly got into trouble with Prime again for his music.

Later, Blaster and Tracks helped the New York police crack a car theft ring by posing as an attractive target for punks to steal. After Blaster teamed up with car thief Raoul, they learned that Megatron was behind the criminal operation, stealing cars to rebuild them into transforming drones. Blaster defended the Washington Bridge from the Decepticon drones alongside the other Autobots, but they were nearly overwhelmed by sheer numbers. After Ratchet realized the cars were remote-controlled, Blaster jammed the frequency, allowing the Autobots to attack and defeat the Decepticons.

Blaster proved useful again, even pivotal, in allowing the Autobots to save Cosmos and some robotic insecticide from the Morphobots. It turns out even plants hate Blaster's music.

Soon afterward, the Autobots were attacked by the malevolent Kremzeek, an energy life form created by Megatron. Blaster and a small number of other Autobots were the only ones to stay functional long enough to be sprayed with an insulating foam that protected them from the creature's attacks. The Autobot team chased it to Japan, where it wreaked havoc with the massive electronics industry there. The creature spawned copies of itself, one of which managed to slip inside Blaster, and after the other Kremzeeks were seemingly destroyed, it jumped out of his chest and the pursuit began again. Kremzeek!

Blaster was watching "As the Kitchen Sinks" with his Auto-buddies when Prime informed them that Tracks and Bumblebee were late returning from their supply run. Suspecting foul play, the Autobots took off to search for their missing comrades. While on the search, Blaster was forcibly transformed by a Creamy Cream billboard (They can do that?), then carted away by the big game hunter Lord Chumley and his butler Dinsmoore as bait to lure Optimus Prime into a hunt. Chumley apparently couldn't think of a suitably dastardly device in which to store Blaster, though, as he was totally absent from Chumley's prisoner showcase later on.

“ I've been waiting a long time for this, you poor excuse for a sound system! ” — Blaster confronting Soundwave, "Auto-Bop"

Tracks and Blaster were reunited with Raoul when they saved their human friend and his Bop Crew from a bunch of hoodlums in the employ of the Dancitron nightclub. When a punk tried to ensnare him in a chain, Blaster simply remarked that the humans were seriously out of their league, then broke the chain by moving his arm slightly. The Autobots forced their way into the nightclub, where Blaster appreciated the atmosphere and the impressive sound system. He then went off to dance with some oddly well-dressed ladies who sounded like Penny Marshall.

Soon after leaving the club, Tracks and Blaster had to save Raoul again when a Decepticon-controlled train driver sent the train Raoul was in hurtling out of control. Conferring with Teletraan I, Blaster discovered that Dancitron controlled its patrons by using hypnotic signals, and he suggested countering them with his own sonic powers. Entering the club, Blaster finally faced his Decepticon counterpart Soundwave in battle. At first, the combatants appeared to be evenly matched, but Soundwave drove Blaster back with his sonic assaults.

Improvising, Blaster jury-rigged Dancitron's own sound system into his speakers. He turned the combined sonic force against Soundwave, forcing him into retreat and wrecking the nightclub in the process.

When Megatron journeyed to Cybertron to bring life to his new Stunticons, Optimus Prime took Blaster and a small group aboard Omega Supreme to stop him. Megatron sent a cadre of Centurion droids after the Autobots, delaying them long enough for him to access Vector Sigma and bring his Stunticons to life.

As a counter-measure, Blaster and the other Autobots worked to retrofit five Cybertronian shuttles as Earth vehicles, and then used Vector Sigma in turn to bring life to these Aerialbots. Once they returned to Earth, the Autobots and Aerialbots confronted the newly-minted Stunticons. Impressively, Blaster used his sound system to generate a miniature earthquake using sonic vibrations, but Wildrider just sailed over the cracks and smashed into Blaster's face. On a second encounter with the Stunticons, Blaster converted into tapedeck mode and used his sonics to try blasting down a tree to make Breakdown crash. Instead, Breakdown used it as a ramp and Wildrider casually drove by and ran Blaster over. Ouch.

Blaster and Cosmos were sent on an inter-galactic shopping trip to pick up more Ingredient X for Perceptor's protective chemical spray, Corrostop. Unfortunately there was no more Ingredient X. Anywhere. In the entire universe. Bummer.

When the Stunticons returned performing a series of heists for Megatron, Blaster joined Prime and Bumblebee in hunting down Motormaster. He didn't do much, but he did get to witness the most awesome game of chicken ever, when Prime totalled Motormaster and proved himself the real "King of the Road."

Blaster then travelled to Cybertron, intending to destroy the Space Bridge. However, before he could commit his act of sabotage, he was confronted by Straxus in a one-on-one duel. Crippling Blaster with his axe, Straxus was duped into accidentally severing the bridge's fuel line, destabilizing its teleporting arch, through which Blaster then kicked Straxus, destroying him.

Ramhorn was built on Earth by Blaster in 1986 as one of Blaster's first attempts at creating Transformer life (as opposed to just converting existing Transformers to tape-bots, as he did with Discord and Eject.

MUX History:
Blaster was second in command of the Special Operations division until Optimus Prime combined it with Infantry.

With Wheeljack's help, he rebuilt Snoop from a Dinobot into a Tape-bot.

Blaster remains head of Autobot Communications, and sometimes acts as an Autobot Infantry field commander.

When Snoop disappeared into the Shattered Glass universe, Blaster took a shuttle and went to look for her. When his shuttle was damaged in an attack, he set down in Antarctica to try to make repairs. He finally got the ship flight-worthy in May of 2011, only to have it shot down again almost immediately by Ebony. Blaster was able to stun Ebony and get away, ultimately picked up by Prowl along with Snoop and returned to the main TFUniverse. He has since recovered from his harrowing trip to the other side.

In 2012, Crosscut was tracked to Mexico by Scourge, where he was briefly captured before Scourge was driven off by Blaster piloting the Autobot Shuttle Outrider.

In October of 2012, the Uber-Seeker was found by Decepticons Bombshell and Windshear. Windshear challenged the Uber-Seeker for leadership of the Dweller cult, and demonstrated his ability by leading a successful attack against the Centurion droids. However, soon after the battle, Bombshell and Windshear were tracked down by Blaster and Scourge, who subdued Bombshell and Windshear and brought them back for examination towards a possible cure for the Dweller nano-virus. At Windshear's command, the Uber-Seeker took his shambling horde of undead and retreated to the Underworld.

Before leaving for Cybertron, Blaster built a helperbot to assist Buster and Spike in taking care of Sparkplug in Autobot City. Snoop assisted by giving Helperbot a Santa hat and teaching it how to dance.

Blaster travelled to the Temple of Knowledge in Shattered Glass Cybertron to help guard Alpha Trion while Trion attempted to build a device to close the rifts between worlds. However, before Trion could complete his device, the Temple of Knowledge was attacked by Ultra Magnus, who teleported into the temple with the use of one of Wheeljack's Stellar spanners.

Blaster defended the temple, attacking Tracks and getting his one of his optics burned out in the process. Magnus attempted to use a doomsday device to destroy Cybertron, but before Wheeljack was able to complete the device Dust Devil preemptively activated it with the Terminus Blade. Magnus attempted to escape before the doomsday device detonated, but Trailbreaker tossed it through the Wheeljack's portal before it closed. It is unknown if Magnus and his troops survived the deontation.

Soon after, Throttle was assigned by Sir Soundwave to assist Alpha Trion in the Temple of Knowledge. Although initially distrusted by Red Alert (surprise!), she was welcomed by Blaster and asked to patrol the Manganese Mountains until needed for infiltration and sabotage missions.

During the Decepticon occupation of Autobot city in 2014, he was part of an underground resistance that sabotaged Decepticon efforts to entrench themselves in the city.

During Jetfire's trial in 2015, Blaster was obliged to report that he'd intercepted the following transmission:
 * <> Jetfire says, "Everything is in place. I am almost ready to move. Remember our agreement."
 * << Decepticon>> Lord Megatron says, "I remember. The Autobots will be spared, and you will be rewarded."

It didn't help Jetfire's case, although Jetfire was eventually cleared of all charges.

In March of 2016, Blaster and Jetfire responded to a Decepticon attack on a generator in Jamaica. Blaster deployed Rosanna and Flipsides to help deal with Slugfest and provide protection for the humans who had no yet been evacuated.

OOC Notes
On the MUX, Blaster is usually portrayed as a combination of his cartoon and comic personas - a bombastic exterior masking a serious warrior within.

Some of his tape troops were built by him with the help of Wheeljack - others, like Snoop, started as small Autobots and were converted into Tape-Bots.

Players
AU-Blaster will be played by BZero for the Apocalypse World TP.