#fluffy Shockwave and half fluffy Soundwave

[raileurta]

Part two of ideas I'll never write a fanfic about

While doing some research on the Internet Soundwave came to learn of an interesting phenomenon regarding humans. They were quite susceptible to manipulation for anything they would consider “cute” in their eyes. A creature they called a cat that was especially adorable to them even made up 15% of their communication network. Sensing an opportunity to control the human population, Soundwave brought this information to Megatron's attention. He was immediately infatuated with the idea and ordered Shockwave to construct the cutest possible soldier. It only took him only a few Earth hours as he took in much easily accessible information from the humans' internet. Shockwave brought the blueprint back to the Decepticon overlord and said how they only needed a bot now, willing or not. Megatron's thoughts immediately drifted to Starscream. The form he was presented with was beyond hideous and he knew Starscream would absolutely hate it. Not one to pass up the opportunity to torture his second in command Megatron forced Starscream to undergo the procedure.

When it was done Starscream was half his original height now covered in a substance similar to organic fur, oversized wings, with two twitching ears, and much bigger eyes. Much to Megatron's disappointment Starscream's attitude had remained the same as humans would find it “more appealing that way” Shockwave had reasoned. (What in the pit was wrong with humans?) Regardless, Megatron would advertise Starscream’s form across the globe and demand the humans to adore the altered seeker. The plan was to get humanity infatuated with him so Megatron could order them to do his binding in exchange for more content of Starscream. To make sure it was extra effective all past pictures or videos of Starscream were altered to make it seem he always had looked like this. The humans quickly fell in love with Starscream.

It worked.

It worked too well in fact.

When humans did their own research on Starscream they would soon find out about his relationship with Megatron. Seeing their “precious baby” being beaten up set all of humanity into an outrage. They immediately began arming themselves to put Megatron into an early grave. Optimus at first tried to talk with the humans to make them calm down but he was promptly ignored. Seeing that his efforts weren't going anywhere Optimus quickly switched gears to do damage control. Optimus offered asylum to Megatron or anyone else who had “wronged” Starscream in the past. As much as they wanted to deny it no one could take on an entire planet of organics.

Megatron quite predictably refused and stated he could take care of them himself.

Horrible mistake.

The humans soon cornered Megatron with their relatively primitive machines and vast numbers. They then proceeded to-

Rip. Him. Apart.

Not figuratively, mind you, it was quite literally in fact.

They tore Megatron apart bit by bit in front of an adoring crowd made up of all humanity that were all collectively screaming for his torture. The videos that came out of that event would promptly be banned in six different galaxies if the psychotic humans ever made it out of their galaxy. Once Megatron was reduced to little more than energon mush the organics would “rescue” Starscream and spoil him with all kinds of gifts.

Seeing what happened to Megatron, anyone who was slightly negative to Starscream in the past quickly fled the planet or made a public apology video begging for forgiveness.

Starscream would rule Earth with a fluffy fist and turn out to be not that bad of an overlord. Humanity would prosper under his rule and make it clear to NEVER mess with Starscream ever again.

[lmadsadness]

lil kitties 2

[saltynsassy31]

Full disclaimer, I have to read any of the fics written for Shockwave and the kids yet as I've been busy and off Tumblr for a bit for my own mental health lol

But I recently saw a photo of an abandoned carousel in some underground area filled with puddles and it reminded me of that one deleted scene from Detroit: Become Human where the Jerry's make a broken carousel work again for Alice and they all just watched her happily play on it as the world around them crumbled.

And, with that thought, it also reminded me of Shockwave and the kids and I simply HAD to write a small drabble fic of it. Sorry if it isn't accurate for the characters or the story already made, but I hope it's enjoyed regardless :3

And, I hope, with all the angst going on, this fluffy story will satisfy yall a bit XD

[This is the post I saw that inspired me to write this, if anyone wants a visual of the place: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGog_W_vDiR/?igsh=b3FsYm50enJhM3ln ]

AU belongs to @keferon

Carousel

~☆~

As the days went by, the situation they all found themselves in was slowly starting to get far too real. It was fun, at first, running around abandoned buildings and scavenging for whatever they could find, spending time with their newly acquired aquatic dad friend who kept them safe and well fed.

But then things started to show up and it scared them. Shockwave tried to avoid the areas with the most floating bodies, the children having seen enough of that (and he hoped they hadn't seen any they would recognise), but every now and then something would float up and startle them. Other times they'd run into bigger problems while scavenging and they had far too many close calls for Shockwave's liking.

They tend to keep themselves entertained, for the most part. Shockwave only occasionally indulged. But, usually, he could simply gently float on the surface of the water and let the kids tire themselves out. However, they've become more quiet lately.

It was hard to tell what caused it. Could be a myriad of things, as listed before, maybe it was finally starting to dawn on them how the situation was far from ideal. Maybe it was the conversation they had with that Orca - Jazz, was it? Shockwave couldn't tell, and it bothered him.

He missed their lively chatter (it still happened, but few and far between). A part of him was starting to wonder if the humans who called him out on the fact that this wasn't normal behaviour for human children were right, a small pang of regret reaching the back of his mind.

But he shook those thoughts away. Now wasn't the time. Nothing about their situation was normal anyway, he was already providing more than enough for them to survive this cruel world.

Shockwave was aggressively pulled out of his drifting thoughts by an ear piercing screech that immediately put him on high alert.

“Guys! Guys! Look!” He heard Skids say. Turning to look at him, he followed where the boy was pointing at.

It looked to be some kind of fair or theme part, it was a little hard to tell. Half of it was submerged, but there were some areas in which the water had receded. Shockwave relaxed once he deemed the situation safe, but still gave a small scrutinising glare at Skids for causing unnecessary concern - which went, of course, completely ignored.

“Oh wow, it looks pretty banged up, huh?” Tc noted, crawling closer to the edge of Shockwave's back to get a better look.

“But there might still be some things left over. You know how much they tend to sell in these places? And now we can just snag them!” Warp argued, already getting excited at the thought.

“Do we really need more useless things to carry around?” Trailbreaker argued, the bag he carried strangely heavier on his back.

“There are other things we could do there.” Skids quickly chimed in. “We could check out some of the games they have.”

“Would there be any still working?”

“Carnival games easy to fix, Soundwave up to the task.”

They all turned to look at Soundwave, seemingly to silently fall into an agreement.

Warp turned to face Shockwave, clasping his hands together as he pleaded. “Can we go there? Pretty pleaaaase?” Before he could even answer, the others had joined them.

He wasn't going to say no. This was the exact type of fun distraction they needed, maybe it would help them go back to their usual, energetic selves. So the theatrics were unnecessary. Still, he couldn't help the small amusement it brought him. He pretended to think it over, as if he didn't already have their answer.

“Hmm, I don't know…”

Those simple words were enough to make them all Start to plead harder, making their eyes as big as possible, throwing promises he knew they'd never actually follow through.

That broke the façade he was trying to play up, causing him to laugh. “Alright, alright. We can go.” The kids erupted into celebratory cheers, hugging each other and jumping on Shockwave's back. “But don't stray so far where I can't reach you, okay?”

They all nodded, but he only had trust in some of them to actually obey his orders.

Regardless, he swam over to the abandoned park and waited until they had slid off of him before crawling over onto land. The ground was still pretty wet, so it made it easier for him to slide around and follow them, keeping himself to the more deeper puddles when possible.

He watched as they all went to different directions with their own, small group. Tc and Warp, always tied to the hip, ran over to some of the stands that still had some prizes hanging. Windcharger and Trailbreaker followed Damus as he ran to play some of the games that didn't require power to work. And Skids and Soundwave went…

Where did they go?

Panic immediately followed the realisation. Shockwave stood up straighter and began to spin his head around in search of the two missing kids. The others didn't seem to have noticed their absence, too enthralled in their own activity.

He was about to start calling when he heard a familiar boisterous voice call from not too far. “Guys! Over here! Come see what me and Soundwave just discovered!”

Immediately, all of the attention was on Skids who had a smile so wide Shockwave was worried he'd hurt himself with it. The others looked at each other briefly before making their way over, Damus hesitating a bit before putting down the fishing rod he held and following the rest.

Shockwave did so as well, to the best of his abilities anyway. The further they went, the tighter the space became and less water reached the surface for him to easily slide around. He wanted to voice his complaint of them going too far, like he had explicitly told them not to before coming here (and really, he thought Warp would have disobeyed first before Soundwave. Skids made sense, but him?) But before he could even think of what to say, Skids noticed his struggle and seemed to remember something.

“Oh, right! Almost forgot.” He jogged over to the mer shark and gently grabbed at one of his fingers to guide him elsewhere. “There's an opening that takes you directly to the area we found. You have to swim underneath some rubble, but it should fit you.”

The boy took him to some dilapidated attraction of the park, it was too broken to tell what it used to be, but it did create an opening that allowed Shockwave to fit through perfectly fine. “Just swim straight ahead and it should take you to the area, we'll meet you there.”

Immediately, Shockwave didn't like that idea, and he didn't need to voice his thoughts for the teen to catch on, his glare doing the job just fine. “It'll be fine, don't worry! It's not that far. Less than a minute, probably less than a second for you since you're so big you'll just have to slide in and out. Besides, there's nothing here, the place is completely barren.”

Shockwave was still unconvinced.

Skids took to pleading. “Please! It'll be quick, I promise you. And worth it too! It's the exact thing we've been needing, and Soundwave put a lot of work on it. I know you don't like leaving us alone for even a second, but give it a chance?”

They stared at each other for a moment, Skids making his eyes as wide and innocent as possible and Shockwave hoping the stubborn teen would dispel this idea with his glare alone.

In the end, Skids guppy eyes were far too powerful even for a great shak such as Shockwave. And the kid was right, wasn't this what he wanted for them to begin with?

He let out a heavy sigh of defeat and reluctantly agreed to it. “Fine. I trust you, but if anything shows up–”

“We don't engage with it and call for you, yes, I know. Now go! Soundwave is waiting!” Skids ushered Shockwave to submerge himself into the large opening with the wave of his hands and only joined back with the others once he could no longer see the large mer.

One relief Shockwave had was that the tunnel formed was large enough that he could easily turn around and pop back out if he heard any of the kids in danger, though it also lacked any proper escape for him as it only had one direction for him to go. Straight ahead or backwards. 

But Skids was right in saying the trip was short, he could already hear the muffled voices of his children. Soon enough, he found himself resurfacing, the lively chatter being the first thing his senses picked up on.

When the children heard the splash of water, they all turned to look towards the source of the noise, their excitement almost blindingly radiat in contrast to the dark, murky room they found themselves in.

The place was closed off by fallen buildings that created a sort of cave around them, plenty of fauna already making its home here. It was fairly empty as well, save for the large, round attraction in the middle of the room. It had horses stuck to poles inside it, a dim pink and gold decorating the whole thing, the paintings that littered it had long since faded and it was hard to tell what it once was.

“Okay, you're here, good.” Skids turned to Soundwave, who was standing next to what looked to be a control panel. “Soundwave, would you do us the honours?”

The other teen nodded, bending down to start pulling at some wires in place of pressing the buttons offered. Warp scoffed, crossing his arms and looking skeptically at his friend. “There's no power here, how in the world are you going to get it to work? I swear, if you brought us all the way here for nothing I–”

Before he could finish his sentence, a blast of music and light echoed loudly around the empty space, causing everyone to flinch back and cover their ears. Shockwave nervously looked around, worried that the loud noise might have attracted some unwanted attention. Once the shock faded, Skids ran up to Soundwave and gestured proudly at the now working carousel.

“Ta-da!”

“Wh…how is this possible!?” Warp questioned, looking at Soundwave for answers, to not only be ignored, but shoved around by the other kids who ran towards the attraction. “Seriously?! Is no one else even a little bit concerned on how this is possible?”

Tc placed a hand over his shoulder, bringing his attention to him. “Warp, just enjoy the miracle. When are we going to get another chance like this?”

Warp could only grumble. Tc was right, they wouldn't, not for a long time. That didn't mean he had to accept it though.

Shockwave watched as they all walked over and picked their favourite horse, Tc and Skids fighting over the same blue one before Trailbreaker broke their fight up and offered his to Tc, walking up to help Damus up and sit with him instead. Shockwave observed the way Soundwave continued to pick at the control panel and looked up at the other children, waiting for their confirmation that they were ready before clicking something and closing the panel. As soon as he did that, the carousel began to slowly move, the horses bobbing up and down in gentle motions, causing the kids to excitedly cheer.

Soundwave stepped on the moving platform while it was still picking up speed and sat on a random horse near Windcharger. Although not as vocal as the others, he was clearly enjoying it.

Shockwave couldn't quite get what was so entertaining about the thing. It was slow, even after it picked up some speed, and the music was painful to the ears. But that didn't quite matter, did it? They were happy, and they were having fun.

It clearly was something they knew about before the tsunami, before their civilization fell apart. A simple joy of life that they missed.

And, in a world dimmed by tragedy and destruction, where at every corner something threatens their very existence, isn't that all they could ask for?

So, in a small moment of peace, Shockwave let himself relax. He bent forward and rested his chin over his crossed arms and watched as his children sang along with the screechy music, bouncing on their fake horses and pretending they were in some high chase in their little imaginary world.

In this dreary reality, even the artificial light of a broken past could make it all worth it. 

[transformersheadcanons]

Decepticons as cats (Part 1)

Adopting them

Megatron

He was surrendered to a shelter after being found in an alleyway with numerous injuries. He was probably used as a bait cat, or was fighting other strays. No one wanted to adopt him, because he was “scary looking”. You eventually came into the shelter to adopt a cat. That’s where Megatron caught your attention. He was staring right at you through his cage, tail swishing back and forth. As you approached him, he let out a warning hiss and backed up into the cage. When you got close enough, he tried to scratch you, but it was pointless because the vets had to put claw caps on his paws to keep him from scratching everyone. So, an idea came to your head. You turned away from him and started checking out the other cats, while also making sure to stay in his line of sight. Sure enough, Megatron was close to the door of his cage, and was watching you curiously. What happened? Why weren’t you paying any attention to him anymore? He started pawing at the cage, meowing loudly to get your attention again. Bingo. You turned back around and saw that he was actively trying to get the door open. After about an hour, you were walking down the street, carrying him in a cat carrier, as he just laid in there contently, happy that he was finally out of that dreaded shelter.

Starscream 

He was born with two younger brothers, but despite being the oldest out of the litter, he was also the runt. Which meant that he had to be looked after the most since almost all runts were abandoned by their mothers. Unlike Megatron who was from a shelter, Screamer was from an actual breeder who specialized in Bombay cats. He and his siblings were nothing like their parents, however. Starscream had a coat that was mostly shades of grey with a single natural red streak on his head. Because of this, he wasn’t very sought after due to not being considered a pure-bred. He was the second one to be adopted by you. He was a little nervous at first, mostly due to worrying that he wouldn’t be up to your standards. But his brothers would immediately run away when anyone would come up to them if they weren’t their usual handler. You looked towards Starscream, and started to try and coax him over towards you. Hmm. You didn’t seem to be dangerous.... Starscream slowly approached you, keeping his body as close to the ground as possible in case he needed to flee. He cautiously sniffed at your outstretched hand, before gradually rubbing against it, purring softly. So you knew he was a keeper. Unfortunately, when you brought him home and introduced him to Megatron, he kinda got off the wrong paw with the bigger cat and not a minute later, Megatron grew angry with his antics and bit him on the tail. Starscream was quick to flee, and you found him underneath your bed, shaking and his fur puffed up to maximum fluff-itude in fear.

Knockout

Knockout was bred as a show cat. He's a 100% purebred American Shorthair cat. His breeder told you that once he gets older, he was going to have a luxurious coat like his mother and father. He parades around your house like the little prince he is, which annoys Starscream while Megatron is a little more indifferent. He is very picky with his food, and even more picky when it comes to grooming standards. He will automatically tell you what he hates and what he likes. Also, during the day, his preferred napping spot is by a window, where the sun hits him perfectly.

Breakdown

Okay, so unlike the others, Breakdown was given to you by a family member due to their apartment(or dorm, etc.) not allowing pets. They wanted Breakdown to be taken care of by someone trustworthy, and figured you'd be perfect for the task. Breakdown is speculated to be half Maine Coon and Ragdoll because of how big he is. But he's not as big as Megatron who is a Norwegian forest cat. He warms up to Knockout the fastest, is somewhat intimidated by Megatron, and finds Starscream to be somewhat amusing to look at. You often have to brush him at least three times a day, because of how fluffy he is.

Shockwave and Soundwave

Shockwave and Soundwave were both rescues. Shockwave had suffered from a traumatic eye injury which required for him to get surgery, thus leaving him with one eye. Soundwave...well, the poor kitty has to keep a mask on his face at all times because what his previous owners did to him was far...far worse. His face is so terribly scarred, but luckily he was able to function properly. These two are inseprable and only trust eachother. Soundwave tried to interact with the other Decepticats, but...Starscream would walk away, Knockout would run, and Megatron honestly scares him. So you and Shockwave are the only ones to really keep him company.

[trashtfcanons]

Hi, Congrats on the new blog! Could I request some headcanons for TFP Soundwave/Shockwave/human? (I hope poly is ok? I didn't see anything either way in the rules)

♡Thanks so much!♡ Whoops another thing I forgot to add! Yeah I’m definitely totally fine with poly~ I might have a little trouble writing it, but I’m down to try.

I present: giant faceless boyfriends ~Tell me how I did

-Being aboard a monstrous alien vessel, some would think that your life is uncomfortable; constantly having to side step and keep an eye out for yourself at every turn. This could not be further from the truth.

-As the ‘waves spend their workdays on separate parts of the ship, so you stay with each of them on alternating days. The other will always try to find some time or make some excuse to visit you both.

-Soundwave will rarely ever let your feet touch the floor in his presence, you are always perched on his shoulder or somewhere in his direct line of sight, as he is very protective of you. When he is not around to carry you or watch you, Lazerbeak is tasked with keeping you safe and providing a constant video feed to him, even when you are with Shockwave in his lab. No one but himself, Shockwave, and Lazerbeak are allowed to even touch you, in fact - Though you find that rule to be ridiculous, as you have a pretty good relationship with most Vehicons aboard the ship*.

-You had heard rumours that Lazerbeak was nothing more than a mindless drone, but you know this is definitely not the case; the bird-like bot always seems to react to your touch with a certain guarded gentleness, you pet him often as a result and he seems to enjoy it very much. Sometimes he brings you trinkets from recon missions, small crystals and interesting looking objects that you like to place on a personal shelf in your shared habsuite. (I’m here for hoverboard friend Lazerbeak who’s with me?)

-The cell signal may be scrambled aboard the Nemesis, but this doesn’t mean you can’t listen to your saved music. Soundwave will often access it, so that you two can listen to it together. You even make an activity of finding out what songs he likes best; he’ll let out a low hum in agreement when you find a song he particularly enjoys, or a small mechanical whine when it’s time for you to switch. You both prefer you playlists to include a mixture of upbeat techno, bass-heavy rock, and some sort of odd concoction of the two. He’ll never admit it, but he has a soft spot for Rihanna and other similar pop music, so you make sure to keep Disturbia and Good Night Gotham in your music queue. When they come on, Soundwave’s visor lights up with audio reactive visuals, which seem to put you in some kind of trance as you watch the colourful lines move and react in synch with the beat. These are one of his favourite moments with you, and you don’t notice it, but he’ll often pause his work to observe your face intensely as the light reflects off of it.  

-As a joke, sometimes you play ‘Guys My Age’ by Hey Violet just to get a funny reaction out of Soundwave, who never knows how to process the lyrics and your purpose for playing them.

-Time to time a completely new playlist of compiled songs you’ve never heard before will appear on your phone, the title of the playlist will always be an emoji that reminds him of you, like a crown, a flower, or all the extra-looking heart emojis, you find it adorable.

-Your time with Shockwave is always a learning experience. He’s been trying to teach you how to speak and read in certain important Cybertronian dialects as of late, and you’ve surprisingly been learning quite quickly. You often pick up words as you watch him work at his terminal, and you’ll ask what they mean after trying to pronounce them a couple times. Even if you can’t understand the science of his work, and he knows this, he’ll try to explain it to you the best he can, and you always listen intently. There’s something priceless about how your face lights up in wonderment while you drink in his every word. Though he isn’t one for projecting emotions, he finds it extremely heartwarming that you take such great interest in his work and culture.

-You try practicing your Cybertronian with the Vehicons in the rare moments you get to speak with them unnoticed, and though you have a heavy accent and use all the wrong inflections they appreciate it greatly. 

-Shockwave likes to shower you in luxuries, you never quite understand how he gets his hands on diamonds and other pretty precious stones half your size, or yards of fabric that are so soft and silky they are other-worldly, but you always show your appreciation by leaving small kisses on the side of his face when he puts you on his shoulder. He loves these very much, and will often point out that they are illogical yet very enjoyable.

-Once you had gotten a seasonal allergy between Winter and Spring, and despite you assuring your giant worried boyfriends that you were fine, there was no lack of panic between them. Soundwave had kept you wrapped in fluffy blankets the entire day, as close to him as possible for observation and warmth, while Shockwave spent the day researching humans and your symptoms, almost breaking his calm collected character for a moment after reading a WebMD article (before deeming it as unreliable and therefore illogical of course). Shockwave now keeps an entire drugstore-worth of Earth medicines hidden in his lab, he never told you how he had gotten his hands on it all, and you won’t dare to ask.

-Though you do have your own appropriately-size bed in your shared habsuite, you never really use it. You always take your pick of where to set up a blanket nest between the wave’s at the end of the day. Soundwave has a habit of wrapping his tentacles around his S/O’s while they sleep, most of the time one is curled around you and the other around Shockwave’s waist.

[pipermca]

My fic recs continued! Recommendations 5-10 are under the cut.

Please go see this post from @transformativeworks for more info about Feedback Fest and International Fanworks Day!

Audition by crabapplered (M, Jazz/Prowl). Summary: If one were to be delicate, one would say that Jazz and Prowl are incompatible. My comments: Way back when I entered the TF fandom, this was a) my first introduction to “plug and play interfacing,” and b) the first “smutty” story I read that involved an asexual character. Prowl’s efforts to win Jazz over - and the description of how he actually succeeds, and what it does for Jazz - is the hottest thing I’ve ever read that doesn’t actually involve humanized sexual organs. Reading and “seeing” Jazz finally let go and trust Prowl was so… Hnnnrgh. Love it.

Lab Partners by Celaeno (M, Portal crossover, GlaDOS/Shockwave). Summary: In which GLaDOS gets the best surprise ever, Shockwave gets a kick in the pants to solve the ‘whoops the AllSpark exploded and our species is going to die out' issue, and the Oracle Turret keeps being dead-on (but obtuse). My comments: So I saw this story get posted and thought, “Oh, a Portal/Transformers crossover fic. That sounds amazingly silly. I’ll give it a read.” Two and a half hours later, I was thinking, “That was freaking glorious!” Dudes, Shockwave and GlaDOS were made for each other, and it was great fun watching them grow to become friends. All the callbacks to the Portal games, Shockwave’s characterization, GlaDOS’ unique blend of psychopathy and curiosity, Shockwave’s reaction to Cave Johnson’s lemon rant (“bringing extinction’s champion down in a hail of fire and fruit”)… I sat on my couch randomly cackling and reading good bits out loud. Definitely worth a read!

Spec Ops Mission 98: Jazz's Interrogation at Soundwave's Pedes by @kc-anathema (T, Jazz/ProwlSoundwave and permutations). Summary: Surrounded by the torrid fiction of his fellow Autobots, Jazz uncovers a Decepticon plot hidden amidst their written fantasies. Can the Spec Ops commander turn this plot of high treason into a narrative…of love? OR Jazz is surrounded by a bunch of perverted writers, and wouldn't you know it, one of them is a Decepticon. My comments: This story left me stunned… in a good way. I started reading it as a WIP because the premise sounded hilarious (hahaha, the bots and cons are writing RPF fanfic about each other, hahaha). But as the story went on, it turned into a LOT more. It became a story about love and trust, and forgiveness and boundaries, set against the backdrop of a brutal war. And then when it ended and we got the wrap-up of all the threads that we hadn’t even known existed… Wow. This was an amazing story, and I will definitely read it again someday.

Playing the Long Oddsby @bibliotecaria-d (NR, Prowl/Smokescreen). Summary: A.k.a. the Curious Incident of Too Many Prowls. Starscream will never look at Prowl the same, but neither will Smokescreen. My comments: I love this story in so many ways. First, the author mades use of the fact that Prowl, Bluestreak and Smokescreen were basically just recolours of each other… So could they pass as each other to fool the Decepticons? Then, there’s Prowl’s shyness, and his cringe-worthy lack of social awareness or relationship skills. Finally, there’s the adorableness of Smokescreen finally letting Prowl into his orbit and learning how to like him… And then more. Love it. Note: The last chapter is mostly just sex, and the author notes that if you want to stop at chapter 6 for a nice fluffy, smut-free ending, that works too. (But hey - the alt-mode sex is pretty awesome!)

The Echo Garden by @altraviolet (E/X, Rodimus/Shockwave). Summary: Soundwave's banishment to the shadowzone has been bleak, uneventful and unending. He hasn't been able to contact Megatron or the Nemesis. He's low on fuel. If it weren't for the emotion-suppressing protocols he implemented before the war, he would be miserable. And then one day a dimension-hopping Rodimus falls into the shadowzone and offers him a way out. “You'll like the Lost Light,” said Rodimus. “Everyone gets a second chance, there. You wanna stay here forever?” My comments: This story had been ongoing for quite some time, and just recently was completed (so I can finally add it to my rec list!) Its popularity exploded last year sometime, and with good reason. The author took an odd pairing (Rodimus from the IDW1 comics and Soundwave from Transformers: Prime), threw them together using a conceit adapted from the end of the IDW1 comic run (trans-dimensional travel), and turned it into an absolutely lovely fix-it fic for the end of the More Than Meets the Eye/Lost Light comic run. It has an absolutely stunning and convincing redemption arc for Soundwave, excellent world building, sparkling dialogue, and all the emotional beats you'd want in an epic story. Oh, and an aching slow burn that has a super satisfying payoff.

Feedback Fest 2024

In honour of International Fanworks Day (today! February 15) I am posting some fic recommendations that I've made in the past. (I am super swamped at work and can't write up any new recs, but I previously rec'd these over on my main blog over the past few years. I'm collecting them together again here on my writing blog!)

These ten rec's are in no particular order, and all are in the Transformers fandom (with some crossovers). Ratings and pairings (if relevant) are noted.

(I also had to split this list into two parts because I waxed too poetic about these fics. See my reblog for the next part. 🙂)

Frivolities by @neveralarch (G, Megatron & Starscream). Summary: “My correct form of address is in my ID tag,” snapped Starscream. “Use it or lose your tongue.” My comments: I love this story. I love it so much I’ve recommended it to people who would ordinarily never read Transformers fanfic, simply because I think they’d appreciate what the author is doing. They took canon and fanon, and from it alchemized a story of dysphoria and wanting to be seen and acknowledged in a way the character wants, and wrapped it up in a tidy package that hits like a truck, and have I mentioned I love this story! (makes fists) Read it!

Working Through It by @trinarysuns (M, Skywarp/Thundercracker/Marissa Faireborn). Summary: “TC,” Skywarp says, “I’m, like, ninety percent sure that humans don’t have interface cables.” Thundercracker squawks and almost knocks him over trying to get the script out of his hands. My comments: I can’t say enough about this story. I love it and it pushed so many buttons for me. Not even smutty buttons, just interaction buttons: humans interacting with giant alien robots, old loves reuniting, logitical issues of interspecies getting it on… Tumblr deleted my review of this story, (SIGH) so I reposted my review on DW here. It says a lot more about this fic!

The Soft Rush of Black Static by Monstrosibee (NR, Bluestreak/Prowl). Summary: Prowl doesn’t know a lot of bots on this newly salvaged Cybertron, and he definitely doesn’t know the bot intruding on his construction site. My comments: While this fic is essentially a fix-it fic for a story from the Aligned continuity, it just destroyed me. You can read the basics of what happened between Bluestreak and Prowl on TFWiki (at the end of Chapter 7 of The Covenant of Primus) but it was devastating to actually read how upset Prowl was by what happened. This short little fix-it brought all those emotions back and then healed them. I loved this.

Someone You Might Have Been by @astolat (T, Megatron/Optimus Prime.) Summary: I didn’t love him because he wasn’t you. My comments: I'm rec'ing this because it's just pure "this is exactly what I want to read!" for me. This is a delightful mashup of the Shattered Glass universe and G1, in which the Optimus Primes from each universe get (temporarily) swapped. It’s an amazingly heartwrenching MegOP story.

Crash Site by Slyboots (G, Breakdown/Knock Out). Summary: June Darby does not believe in aliens, or in haunted highways, or in government conspiracies, or in any other small-town folklore. The new mechanics in town are uncanny, all the same. My comments: I am a sucker for Transformers: Prime fics, and one of the (it's canon! suck it Hasbro) ships from the show that I love is Knock Out/Breakdown. But besides that, I just love the vibe of this story. You can feel Knock Out and Breakdown in it, even if June doesn’t really see them, except out of the corner of her eye. And I am SO HERE for the idea that the two of them got some lovely downtime together before the events in TFP.