(no subject)

Player Information
•Name/Alias: Vic
•Your Journal: freerobotsex
•Age: I am eternal(ly over 16).
•Contact Information: vicioushallway @ AIM, teamkill @ plurk
•Characters already in the game: IDW!Perceptor, 686 Ebullient Prism, Waspinator

Character Information
•Character Name: Makeshift
•Character Canon: Transformers Prime
•Age: Unknown, presumed adult.
•Race: Cybertronian
•Timeline/Pull Point: Post-death in Con Job.


•History:

LITERALLY ONE EPISODE OF HISTORY so let's veer into headcanon territory because like hell are we touching on the books mmkay.

Makeshift joined the Decepticon cause fairly early on, where his abilities were quickly noted and exploited. He's spent most of his history with the Decepticons undercover on assignment, although the details of his exact activities are kept under wraps for hopefully obvious reasons. All you need to know is he's spent time undercover on both sides of the war, and he's in no rush to tell anyone where or when. Due to the nature of his work he spent most of his assignments working alone, often on long stakeouts, interacting at a distance with his superiors. For most of his career he's been dislocated from the main Decepticon forces, isolated and out of touch, and most of his information regarding the war came through him through information networks or his own undercover exploits.

His isolation from other Decepticon forces, combined with his secretive work and the many rumors and misconceptions that come with his nature as a Shifter, have lead to his reputation as untrustworthy and distance even by Decepticon standards. The only groups that really tolerated him were other spies, but due to the nature of their work meetings between agents were few and far between. For the most part he was alone, and this was fine by him.

More recently he'd called back to the Nemesis to deal with the Autobots of Earth, although up until his deployment undercover as the Autobot Wheeljack he spent the majority of his time hiding as an Eradicon on the ship, working out of the communications centre of the ship while he waited for more direct orders and just generally keeping an eye on the grunts. He spent a little more time than strictly necessary under cover in this way, establishing a simple identity for himself (as Gig, a comm monitor) and going so far as to form some basic relationships with the other Eradicons.

His assignment as Wheeljack was intended to be routine. His data was supposed to be the best, delivered to him by Soundwave himself, and the mission itself relatively simple. Get in, get the information, get out. He was doing fine until Bulkhead got suspicious and caused 'Wheeljack' to slip up, and then... well, everything more or less went straight to the Pit. He thought he'd made it at the end, but, well, grenades are a bitch when you don't notice them, and ultimately Makeshift failed before being able to complete his mission.

•Personality:

He's extremely observent, copying the speech patterns, body language, and other mannerisms of his targets, excelling at simply stepping into the role of another person. Long stints undercover have left him with an almost endless reserve of patience--unless outside circumstances arise (such as the threat of his cover being blown, or a time limit on a mission), Makeshift can spend weeks, even months, biding his time and playing his part.

It must be said, though, that while he's an excellent actor, he's only as good as his information. Incomplete or faulty information can quickly condem him, and as a result Makeshift has learned (the hard way) to be as thorough as possible in his reasearch. He values good intel, viewing it as far more important to the overall Decepticon cause than simple combat--as far as he's concerned, information is ultimately far more damaging to either side than any battle.

On the job, Makeshift is cunning, practical, and occasionally downright brutal. Lying is second-nature to him at this point due to the nature of his role within the Decepticon forces, and typically it's only his higher-ups who are free of him twisting the truth. He's not above maiming, killing, or backstabbing to achieve his goals, and as a result he has a rather prodigious success rate. He wouldn't have survived this long if he didn't have the smarts to back up his abilities.

Off the job, when he's actually himself, Makeshift is a rather mellow, private mech. He doesn't share many details about himself or what he does (and when he does the veracity of his statements are dubious at best), and he's generally not a big talker in general. He lives a little vicariously through his default alter-ego as an Eradicon, getting most of his socializing in with the other grunts while he enjoys his downtime between missions.

•Powers/Abilities: First and foremost, as a Cybertronian Makeshift has the ability to change his form. Unlike most Cybertronians, this doesn't translate to a vehicle alt-mode. Instead, Makeshift is a Shifter, meaning he has the ability to transform into anything that shares roughly the same mass--usually other Cybertronians. This grants him access to their ineherent weaponry, systems, and alt-modes, although it doesn't necessarily give him all of the experience that comes with it. Information on new forms is either downloaded directly to him, or is gained through careful observation (the former being far more convincing, as direct downloads tend to be much more thorough).

As far as combat ability goes, Makeshift falls into the average. He's a spy, not a soldier, and while he's capable of defending himself he's not the hardest-hitter out there.
•Starting Polarity: SURPRISE ME.

If AU, how does your character differ from canon?: n/a

Writing Samples
•First Person Sample:

[ Alright, obviously not going to reveal himself right off the bat. Time to play the Eradicon route. When the feed flicks on it's an Eradicon standing there, looking more than a little lost. ]

Hey, uh. Command? Anyone read me? Communications are down, and--

Uh.

I'm not really sure what's going on.

[ Which is a lie. He's already had the rundown from the Acolyte and gone through the entirety of the public network. ]

Scrapper? Garrote? Anybody..?

We are gonna be in so much scrap for this.

•Third Person Sample:

Makeshift was not a religious mech. He had no particular expectations of the afterlife, if one did in fact exist, but this... Didn't seem to fit anything he'd been told. For one thing, despite the fact he'd seen the grenade, seen it go off, felt the brief flash of pain, and knowing he could not have possibly survived the explosion, he appeared to be quite alive.

He'd awoken in his proper form, much to his distress, and as soon as the Acolyte had left him he'd shifted into his Eradicon form. He felt more comfortable like that, even if he had no idea what the dominant faction in the area was. His Wheeljack form was useless to him now, cover blown, and without adequate knowledge of the situation he was hesitant to slip into one of his previously acquired Autobot forms. So Eradicon it was--at least that way he could play dumb, act the part of the uninformed grunt thrown out of his depth. There was a certain safety in pretending ignorance, and it would make it easier to approach any friendly (or at least as friendly as Decepticons got) forces.

At least he wasn't completely left to his own devices. There was a connection, at least, a source of information. He immediately set out to find a quiet corner, shifting through the first few pages of the information network for further intel on his situation.

Dead, not dead, whatever the situation might be, he wasn't about to launch himself into the thick of things without doing his research first.

Final Notes: Obviously this is like 90% headcanon and info extrapolated from the one episode Makeshift is in. I take full responsibility for how awful it is.