#pluralsword stories

[pluralsword]

And here we have the cover for Chapter 13 of Addendum (an IDW1 Arcee novel fanfic): Gender Diaspora. This cover was super fun to work on with @VansZero (discord) love how it turned out and how they depicted the Everbright (that would be that blocky gray and blue ship in the upper right corner), and he made Road Rage's expression so memeable lmao we adore this piece. Here's the same cover in colors without the title, and in black and white:

Also yes, the symbols on the Delta Leaguer's torsos? That's the Delta Forge (not actually named in the fic) symbol, ie the symbol of the Delta League (also known as the Anti-Vocation League), a reclamation of Solus Prime's forge hammer. cyan=tears pink=blood. Here's a zoom in on Arcee's and our rough draft for it that we gave VansZero:

This symbol was first described in Chapter 2:

"Among the wreckage in the maintenance shed, I saw the agreed-on mark for the rendezvous: a cyan-pink infinity loop with two golden cylindrical hammer ends stylized after Solus Prime’s Forge hammer on each side of the loop.

The chosen transformations of spark and blood… Trans-Mutate sure is good with symbology. I rolled up around the tracks on my treads, stopped at the door, and laid out a tide of slow notes from my car horn."

[thenamesblurrito]

finally finished a comic commission WHOOF!! it's a scene from chapter 16 of the fic Addendum by @pluralsword, which i've drawn for before!

the fic is focused on Arcee's gender journey and her conflicts against hierarchy from the era of Nova Prime up through to past the end of IDW1's canonical run. the art depicts Anode and Lug meeting Arcee for the first time, something Pluralsword has dreamed for years of having a visual representation of, ever since xey learned that Arcee and Anode canonically knew each other sometime during the Great War before Anode and Lug's disappearance in 1516 CE on Luna 2. if you want to read about a discussion of specifically canonical IDW1 Arcee's story across the comics of that continuity and the many overlaps with real trans history of dealing with and surviving transmedicalism, gatekeeping, and a violent hierarchic androcentric world, along with finding love and community, and how her personality is a direct successor of G1 Arcee, including a bit on the two's combined legacy of sweetness and ferocity that both have, you can also check out this essay Pluralsword wrote

[spashahoney]

Been in a lot of projects and still going. Transform and Go Out With Me! was a super fun project. I worked with a fellow fan @pluralsword to craft an entire dating game routemap! Hearing your Trans!Rodimus and other ideas were sooo fun! You, the Player, play as Anode or Lug and traverse the universe to find the Forge of Solus Prime, and romance as many Girls Girls Girls as you want to add in your open marriage. There’s many routes and endings, and while you’ll only get a smidge of the many ideas my author wanted to capture, I hope you can get enthralled by the story I managed to draw nonetheless.

Much thanks to @rbzines, my first tf fan project spot, for letting me doodle with them again! Seriously, the work on this zine? Brilliant!

[pluralsword]

Upcoming Chapter 18 of Addendum

For everyone waiting on Chapter 18, we made a lot of headway on it recently, it is 2/3rds done currently :3 Hope and plan to release soon. Most of this chapter is a Rampage point of view (who we write as transmasc and his sister Trans-Mutate as transfemme, both part of the Anti-Functionist resistance known as the Delta League or the Anti-Vocationist League, back during the era of the autocracy of Nova Prime. the art we posted here is an edit of a larger piece from chapter 13), it's really amusing to us to write from his perspective how idw1 optimus early in the Great War has no way to conceive of a transmasculine cybertronian because that's the level of conceptual damage and societal harm the legacy of functionism has caused with it's pushing for an androcentric world of only cybertronian maleness as genderlessness assigned guys.

If you haven't heard of Addendum (an IDW1 Arcee novel fanfic) and are wondering what we're on about, you can check it out here and read the released chapters here, and here's a blurb over generalities of what the fic is:

It is a fanfic revolving around IDW1 Arcee, that seeks to add to her already detailed and beautiful arc of a trans woman errant warrior sage coming to terms with xemself (we're affirming her/xem in the text here since in this fic unlike canon xey eventually want to use xey pronouns too but face immense challenges to that as the story will show) and deciding to trust people and herself. We love her transformations very dearly, and wanted to further reconcile xeir appearance in Spotlight: Arcee with her later writing (canon did a rather fabulous job in this respect in Phase 2 and 3 that makes rereading her story from first issue in 2008 to last a real joy for us), drawing on wisdom gathered through study and experience, and imagination to connect the dots. As you can tell just from the appearance of Codexa and others in the story, this revisiting of IDW1 Arcee’s tale is in part made possible by later writing of gal transformers who we adore, and we will note we draw from ones from all across the decades of fiction of Transformers. What can we say, we love them, and know so much more about ourselves than we ever would have because of them. There are also a lot of trans / gender expansive headcanons tossed in here for bots across the gender spectrum. They're transformers. Emphasis on trans.

[pluralsword]

So honored to have taken part in this zine!! was really fun to write our piece, pulled from a lot of different parts of the fiction including aspects we haven't released fic writing for (yet). Here's a little teaser... : “I know firsthand how awful the Decepticons can be in shaping non-transformers’ daily life and that of transformers themselves. I was made for the wants of one of their client states, the late Intruder Empire, thrust into diplomacy as a colonizing column for..."



Contributor spotlights part two!

[pluralsword]

(one must be gentle) they can hold hands. Love Flamewar and Shadow Striker together so much. The smaller side of Flamewar's hand, where the thumb is, is what we squeezed through Shadow Striker's hand slowly, be careful

Also spinning wheels image that is either just non-sexual sensuality pg13 or somewhat lewd (imo also in pg13 territory) depending on context. Going by Lost Light where Roller is spinning Nickel's wheel feet in public and commenting that she has very nice wheels while Nickel smiles about it and enjoys it, it isn't necessarily horny enough or intimate enough to avoid doing in public. But on a basis of Devils Due (humor, decidedly, but still) it might be given that in G.I. Joe vs. The Transformers III Arcee flirts with Bumblebee by saying 'forget kissing you if you win our race to the spacebridge, I'll rotate your tires instead,' which while decidedly different than spinning someone's wheels since rotating tires means switching tire positions on a vehicle/bot (which is actually important for maintenance and upkeep which raises more questions), Bumblebee then yelling 'Wahoo!' and racing ahead makes us wonder how he'd feel about wheels getting touched in general.

For the sake of our own writing we share on this account and this image, we write sensory touch of different parts of the body of a transformer in this manner whether wings or wheels or back stacks or doors or tails or what have you as something partnering bots do for aesthetic/gender affirmation and euphoria which does confer a sort of pleasure of 'making real' (if you want to be academic, reification) in particular in part because it helps them connect with their alt mode and the shape they enjoy, rather than er, a sexual drive, though it certainly can be sensual. We suppose that touching one's corresponding arm or thigh parts while they are in alt mode would be similar, though we haven't written that yet. It's not just a multimodal thing though, its also just, sharing one's shapes with each other and making love in that regard. Which is a very trusting intimate thing to do with someone whether or not sex is involved, as many asexual people could tell you. If you want examples of our writing in this sense, you can check out:

-some chromeblade smooching and wing and wheel touching in Chapter 7 of Rekindling Flight, before we figured out how to write the euphoria aspect of this in a lovemaking manner. We might go back and add to this.

-Chapter 3 and Chapter 15 of Addendum (an IDW1 Arcee novel fanfic) with Arcee/Codexa and Anode/Lug respectively, amusingly Chapter 3 is before Arcee's surgery and Chapter 15 is before Anode's while she and Lug are still trying to figure out their genders, so they both have a sense of trying to give and/or receiving euphoria to help with dysphoria by reifying parts of the body the two wanted to change

-Trusting Transformations is an Arcee x reader fic that also touches on this (the reader's character is a gender/aesthetically expansive transformer)

We want to talk about casual or reassuring contextually non-sensual public touch of alt mode kibble is commonplace among friends or from aesthetic/gender kinship but don't have the spoons to get into that and real world human bodied parallels rn. And yes that, and intimate affirmation touch are all things we have experienced and that we are deeply glad for

[pluralsword]

Arcee once said that "ferocity without compassion is brutality." We think this is a clear case of Slipstream engaging in brutality, gods. Omega Supreme's poor brain module… ;-;

So we did this video this way with the death included to demonstrate that you can still die to Omega Supreme while playing as a flier in Chapter V on normal (though it is substantially harder to do so than as a grounder) for the dub we might play it on hard or just- use the second half of the video. Honestly a bit terrified (in both a generally sapphic but in this case very concerned in the context of the mod's plot way) of Slipstream's alt-mode guns hereafter.

For those who don't know what this mod is, it's a campaign mod for War for Cybertron that lets you play Slipstream and Arcee in various parts of the campaign! It's subtitles only because we couldn't port in new audio for Slipstream or characters talking to her. You can read more about it here

[pluralsword]

Release of Addendum Chapter 16

Chapter 16 of Addendum (an IDW1 Arcee novel fanfic) is out! Arcee, Anode, and Lug, have finally met, setting the stage for all the good and terrible there is to come for the three of them and their loved ones…

Anode excitedly undergoes her reforging surgery led by Minerva to follow Anode's every want as best she can. Anode with euphoria realized joins Lug, Stratosphere, Minerva, Lifeline, and Road Rage in going to Lithone to meet Arcee, who has tentatively agreed to get to know Anode's family and to live alongside them before deciding whether to allow Anode to use blacksmithing to heal her sensory mayhem from the transmedicalist surgery Arcee went through long ago. In the process of meeting Arcee and talking with her for the first time, Anode and Lug have a new realization about how they feel… much of which we read through Anode's particularly fervent and wanting perspective. You can read it here on Ao3! sleezy Anode hasn't hit public release yet but soonish…

[pluralsword]

Chapter 15 of Addendum is now out, introducing Anode, Lug, and Stratosphere! You can find the summary here:

4 million years ago, Lug and her Conjunx Anode, and Anode's grandfather make their way through space fleeing the Great War of the Autobots and the Decepticons, with the couple navigating their own encounters with gender of others bringing out questions about if they had any of their own- fears on Anode's part facing a reckoning, before their old ship faces challenges that leave them wondering if they'll survive… and if they do, if they'll ever meet the fabled knights known as the Delta League… The beginning of Anode and Lug's arc in Addendum enters full swing.

Our word count has hit 96,305 in terms of stuff released for this fic...

[pluralsword]

Warpath: "Look -- that's the outer shell of Cybertron's Core! Wow…"

Arcee: "The Core remade me when I asked, and now it aches, I- sobs.

Arcee: "You look sad, Optimus."

Optimus: "Sad for Core, you & all trans bots. The Core, the main conduit of energon and reforging to all on Cybertron, to see it defiled…"

Well, you all (at least some of you) knew this was coming! Sword Arcee, trans and all, with her story interwoven with that of many more transformer across generations- making the wounds the Core has suffered all the more bitter, and the fight one for an ecosystem/self that has affirmed transformation (pun intended) from the beginning. We find Core as a character interesting (it/it's pronouns!) because it's not a deity figure but is at the center of cybertronian life, transformer or no. Also there's something very satisfying about writing WFC Arcee as a trans character within the game itself since her bot and alt mode were the basis for IDW1 Arcee's look in 2012-2014 at the beginning of the Robots in Disguise/The Transformers comic…

This portion of the mod needs some editing, spotted a line where Arcee is referred to as Ironhide left over from the base game, and there are some cutscenes to remove Ironhide from (unfortunately Arcee can't be added to them in his place due to coding limitations of the game).

For those who don’t know what this mod is, it’s a campaign mod for War for Cybertron that lets you play Slipstream and Arcee in various parts of the campaign! It’s subtitles only because we couldn’t port in new audio for Slipstream or characters talking to her. You can read more about it here and see Slipstream attempt to yeet delete Omega Supreme here

[pluralsword]

Addendum Revisions: For the Sake of Love

In light of the copious research we have done regarding IDW1 Arcee (for our own sake and interest, for a love of her story, and because of a thing we're working on that we haven't revealed on social media yet), we realized that there isn't anything in her story that suggests that the side effects of her surgery directly caused homicidal outbursts, and that that is just a fandom perception that we ran into in 2020 and took as fact. So we removed that from her story in Addendum chapter 6 in favor of her instead breaking from mission parameters recklessly or vengefully to take on functionists who weren't the ones targeted and/or going after people who helped jhiaxus. As important as we think it is to navigate the story of someone who has had outbreaks of violence from all the pressure and pain compounded with agency being meddled with to an extreme degree still being worthwhile to love and have alive and to try to help, we realized that is not quite Arcee's story, and it just took us several months to be at a point where we could change that, especially for her, so with her consent we've changed this. We want to say thank you to @quetzalpapalotl for doing a post specifically about Arcee's relationship with violence (which we can't find rn) that both deeply resonated with us from overlapping observations and part of what made us realize that we had missed something, and we knew what she was saying was true because we had recently read EXRID at the time, and so we went and read Spotlight Arcee again and lo and behold the actual words show a very calculated and passionate series of decisions that are not just for vengeance but also to save other people (she warns Ultra Magnus that a change is coming that will effect everything) and her rampage against the bots allied with Jhiaxus (which the Autobots didn't know) makes sense. As usual, Arcee was ahead of the game compared to the Autobots lmao and they because of their biases and lack of information were scared of her. (note we aren't excusing when she tortures people but like. Autobot guys get free passes on this apparently and she doesn't because of how they see her).

We are going to keep the idea of the original writing we did for the fanfic though for a future work though because we think the concept is very useful for subverting a stereotype around transfemmes

[pluralsword]

Hot take joke bit- Arcee's helm vaguely resembles a transformation cog, which the Functionist Council emulate. The twelve of them arguably overcompensating for not being (trans) women unlike 'Cee, and get angry about the capacity for change. Huh wait- why is this familiar.

Of course Arcee’s helm only takes up this look in EXRID (her helm also looks like this in G1 and Cyberverse), not the look she had from her initial reformatting surgery from Jhiaxus. So we rewrote this joke:

Arcee: hey Jhiaxus do you think you could code in some audial buns with grooves for the CNA surgery? Like a transformation cog, since I'm trans. Doesn't have to be 1 for 1, just reminiscent.

Jhiaxus: of course my lady (proceeds to not do that because it doesn’t fit his idea of a woman)

Arcee, later: Jhiaxus is such a transmedicalist scraphead

Later, the Functionist Council: we are the pinnacle cog of alt mode and police body shape

EXRID Arcee after her surgery from Ratchet: Fragging finally I have my helm-shape that loudly declares my transness. It’s so lovely <3

All we're saying is this is good fanfic material stuff (of something that clearly wasn't intentional) with real parallels of how hateful cis folks will appropriate transformational/realization symbology/aesthetic and deny anyone seeking a better fit for themselves, trans or no. We might throw this into the next chapter of Addendum to have this comment in there when she looks in the mirror

the responses we got from servers we’re on include:

the council making their heads into t-cogs and whatnot is the equivalent of chuds online being like "my gender is stupid asshole and my pronouns are fuck/you" 

Arcee is so cool

[pluralsword]

Image description 1 of 49: three selected Autobot Data Files from the Transformers TTRPG by Renegade Games. They read:

Anode Xenoarchaeologist Alt Mode: Bi-Wing Flyer Anode began life as a blacksmith on Cybertron, but she reinvented herself into a treasure-hunting adventurer that specialized in digging up alien cultures and artifacts. She has a sharp tongue and loves taking risks, much to the chagrin of her spouse, Lug.

Arcee Career Warrior Alt Mode: Motorcycle Arcee is an Autobot warrior through and through and will shed Energon as vigorously as any other. Despite her loyalty, Arcee enjoys defending troublemakers and outliers. A ferocious and deadly warrior who’s an expert in hand-to-hand combat, she is also one of the best sharpshooters on record, never wavering from her dedicated protection of those she has sworn to defend.

Lug Xenogeologist Alt Mode: Toolkit Backpack Lug is the bonded spouse of Anode, happily riding along as her archeology kit and backpack until she herself is needed. She has a deep understanding of dangerous environments across Cybertronian territories and gladly puts her life on the line for science and the safety of her beloved.

End image description.

As mentioned before, we keep thinking about these data files, and wanted to focus on ttrpg motorcycle Arcee’s character a bit! So here’s part one of a story told through toy photos:

Embraces New and Old

Image description 2 of 49: A kitbash of Anode kneels in front of a computer terminal, looking over at the open passageway while alongside her Conjunx Endura Lug, who is holding eight large fuel rods in her arms. Beside the the terminal are the Golden Disks, an energy sword (from T30 Arcee), and tucked away is a tiny Blaster in cassette player mode. Behind Lug, a round disc is barely visible, with armlets above the wall, where Legacy Prime Arcee sits, watching. Down the nearest hallway, Wheeljack walks casually... End image description.

Image description 3 of 49: A zoom out of the earlier shot- Arcee and the disc are now clearly visible, and Wheeljack is walking alongside a similarly relaxed Nautica who seems to be chatting with Wheeljack. Behind the next wall of the base, Ironhide is gesturing for people to follow while Sunstreaker and Tread Bolt run ahead to turn the corner to where Wheeljack and Nautica are... End image description.

Image description 4 of 49: Anode moves her hands away from the terminal to pick up her sword, while Arcee looks on, face now visible in the frame, and the platform discs on the floor and overhanging the wall start up with blue blast effects, with Lug stepping towards the one on the ground... End image description.

Image description 5 of 49: as Lug steps away she looks over her shoulder to see BBM Wheeljack around the corner arms raised in exclamation, while Nautica stands beside him reaching for her gun on her back, wrench in hand. Sureshock rolls in her motor scooter mode to sneak between Wheeljack and Nautica, with High Wire biking himself in behind, and ER Sunstreaker and Universe Tread Bolt following with rifles drawn. Arcee continues to remain still on the top of the wall... End image description.

Image description 6 of 49: a focus in on Legacy Prime Arcee looking down from the wall (a TR Arcee packaging box) by the overhang arm, her pink tri-crest bright on her blue helm in the room light, silver face in a slight grin... End image description.

Image description 7 of 49: a focus on Anode picking up her blue energy sword in Arcee’s view- and the Golden Disks nearby, while Lug’s foot is seen approaching the activated teleporter (a ground bridge). End image description.

Image description 8 of 49: behind the second wall, BBM Ironhide moves up to join Tread Bolt, followed by Thunderhowl with his sword sheathed and shield out, Legacy Elita One with her guns holsters on her back stacks, and BBM Ratchet with his rifle on his back. End image description.

Image description 9 of 49: Anode snatches up the Golden Disks close to her chest and deflects a blast effect from Nautica with her sword, while Lug leaps into the ground bridge, and Sureshock in bot mode charge at Anode, followed by minibots High Wire and Grindor also in bot mode. Wheeljack is pushing Nautica’s gun out of position to prevent her from getting another shot in- and she has her wrench raised in exclamation. Meanwhile, Sunstreaker is about dip around the corner to aim her rifle, and looks on instead at Ironhide, who has her rifle raised aloft. Tread Bolt holds position, while Thunderhowl and Elita stop behind Ironhide, waiting... End image description.

Image description 10 of 49: Lug now gone, Anode attempts to back into the ground bridge which has now caught fire in several places, while Sureshock wrestle the Golden Desk’s out of her grip... End image description.

Image description 11 of 49 : Anode, now fully on the burning ground bridge, reaches out to the Golden Disk’s in Sureshock’s arms, while Wheeljack outstretches arms in turn towards Anode... End image description.

Image description 12 of 49: Sunstreaker has dropped her rifle, and follows in with High Wire with only hands, Grindor close behind. Ironhide looks over to get a look at what is happening, while Elita starts to rush around him, and Nautica kneels on the ground, face looking down at the floor, gun pointing down. Tread Bolt, Thunderhowl, and Ratchet hold back, Ratchet with an arm out towards Elita... end image description.

Image 13 of 49: A zoom in on Elita stepping in between Ironhide and Nautica, who is looking away. Sunstreaker’s foot rushes onward, rifle behind her. End image description.

Image description 14 of 49: Arcee, with a sniper rifle holstered on her wheel-pack, has slid down onto the ground bridge opening that Anode and Lug crossed through, one arm on the wall and the other towards the bots who had been after Anode and Lug... end image description.

Image description 15 of 49: a zoom up of the earlier shot: Wheeljack’s leg on the ground is now visible, as is Sunstreaker’s arm, - at the top of the photo the ground bridge wall arms have come loose and broken apart... end image description.

Image description 16 of 49: a zoom in on Wheeljack hitting the floor, arms around Sureshock, who is still clutching the Golden Disks... End image description.

Image description 17 of 49: a lopsided, shaky, blurry photo of Arcee on the collapsing ground bridge, the nearby terminal and near-prone Wheeljack in view... end image description.

Image description 18 of 49: just along the corner of the wall, Sunstreaker kneels, covering her head with her arm to brace from the explosion- and perhaps not wanting to see what happens to Arcee. High Wire hits the ground, and Nautica hugs Grindor close after he ran over to her. Meanwhile, Tread Bolt, Thunderhowl, Ratchet, Ironhide, and Elita wait, Ironhide scratching her own helm, while Elita looks on at Nautica, seemingly lost in thought... End image description.

Image description 19 of 49: Blaster still behind the terminal in alt mode, Sureshock, Wheeljack, and High Wire look on at the burning wreck of the ground bridge, Sunstreaker in turn looking at Wheeljack’s drooped posture. End image description.

Image description 20 of 49: A zoom in on Blaster on the ground by the terminal, Golden Disks also on the floor... Blaster’s reflection is visible on the terminal table frame. End image description.

Image description 21 of 49: Elita One’s forearm reaches over the terminal to grab Blaster... End image description.

Image description 22 of 49: An almost top down shot of squarely and roundly robust Elita One holding cassette player mode Blaster in her hands, looking down at him... the wreck of the ground bridge is visible in the background. End image description.

Image description 23 of 49: A front shot of before, Elita’s left hand is clenched in thought, a slight smile on broad-helmed face... end image description.

Image description 24 of 49: In front of a city backdrop elsewhere, Lug holds her fuel rods in hand while Anode steps towards her, sword at her side, big blast effect tears coming out of her eyes under her crested and goggled helm... End image description.

Image description 25 of 49: Engine fuselage armor half skirts turned behind her thighs, winged curvy Anode kneels, still crying, into shorter boxier backpack Lug’s chest, while Lug holds her as well around the shoulders and wings, fuel rods on the ground... end image description.

Image description 26 of 49: Lug leans in closer with her embrace now focus on Anode’s arms and her wings, head inclined as if smooching or whispering Anode’s helm... end image description.

Image description 27 of 49: Slightly blurred from close-up of the same image as before, with Lug’s lips clearly on Anode’s helm. Lug’s blocky right ankle is clearly visible. End image description.

Image description 28 of 49: similar image as before, with more visibility of Anode’s big angled ankles and her inner engine turbine-pack on her back, sword still clutched in her left hand. End image description.

Image description 29 of 49: Lug and Anode, no longer embracing, reach out to pick up the fuel rods. Anode seems to no longer have sobbing droplets down her face. End image description.

Image description 30 of 49: Lug and Anode rush off to the left, fuel rods in hand, four carried by each. End image description.

Image description 31 of 49: Anode following along with fuel rods in her arms behind off-panel Lug. End image description.

Image description 32 of 49: the point where Anode and Lug appeared is empty, only crates, towers, and an elevated highway or rail line visible... end image description.

Image description 33 of 49: same as previous image. End image description.

Image description 34 of 49: Legacy Prime Arcee appears in a plopped crash onto the ground face first where Anode and Lug used to be... end image description.

Image description 35 of 49: Arcee kneels up using the alien bending capability of her powerful torso actuators to look onward with ease in the direction Anode and Lug went... End image description.

Image description 36 of 49: she begins to change modes- her upper half turned around so her head and wheel-pack faces the ground, legs also moving... end image description.

Image description 37 of 49: her sequence continues, her motorcycle shape apparent, one leg outstretched with a wheel at the end instead of a foot... her sniper rifle is affixed ahead on her side, and head inside her fuselage. End image description.

Image description 38 of 49: nearly done actuating her motorcycle shape, Arcee sticks her kickstand down for balance, only one more armor flip is needed... end image description.

Image description 39 of 49: side armor now tucked in and her rifle near her back wheel, still pointed forward, Arcee rushes off with an initial exhaust vapor of a blue blast effect. End image description.

Image description 40 of 49: in front of a wrecked and junk covered landscape, a sitting Lug opens up her chest compartment to reveal a single pink energon cube. Also seated Anode touches her forearm with her hand, while Lug looks at her, fuel rods on the ground between them.

Image description 41 of 49: holding hands with Anode, Lug chomps down on the energon cube with her left hand. End image description.

Image description 42 of 49: a focus on Anode and Lug hands holding each other... end image description.

Image description 43 of 49: Lug hands Anode the energon cube. End image description.

Image description 44 of 49: Anode bites in on the energon cube, while Lug gently rests a hand on her engine armor skirt. End image description.

Image description 45 of 49: Anode holds Lug’s hand again, who is looking down at her own chest compartment, which is empty. Anode nonetheless seems a little cheery, looking up at the sky.

Image description 46 of 49: Lug closes up her chest, and looks over at Anode, still holding hands... end image description.

Image description 47 of 49: the two go about picking up their fuel rods again... end image description.

Image description 48 of 49: the junk covered place is now seemingly without bots again, the two Conjunx rogues gone...

Image description 49 of 49: Arcee wheels in a turn in her motorcycle mode to where Anode and Lug had eaten their last energon cube...

[pluralsword]

Pluralsword Writing Comm Sheet

Both from a love of (robot) stories and a need for coin, we wanted to put out there a willingness to do writing commissions.

We have previously written soft cozy family, reflection, and philosophical stuff in stories, along with shorter length shipping focused fics, continuity crossovers, longer hopepunk action/political operas (one currently being worked on), and are knee deep in bringing many of these elements together for canon au hopepunk/dark action, adventure, and romance stories that is a gender journey. If you need other story type examples, we may have something!

As is probably evident from looking at our writing (we have used this handle to write fanfic transformers stories), our storytelling specialties are dialogue, themes of agency and transformation of community and persons, poetry, (trans) aesthetics/gender as part of a narrative and deeply permeated in the world, philosophy, scale, gestalts and plurality, family and intergenerationality, coziness, trauma and healing, existential absurdity, emotion and sensuality, bringing out tactics and strategy in combat, puns and wordplay, and obscure references.

If you are interested, please reach out by bluesky messaging or if you don’t have one, email us at dphaltingmachineoracle@gmail.com

Payment- We will be as open as possible about the process, with an estimate of the cost halfway through writing. For fanfic commissions 10k words or less the range will be around $20-30 USD, and under some circumstances an upcharge of $5, and instead for original fiction would want $20 per 100 words. We’re willing to do 20k words. Reblogs appreciated!

 What we are willing to write:

- noblebright, hopepunk, dark.

-exposition/description level, third person, second person (including char x reader), first person, oc stuff (this will likely involve some back and forth discussion to make sure we get it right).

- adventure, logs and journals, poetry, shipping, space opera, political opera, mystery, action, absurdist works, family focused fics, (fictional) spirituality fics, gender and aesthetic journeys.

-original fiction, au fanfics, ttrpg adventures (we have over a decade of experience with running ttrpgs in various systems to tell stories with genres varying from high fantasy to setting agnostic to sci-fi, obviously would charge differently for these) crossover, orig cont. Fanfic-wise if asked to do deep worldbuilding for something significantly different from canon, our own writing, or yours that you want us to do something for, we will ask for an additional fee.

What we are not willing to write:

- grimdark.

- extensive torture. unless it’s about the exercising of agency and sheer will of the person(s) enduring it. if you need a reference point we’d suggest taking a look at Season 4 episode 18 of Babylon 5, Intersections in Real Time, and paying attention to Sheridan’s actions and dialogue to get an idea of what we’d be comfortable writing (really if you want a full picture episode 19 helps, which partially involves his rescue)

- evil did/plural characters UNLESS there are both non-evil plural and did chars who have a major role in the story.

- story premises that intentionally or not, are reactionary or hegemonic. —Please note that we are willing to help talk through how to make a story not that to the best of our ability (depending on how extensive that is we might charge an extra $5). There are circumstances where we are extremely and personally familiar with the difference and nuance, such as the line of ‘at what point is this trans trauma stuff gratuitous and isn’t just being put through a blender’ because of our navigation of literature and history, how our own life story and transness therein has been treated, and because we took it on ourselves to specialize in grappling with trans and expansive assemblage existential dread, fictional alien discrimination that is not just copy paste of human politics and circumstances… …but instead about timeless no end to history issues of e.g. subaltern iteration and autonomy and how larger populations outside interact with them. Also because we’ve already done the labor of wrangling over this for previous writing, e.g. how much of a robot trans woman’s canonically disastrous, transmisogynistic, malpracticed first affirmation surgery to write in a fanfic, see above general refusal to write extensive torture on commission. Outside of that we have had quite a bit of study, and discussion with friends and ourselves over questions we already pondered for writing our own fiction both fanfic and original over the years. If you want extensive advice for how to write things or need editing in these regards or autonomy in general for your own fics we will gladly consult, we have already helped out with things in spaces and circles we are in on projects we are/were part of.

- we otherwise reserve the right to refuse a commission for any reason including commitment, parameters, or if it squicks us, is otherwise disagreeable us, or is something we don’t think we should be writing.

Payment: we can do paypal or venmo.

 And that’s it! Thank you for reading <3!

[pluralsword]

Addendum’s first seven chapters are now out! you can read them here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42504558/chapters/106756191

Fanart/trade for @pluralsword - pre-reformat Arcee and Codexa having a moment, per her fic Addendum!

[pluralsword]

Wreckers generally + Last Bot Standing + TRANSformers made us think again about how many gender expansive people have died fighting in wars over the millennia or made it out alive, what it means to carry on w/ life with that knowledge as world changes. First big Hot Rod posting. You’ll probably have to open the third image up to zoom in to read all of it.