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[whirlybird_of_prey]

Character Information
*Character Name: WHIRL
*Character Canon: Transformers IDW
*Age: 4 million or so?  He was alive before the war.
*Race: Cybertronian
*Timeline/Pull Point: IDW MTMTE 6

*History:

Whirl hates wikis

Longform (mostly to get it straight in my own head)

Whirl wasn't always the sexy lethal beast you see today.

Okay, he always was sexy, but before the war, he'd done something 'impossible': he'd changed jobs. His function placed him in the Aerial Corps (This likely means he was constructed cold), but he didn't want that. He wanted to make watches.

What? He likes clocks, okay? 

He pushed (because Whirl is a determined bastard) and got permission and set himself up as a chronosmith.  A very successful chronosmith. So successful that the local petty organized crime wanted a cut. So much for the soft civilian life of free-market entrepreneurialism.

He refused. Because he is Whirl and nobody pushes Whirl around.  So they sent Heavies, who attacked him where he was weakest: destroying his shop.  Which, you can imagine, REALLY PISSED HIM OFF.  

With no real way to make money, at least no real legitimate, honest way, Whirl sank to the Dead End. He mentioned hanging out with syphoners and cog snatchers--apparently, he was putting his chronosmithing skills to some use down there. And his other skills, too--he had been in the Aerial Corps. Perhaps more than many of them down in the Dead End, Whirl had been trained how to fight. And also being inducted into the ugly underbelly of violence and corruption.  Which got him in trouble.

But the Senate had use for mechs with his kind of talent, in his kind of trouble, and a little round of empurata (removing his face and hands and replacing them with the attractive claws and lampface you see today) got him' (how very generous) a position in the Rodion Police Force.  On the surface, this looked like a chance to make good. In reality, he owed a favor. 

He hates owing favors.

At least one of those favors was apparently being ordered to kill one prisoner, Megatron, the miner who had been involved in a scuffle/beatdown/brawl combo platter at Maccadam's.  Nobody bothered to explain the why of the hit. Whirl was just their trained copter.  So sure, he beat the robosnot out of Megatron, but was stopped by Springarm, the goody goody doofus with the Matrix tampographed on his cheek. (Seriously? A tattoo? On your face? )  Before he could get back to business, Megatron had been freed, and then Whirl found himself up on charges.  

Whoa. Not cool.   But the Senate had his back (kind of and in a half-afted way) and sent more goons to free him. But said goons were stopped definitively by Orion Pax, who then proceeded to give Whirl his grand entrance into high society by bringing him to the Senate, where Orion confronted the Senators with the three questions he'd found in Megatron's datapad.  Pretty much over Whirl's half-dead body.

Whirl decided then that politics was boring. And painful.

Whirl ended up, likely after some string-pulling, transferred to Kaon Security, where perhaps his methods weren't so, you know, judged. Especially since they had other things to get their circuits in a bunch: namely Megatron killing Sentinel Prime. Yeah, not so sympathetic now, huh? And to think, if they'd just let Whirl do his hit before, none of this would have happened

Heavy stuff, right?

Orion, now Optimus Prime, made another 'offer (Whirl) can't refuse',  that Whirl should become an Autobot as 'an act of forgiveness'. (Whirl seemed very cynical recounting this.) Whirl decided it was Fresh Start time, and changed his name to Jetstream and then got himself a teaching job at the Iacon  Aerial Academy.  Which was...well, it was okay until that blow up with Rotorstorm.  Hey, things got out of hand, okay? It happens!

Where else do you go with such a lauded and golden career record but the Wreckers, right?  So, Wreck and Rule and all that slag.  Whirl liked the Wreckers...as much as he liked anything. As he described it, it was time when he had 'everything he wanted'.  At least they didn't get all prissy about rules.

Okay, maybe they should have gotten a bit prissy about rules, because you know, Pova. And Impactor basically killing Squadron X in cold blood. Mind you, not that Whirl was in any real position to judge anyone for 'murdering unarmed helpless bound captives' because, *cough cough* Megatron *cough*.  And knowing how the system works, he and the other Wreckers, lied about what they knew.

So, yeah, now Springer was in charge of the Wreckers, who were all bound by this secret, and then Wreckery adventures ensued (I'm going to gloss over these as they have no real bearing on his personality other than Whirl Kicks Ass): the events of Stormbringer, fighting at Varas Centralus and then Thunderwing on Cybertron; he helped at Corata Vaz to disarm one of the Nega-Cores; he was captured along with Springer, Roadbuster and a few other Wreckers by Turmoil, where they got rescued by Kup, Perceptor and new guy Drift (spotlight: Drift), etc, etc, whirl kicks ass dot dot dot.

And then Springer kind of pissed Whirl off by ruling him out on a mission, because Whirl was getting, oh, a bit out of control (Whirl may resemble that remark).  And so he was left out of all the 'fun' of Garrus-9's 'liberation', instead getting stuck with a comatose Springer, an illiterate Roadbuster, and the mission to watch over Springer in case he comes out of Zero Point.

Yeah, that was not what Whirl signed on for.  Whirl is not a nursemaid.  And he hates being bored.  So he decided that the only reasonable thing to do would be to use  Springer as a sort of trial run of Roadbuster's latest little toy, a 'sparkeater' device. Look, Springer wasn't gonna come out of that, and being stuck there forever, all three of them? No way. It was compassion. Kind of.

Yeah, well, Roadbuster didn't think so, either. Roadbuster hit him with the black spot the veto and thus summarily ended Whirl's tenure with the Wreckers. Whirl took at as well as he took all bad news: with a lot of high caliber weaponry wielded by a rotary bucket of crazy. Ultra Magnus was called in to deal with him and, oh great, a hitch in the hoosegow. .

Turned out, the only thing less fun than spending quality time with Mr Ultra Frownus was jail. SO. BORING.  Whirl took a deal, sort of an ultimatum. He'd be a good little copter, as long as he wasn't in fraggin' jail. 

He got to do some policing, with his own special brand of bullying panache, on Cybertron after the war, but that didn't go over so well.  Because NAILs are lame. He was indulging in a little hobby break, by doing things (shut up, yeah, things) with Sweep corpses when Cyclonus stumbled upon him. And thus began a beautiful friendship.

If by friendship you mean 'deathwish'.  They end up on the Lost Light entirely by accident when Whirl's HERE IS MY MENACING FACE positioned him right over where Tailgate was busting himself to freedom. Ow.  But, you know, whatever. Cybertron sucked anyway.   He got off on the wrong foot, maybe, grabbing the orange little weirdo, there, but hey, Rung has such a throttle-able throat.  And then that nice brotherly reunion hug with Cyclonus.  And then these morons unable to decide on a decent name. Seriously? Crusadercons? 

And he should probably feel a bit bad about that whole Animus thing. Look. Locking him out was a joke, okay? A little prank. Seriously. Don't you people have a sense of humor?  And he tried to avenge Animus's death on the spark sucking slob, but that idiot Trailbreaker and his forcefields and Ultra Magnus with his waah waah you'll blow up half the ship waah.  Hauler? No way.  Ultra Magnus's  alt mode is obviously a waaaaahmbulance.

Okay maybe he got off on a LOT of wrong feet. Like a multipede of wrongness.

But he was trying. Kind of. Sort of. In a bare minimum way.  He had to talk to Rung. About his 'feelings'. Who knew the Autobots still did torture?  But he did, because, well, why not.  At least Rung pretended he was interested or something. 

So. Fine. Whatever. Feelings ahoy, matey.  Until that stupid glitch Fortress Maximus (now there's a name that's overcompensating, right?) decided to have his little psychotic break. During Whirl's session time.  Meh. The floor was just as comfortable as the stupid couch, anyway. The pipe through his guts, not so much.  But he could handle a little pain, especially if there was a jerk he could taunt. It helped pass the time, okay?  

He couldn't handle the boredom.  And his taunting lost its steam when Max threatened Rung. So,  okay, fine. You wanna hear the copter's life story, you got it. Max was a dead mech anyway, as far as Whirl was concerned. And if Whirl ended up dead? Yeah, so be it.  Hadn't exactly been a star spangled ride, has it?  As long as he took Max out with him, he'd have been A-OK with croaking.  He'd be okay with croaking anyway, but he suspected Max didn't have the diodes to act on his threat. Because if there's one thing Whirl knows, it's bullies.

When Fort Max decided that Rodimus--as Whirl predicted--wasn't going to turn the ship around, and he had to step up his threat by killing one of his hostages, Whirl not only volunteered, he tried, actively, to get and keep Max's attention. (That whole 'wavy arm thing' 'begging for his life in a very angry way' as Drift and Ultra Magnus see it).  But then Rodimus's plan, which would have likely worked if it had been Rodimus, or Drift, or Perceptor or, well, anyone but Swerve, went bust, and Rung was dead. Whirl took Fort Max down, but it was too late.




*Personality:

There might have been a time when Whirl was a nice guy, but, wow, that time is long past. Just skim his history: every encounter Whirl has with other mechs ends badly. Most of his life choices have been made as responses to ultimatums. And while he resents being manipulated, he goes along, gamely, in everything he commits to. Oh? I have to kill Megatron? He gives it his best shot, with gusto. Oh, we have to lie to protect the Wreckers about Pova? Done. Oh, I gotta talk to Rung? There he is, dutifully on Rung's couch.  Oh, if I tell you my stupid life story, you won't shoot Rung? Grab the popcorn and cop a squat!

It's a weird thing, because he's amoral (he has no problem with lying--he was cooking up a hell of a story to blame Cyclonus for EVERYTHING when Tailgate's explosion nearly removed his face), but in his own special way, he honors his commitments, however ugly they are. Because, in the end, that's looking out for himself.  

The only possible exception, of course, was Rung.  He didn't tell Rung a lot of things (like his history as a chronosmith), but he claims Rung as 'a friend', and tells Max his story to save Rung's life. (Also, to buy time, look for an opportunity, and be slightly less bored). And look how well that turned out.

When you can't trust anyone and have no friends except the psychotherapist geek, who are you going to look out for, right? 

Whirl taunts Fortress Maximus, and while he might claim to believe the mech doesn't have the guts to carry out his threats, he could just as easily be wrong. Whirl seems to be a bit of a masochist, and takes Fortress Maximus's whacks to his face almost like a joke.

In stressful situations, he aggresses--he doesn't negotiate, he doesn't try to talk anyone down, he turns the Jerk up to 11, being deliberately provocative. Because he can handle violence better than he can handle a LOT of things.

Like boredom. He hates being bored. There he is lying on Rung's floor with a pipe through his chassis and he never says a word about pain, but he (at least jokingly) begs for death as a break from the boredom.  A jail cell or any kind of captivity would break him down (and he's crazy enough already!).  

Whirl likes taking things apart. As a chronosmith, as a warrior with psychotic tendencies, he takes a certain (grim) enjoyment in breaking things down.  He also enjoys 'taking things apart' verbally: he knows exactly what buttons to push to set Fortress Maximus off. And he has his own, very special cynical black humor. (Like, locking Animus out, like the way he makes everything into a joke).

He puts forth a persona of being a badass killer. And he IS a stone-cold badass killer.  And he's not a weak little puppydog made of the sparkly marshmallows of eternal angst underneath, but underneath all the bluster, he really, really, hates himself.


*Powers/Abilities:

Whirl transforms into an attack helicopter.  Looking at this picture:  you can see he apparently has at least four weapons in his copter mode. He is an aerial assault machine. He can apparently fly really well--well enough to have rated as a flight instructor, so he will be able to fly in difficult conditions and in combat better than most other aerials.  He also is a bit of a masochist and as the wiki header says, he can take a LOT of damage without slowing down.

Because of his history as a Chronosmith, I'd like to bring in that he has some mechanical repair abilities. I want to clarify: He can maybe fix machines, NOT other mechs. That's a medic's job. He doesn't do that. But anything else that has mechanical parts, especially clocks, toaster ovens, etc, he will be able to repair. Sentient things, no: nonsentient things, yes.  And I do mean simply 'repair'. This isn't a mech who's going to create or invent a time machine or anything. He's not an inventor, just a guy who used to make and fix clocks and timing devices.  

There's a reason the cog-snatchers in the Dead End wanted Whirl: perhaps he DID do a bit of mechly tinkering, helping them remove cogs from destitute mechs. As we know, too much damage to any one component of Rossum's Trinity ends in death, so it's likely cog snatchers would need someone with skill to do the actual 'snatch', because, well, they're criminals and thieves, but not murderers.  Hence someone with mechanical skills like Whirl's could come in handy. Because there simply HAS to be a timing component on t-cogs.

So in canon, every time he touches mechs, it's to hurt them, not heal. Whirl is NO medic.  But clocks, other devices, (and if anyone needs a cog snatched and can blackmail him) he can do it.

*Inventory:

Himself, his onboard weapons, and his crazy. That's about it.

*Starting Polarity:

I will admit, I have no idea. HELP!!!

If AU, how does your character differ from canon?: N/A

Writing Samples
*First Person Sample:
[Look at this face. Admire, because you don't get to see a mech this awesome every day.]

I guess I'm supposed to do that 'oh wow I'm so new here help me wut is going on I'm so scaaaared!' thing.  

[He makes little wavy gestures with his claws. Oh, so scared!]

Whatever.

[Whirl does not care what is going on. ]

Looking for a mech. Short. White and red.  Never shuts up. Lousy shot.  Named Swerve.

He and I....yeah. I just want to have a few words with him.

[High caliber words, that is.]

Don't let him know I'm here. Kind of want it to be a surprise.





*Third Person Sample:

This? This right here? Boring.  

Junk. Seriously. Whirl didn't expect great things to happen when he died, but he at least expected death to NOT SUCK.  He kind of expected it to end, that whole daisy-chain of clusterfrags that had pretty much been his life. And just be over or something, run off the end of the page.  Or, you know, all the slag the spiritual types spewed like drunks after a rough night outside Maccadam's: peace, serenity, floating around on white fluffy clouds, being unified with the Great Transcendent Oneness of...frag, he didn't know. He kind of tuned them out.  

But it was supposed to be, you know, nice. 

He'd kind of forgotten what 'nice' felt like.

And if it wasn't, because, let's face it, you sexy, one-opticked death machine, you don't exactly rate Goodness Points, eternal torment should be, you know, a lot more tormenty than this.

Whirl kicked, and a small panel of metal dislodged itself from the mound of junk he was standing on, clattering down the angle of the hillock, coming to a rest. 

It was a sign how bored he was that Whirl watched it all the way down, then more, like he expected it to sprout legs and run off. 

Boring.  

BORING.

Whirl was getting twitchy. Even he didn't like himself when he was twitchy. 

He snatched another piece of metal, flinging it up into the air, firing at it as it fell.  Three shots it took before dead center. Frag. He wasn't only bored, he was losing his touch.  

Whirl rotated his head to the sky, single optic fixing on the jagged not-really-light of the Lambda. 

"What the frag are you looking at?"  Great. All he needed: being stared at by the creepy-aft sky. Know what? Frag this.  Whirl flipped into his copter mode, taking off.  Because if this whole 'dump Whirl in the middle of the Land of Boring and Tedium' was someone's idea of a joke? He was gonna find them, and 'joke' his claw right through their face.

Final Notes:
Whirl is awesome the end.